CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Adie and Elsie

eeper in the woods and higher up in the hills, there was no opportunity for Adie or Elsie to have any sort of discussion with their captors.

Their queen had neither the interest nor the patience for dialogue with her captives. As soon as Adie started to ask a question, the queen waved a long, thin hand in her direction.

“Gag her,” she said. “Gag them both and bind their wrists.”

Footmen with ropes and strips of cloth ran from behind the horses to carry out her orders. Adie called out to the queen before they reached her and Elsie.

“Please,” she said. “We’ll be quiet. Don’t gag us.”

The queen studied her for a long moment, then gave a brisk nod.

“No gags,” she told the footmen. “But bind their wrists and if they speak out of turn again, gag them.”

Adie had a hundred things she wanted to know, but she kept quiet and held out her hands in front of her so that the footmen could tie them together, hoping that they wouldn’t insist on tying them behind her back. This way, she’d feel more balanced and less likely to fall flat on her face on the uneven ground if they had a long march ahead of them. Happily, Elsie followed her lead and the footmen made quick work of their job.

The ropes the footmen used to bind their wrists seemed to be made from braided grasses, but they were no less strong for that. The sisters were led off under one of the big beech trees above Aunt Lillian’s homestead, where they were kept under guard. The two girls sat down with their backs against the tree, leaning against each other as they listened to the conversation coming from where the queen and her court sat on their horses.

“Is there word on the girl yet?” the queen was saying. “The sooner we trade these sisters of hers for that wretched ’sangman, the happier I’ll be.”

“Not yet, madam,” one of the other riders replied.

Before he could go on, a footman came running up.

“The ’sangmen have the older twins,” he reported.

“Will she choose between the sisters?” the queen asked. “Does she fancy any above the others?”

“There’s no way of telling.”

“What about the younger twins?”

“We have scouts looking for them.”

Elsie leaned closer to Adie, her mouth near her older sister’s ear.

“What are they talking about?” she asked, her voice quieter than a breath.

Adie shrugged. She cast a glance to their nearest captors. When she saw they weren’t paying that close attention to them, she whispered in Elsie’s ear.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But it’s beginning to sound like Janey’s got us all caught up in something we have no business being mixed up in.”

“Do you know what ’sangmen are?”

“Haven’t a clue. But I’d guess they have something to do with ’sang.”

“And Janey was going out to harvest some yesterday.”

Adie gave a grim nod. “And it sounds as though these ’sangmen—whatever they are—have Laurel and Bess.”

“What did she mean about choosing between sisters?”

“I guess they were hoping to trade us for someone Janey has, but now things have gotten complicated because the other side has the twins to trade.”

“I don’t get any of this. Janey would never hurt anyone, never mind capture someone the way these people have.”

“I don’t think they’re people,” Adie said.

Elsie sighed. “I was afraid you’d say something like that.”

They broke off when the queen glanced in their direction. Adie returned her glare with an innocent look and the queen’s attention turned away from her once more.

“Look,” Elsie whispered.

She nodded at the apple tree that Root was still guarding. The fairies’ dogs had formed a half circle around him, effectively penning him in. But Root paid no attention to them. His gaze stayed fixed on the tree in front of him like there wasn’t a fairy court behind him.

Oh, why didn’t you run off? Adie thought. You’ll be no match for that many dogs and who knows what magical powers they have.

But oddly enough, the fairy dogs showed no inclination of doing more than keeping Root penned up against the apple tree. Adie wondered why. Perhaps it was only because the fairy queen hadn’t given the order for them to attack yet. Then she returned her attention to the conversation of the queen and her courtiers and the answer came.

“Has anyone tracked down the girl yet?” the queen was asking.

There was a moment of silence before one of her court replied.

“No, madam. We only know she’s with the Apple Tree Man, but we can’t reach them because the dog’s barring the way through Applejack’s door and no one knows where it opens on the other side.”

“Then remove the dog.”

That command drew another silence. Apparently, Adie realized, no one liked to deliver bad news to their cranky queen.

“We can’t,” one of the riders said. “It won’t meet our gaze.”

Adie and Elsie exchanged glances.

“Does that mean what I think it does?” Elsie whispered.

Adie shrugged. She wasn’t sure, but what it seemed the fairies were saying was that you had to acknowledge their presence before they could interact with you. So maybe if they just concentrated on not believing the fairy court was here…

Before she could go any further with that, the queen began to speak again.

“This should have been over long ago,” she complained. “We should have had a dead ’sangman by now and moved on to other matters.”

“But the princess… your daughter. The ’sangmen still have her.”

“She’s no longer my daughter,” the queen said. “Not after she’s soiled herself by loving a ’sangman. Let her live in the dirt with them and see how she likes it.”

Now that was harsh, Adie thought. She could remember when she was a little girl, reading fairy tales and watching Disney movies, how desperately she’d wanted to meet a fairy. Unlike Janey, she’d long grown out of that, but now she was happy she hadn’t gotten her wish back then. And would have been happier still not to be experiencing this. The fairy queen was too much like an evil stepmother. But she supposed that was to be expected, considering the kind of folklore that was told in these hills. Many of Aunt Lillian’s stories were downright gruesome.

Adie frowned, wishing she hadn’t started this train of thought.

Elsie pressed against her and whispered, “I think we should try to follow Root’s lead and, I don’t know, disbelieve in these horrible people.”

It was worth a try, Adie supposed. Though she could see it would be hard. Root might be able to focus entirely on one thing, but he was a dog and what did he know? Dogs already had a one-track mind. But she and Elsie had bound wrists to contend with. Noisy captors, jingling bridles.

She was about to close her eyes and give it a try, but the chance was gone.

A new commotion erupted on the far side of the fairy court. Adie craned her neck to see who had arrived, and her heart sank. Their arms and faces might have been covered in bees, but she had no trouble recognizing that it was Grace and Ruth who were under all those buzzing insects.

“This just gets worse and worse,” Elsie moaned beside her.

Adie gave a slow nod.