Page 41 of The Kingdom Cursed By Iron

At first Hadeus looks like he doesn’t even want to acknowledge my question.

“Yes,” he says eventually.

“But won’t they get sick too?”

Hadeus waves a hand dismissively, but I can’t tell whether he’s dismissing my question or dismissing me, as a whole.

“We’ll take precautions, of course. We can put them on regular shift changes so that they get breaks before the iron sickness takes too firm a hold.”

“But—”

I feel Ruskin’s hand on my shoulder, and I stop to look up at him.

“A moment, please, Lord Hadeus,” Ruskin says. I don’t fight him as he draws me away, out of earshot of the other fae, but I do frown when he turns to face me.

“It’ll be horrible for them,” I say, before he can speak.

“It certainly won’t be pleasant, but nothing about these circumstances is pleasant for the people of this court. Everyone will suffer, High Fae and Low, if we don’t find a way to rid ourselves of this iron. To a small degree, we’re all suffering already, and it may well get worse. I fear its poison will spread even with no new attacks. It has to be removed, and it's not as if we can make the human servants take care of it—they have no training or experience in this type of work. And as long as their exposure is limited, a fae is still stronger and faster than your kind. This is our best option.”

I can’t argue with any of that, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy with the answer.

“I don’t trust him,” I say.

Ruskin gives me a nod of approval. “Good. You’d be a fool to trust anyone but a few select fae in this court. That said, we don’t need to trust him to work with him. Hadeus may be no real ally of mine, but we all benefit from him taking action on this.”

I glance back down the corridor, where Hadeus is watching us with bright, beady eyes.

“All right,” I say to Ruskin. “But you need to prioritize helping me practice my magic. The sooner I can get a handle on this, the sooner we won’t need him or his miners.”

Ruskin grins, showing his fanged teeth.

“What?” I ask warily.

“I just like hearing you insisting that I spend more time with you.”

“Shut up.”

Chapter 14

“And what exactly do you want me to do with that?” I ask, eyeing the coils of silver chain in Ruskin’s hands.

“While there are lots of fun ideas that spring to mind,” says Ruskin, dropping the chain to the floor, “you’re just going to be following it.”

We’re in my workshop, where I decided we’d meet for magic training as it’s less…risky than my bedroom. And now, as Ruskin’s looking at me in a way he must know sends certain body parts tingling, I know I made the right choice.

You’re here for the court, Eleanor, not him.

I try to hold that sensible voice in my mind as I pick up the end of the chain, examining it. It’s thin, almost as slim as a necklace chain, and really nothing like the great iron spikes crowding parts of the palace.

“Follow it with my mind, you mean?”

“Yes. We’re going to work on your ability to read metal over distance. As this isn’t gold, it should be a challenge for you to trace. Obviously, we can’t use actual cold iron. We’re trying to reduce its spread around the palace, after all. Even regular iron is hard to find in Faerie. It’s unpopular by association.”

“So you just want me to just find the end, wherever you put it?”

A vine detaches itself from the wall, snaking its way across the floor until it wraps itself around the chain, then it turns around and disappears under the door, the silver unspooling with it.

“I want you to find me. I’ll go wait at the end of the chain, and then you can come and find me once you’ve read the metal to find out where I am.”

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