Aislin was startled when one of the riders moved his horse closer and grabbed her, pulling her up behind him. “You can’t do this!” she cried, struggling to get down.
“If you don’t sit still, I’ll toss you over the back of this horse and tie you on like the deer,” the man said, nodding toward Sure Foot.
Aislin gulped and stopped wiggling. She’d never get away if they tied her up! There had to be something she could do.
“Tell me where you live, girl,” said the king. “I want to speak to your parents.”
“My home is far away,” Aislin said. “It’s really hard to find.”
The man smiled, but he didn’t look at all friendly. “Then it’s good that we have you to show us how to get there. Do we go north or west, child? All you have to do is point.”
“You go that way,” Aislin said, pointing back the way they had come.
“Why don’t you want me to find your home? Do you have something to hide?”
“My parents don’t like company,” Aislin told him.
“I just want to tell them that their daughter saved my life,” the king said. “I’ll reward them if you’ll tell me which way to go.”
Aislin shook her head, her lips tightly pursed. Somehow, she didn’t think that was all he wanted.
The man she was sitting behind looked over his shoulder to scowl at her, but the king just laughed. “She’s a stubborn one,” he said. “Just like my daughter.” His eyes fell on Twinket, still clutched in Aislin’s arms. “And apparently wealthy, unless this kingdom is so rich that even peasants can afford dolls with amethyst eyes. You interest me, Aislin. If you won’t tell us where you live, we’ll have to find it ourselves. Craiger, climb that tree and tell me what you see.”
A man with long, red hair nodded and slid off his horse. They all watched as he shimmied up the tallest tree, disappearing into the branches overhead.
Aislin held her breath, worried about what he might see. There was the castle, of course, but there was also so much other magic in these woods! What if a fairy flew past, unaware of the need to hide? Or what if the man spotted a sprite perched on a hawk’s back? Or even a nymph, waving to her neighbor in another tree? Although news spread quickly among the fey, some might not yet have heard that there were humans in the woods.
For Aislin’s entire childhood, she had heard stories about humans. Her nursemaid, Larch, had told her and Poppy about the awful, scary things that humans did. These tales were enough to prevent the children from wandering off at night, or ever consider trying to find a way out of the mountains. Keeping the secrets of her magical kingdom was so engrained in Aislin that just hearing of humans infiltrating the land was a nightmare come true. And here she was, caught up in the middle of it!
Leaves rustled and the man’s feet reappeared. “I saw a castle,” he told the king, even before he reached the ground. “It’s bright white with pennants streaming from every tower. We go that way.”
Aislin’s heart sank when he pointed toward her home. She would have had a better chance of leading the men astray if one hadn’t actually seen the castle! Even so, it was going to take them a while to get there, which might give her family a chance—if only she could get a message to them.
She was worried about her mother and Timzy. From what Aislin had seen of the humans, it was clear she could pass for a human herself. But her mother was very obviously a pedrasi, and Timzy looked like a full fairy except for his rounded ears. Anyone who spotted them would know immediately that they weren’t human. Letting humans know that fey lived between the mountains was exactly what her family had been trying to avoid.
Aislin wouldn’t have been so worried if her father had been home. He could have created a convincing glamour to make the humans return the way they had come. Unfortunately, no one else’s magic was that strong, and their glamours often fell apart. What made it even harder was the fact that they couldn’t use more ordinary magic for fear of revealing the truth about themselves. Without her father there to cast a glamour, the castle’s inhabitants would have to find another way to send the humans packing.
Aislin wondered if she could use her capture to her advantage. Maybe she could get the humans so lost or confused that they couldn’t find the castle. Even if that wasn’t possible, any way to delay their arrival would be helpful. The first thing she’d have to do would be to get word to her mother that the humans were on their way.
As they rode through the forest, Aislin waited for just the right moment. When the men were distracted talking among themselves about how to get around an impenetrable thicket, she held Twinket up to her mouth and whispered, “Go home and tell my mother to hide everything and everyone who is obviously fey. The humans are coming, and I don’t think I can stop them.”
A few minutes later, the path angled through thick underbrush. When Aislin saw that no one was looking her way, she dropped the doll and watched her scurry off into the woods.
The deer trail disappeared at the edge of a stream. Craiger rode ahead a short way, then returned to say, “I suggest we follow the stream. It appears to lead to that castle.”
“Is Craiger right?” the king asked Aislin.
“I can’t say,” she replied, although she knew that the stream changed direction in just a little while.
The forest was thick on both banks, so the men walked their horses into the water and headed upstream. The man who’d grabbed Aislin dismounted, but when she tried to get off as well, he ordered her to stay. Thankfully, as the men focused on walking their horses across the slippery rocks, she was the only one who noticed the water nymph peeking out at them from under a clump of water lilies. She was also the only one who noticed the tiny fairies glaring at them from the iris blossoms that edged the stream. Aislin was so afraid that the men might spot the magical creatures that she held her breath each time they passed one, but they didn’t seem to notice anything unusual at all.
It wasn’t long before the stream meandered away from the castle, angling farther afield with each turn. After a short discussion, the men turned their horses around to retrace their steps, but the water was suddenly deeper and the current too swift for the animals to keep their footing. Aislin knew right away that the water nymphs were trying to help, but she was afraid the men would become suspicious if this went on too long. She was relieved when they left the stream and started looking for another way through the forest.
The group was following an old, faint trail through the woods when Aislin spotted tiny fairies peeking out from under rhododendron leaves. When a horse shied, she glanced down at the ground. A vine was creeping across the forest floor even as she watched.
“No!” Aislin shouted. The fairies looked confused, but they stopped making the vine grow.
“No, what?” asked the man in front of her.
Aislin caught herself, wishing she hadn’t spoken out loud. “No, we shouldn’t go that way,” she told him.
“And why is that?” asked the man.
“Because that leads to a swamp,” she said, then gave herself a mental kick. The swamp would have been perfect; they could easily have lost their way.
“Somehow, I doubt that you’re really trying to be helpful,” said the king. “Perhaps that’s the way we should go. Ride on, gentlemen.”
Aislin forced herself not to smile. If she was lucky, the men would get lost in the swamp and she could get away from them. Or even if they didn’t get lost, getting stuck in the swamp would delay them, giving her mother time to get the castle ready.
A mockingbird landed on a branch near Aislin, cocking its head to look at her. When it flew off in a flutter of wings, Aislin was certain that the bird was reporting to the fey at the castle. She sighed, wishing once again that she could talk to birds so she could find out what was going on at home. Although her mother would have sent word about the humans to Fairengar right away, Aislin doubted that help could arrive any time soon.
Aislin knew news of the humans must be spreading when she saw ogres moving among the shadows in a darker patch of the forest. Instead of being loud and pushy as they usually were, they actually seemed to be hiding. If the humans saw ogres lurking in the woods, it would be as bad as seeing fairies flitting around, and Aislin wasn’t about to let it happen.
She knew that the stubborn ogres probably wouldn’t listen, even if she could warn them off, so she decided to try a different approach. As they often froze in place when she sang in the Great Hall, she knew it would work, but she couldn’t sing one of her usual songs. It would have to be one that didn’t include any references to fairies, pedrasi, or any other kind of fey. All she could come up with was a song for small children about a naughty bunny who was caught stealing carrots. Aislin put her heart into the simple melody. The ogres had been edging toward the riders, but at the first few notes they froze and went glassy-eyed. The horses kept walking, but the humans all turned to look at her.
Aislin sang the song through three times. By the time she’d stopped, they were well past the woods where the ogres were lurking and had reached the edge of the swamp.
“We appreciate the serenade, but I’d like to know why you sang just then,” said the king.
Aislin shrugged. “I like to sing,” she told him.
“And well you should,” said the king. “You have the voice of an angel. I could listen to you every day. But right now, it occurs to me that you might be trying to warn someone of our approach. No more singing, understand?”
Aislin nodded. She didn’t need to sing now. The ogres weren’t likely to follow them into the Great Mud-Sucking Swamp.
“By my reckoning, the castle is in that direction,” said Craiger.
Aislin looked where he was pointing. Craiger was right; the castle was straight ahead. If they hadn’t had to go through the swamp, it wouldn’t have taken them long to get there.
Aislin had to admit that the man was good at finding his way through terrain he’d never seen before. When they reached a series of shallow-looking pools, he stopped at the edge and shook his head. “I don’t like the look of this water,” he said. “We’ll go around.”
A younger man with a sharp nose and curly brown hair urged his horse forward. “You’re overly cautious, Craiger. Do you see how shallow it is? I say we ride across and save ourselves some time.”
He was moving his horse toward the water when the king said, “Halt! I trust Craiger’s judgment. If he says we go around, then that is what we’ll do.”
Craiger turned to the younger man. “We won’t go near this water for a number of reasons. First, notice how there is no plant life near the edge? Nothing is growing within two feet of the water. Second, there is nothing swimming in or on the water. If this was a normal pond, we should see fish in the water or insects on the surface. Either there is something we can’t see living in this water, or the water itself is dangerous.”
This man is smart and too observant, Aislin thought as the riders followed him around the edge of the pond. He might be the most dangerous.
Craiger kept the men to the narrow strips of land that divided one pond from another. Sometimes the land was fairly solid, but in other spots it was little more than slippery mud that made slurping sounds every time a horse lifted its hooves. The route Craiger chose switched back and forth across the swamp, ultimately leading to the far side where ponds and mud gave way to forest once again.
It was dusk by then, and growing dark under the trees. Unfortunately, the party was close enough to see a warm glow just above the treetops. Aislin knew that it was the setting sun reflecting off the white castle, something she normally thought was beautiful, but hated the sight of now. There was no turning the hunters aside, not with the castle itself showing them the way.