Page 10 of Ties of Bargains

With a bob of her head, the girl spun away, not giving Harm a glance. As if he didn’t even exist.

Perhaps he didn’t. Not here in the realm of thefeeënvolk.

The warrior woman brushed aside one of the petals, then stepped into the flower, her dog trotting at her side.

Harm had little choice but to follow, tied to her by the cord as he was.

The inside enclosed them in yellow folds, the floral scent thankfully faint. A small round space held several spindly wooden chairs with moss cushions while what appeared to be two more petal doors filled the far side.

As soon as the flower petal door closed behind them, Harm tugged at the knotted cord at his wrist. The knot was a mere slip knot. He should have been able to loosen it and slip the cord off.

But no matter how much he tugged and pried, he couldn’t seem to make the cord budge.

“Why won’t it come off?” Harm tugged even more frantically. He needed to leave. To go home. His brother and father were in danger.

“It’s a threefold cord crafted of moonlight, silver, and the fleece from a golden sheep.” Thefeeënwarrior faced him, crossing her arms. “Once it’s put on, it won’t come off until the bargain is complete. And before you get any ideas…”

She lashed out, a blur of black hair and brown leather, and gripped his wrist. Before he could even think about fighting back, her knife was out, swinging toward his arm.

Harm cried out, flinching away even as the knife came down.

But instead of slicing off his hand, the knife slammed into an invisiblesomething, halting only a breath away from his arm.

“Why would you do that?” Harm yanked at his hand again, but he couldn’t free himself from her grip.

“You can’t cut off your hand or arm to free yourself. Nor can you cut off any of my limbs, so don’t even think about it. But…” Her blade flashed as it whipped up from his arm to rest beneath his chin, the point digging into his skin. “You can still be killed, and I would be left dragging around your rotting corpse until you were delivered.”

Then if he killed her…

She must have read the thoughts in his eyes for the knife dug harder against his skin. “Don’t even contemplate killing me. First of all, you’d never manage it. Second, you’d end up hauling my corpse around with you for the rest of your miserable life, short as it would be. Third, you’d still have to keep the bargain your father made, otherwise you’d take the perils of a broken bargain back with you to your kingdom. Trust me, you don’t want to do that. I’m your best chance of surviving long enough to fulfill the bargain, understood?”

Harm stilled, swallowing against the point of the knife. Even if he freed himself from the cord, he was still bound by the bargain. His first impulse had been to ignore it but…he couldn’t.

From his research, a broken bargain would be more of a risk than whatever danger his father and brother were in. One of the merchants Harm talked to mentioned that a kingdom to the south had experienceda severe drought for nearly a decade thanks to afeeënvolkbargain.

Harm couldn’t risk that, loath as he was to abandon his family to the peril they faced. “I understand.”

Strangely, her words also implied thatshecouldn’t get this cord off any more than he could. They were well and truly stuck together by this cord until he was delivered to Queen Titania.

“Good.” She stepped back and sheathed her knife. “And don’t even think about drawing that knife you might have up your sleeve.”

Harm froze, a chill dousing him. He and his father had been so careful passing that knife. But if she knew about it…if she took it…then Harm would never escape.

“Look, I don’t care if you have a knife. I did my job and searched you for weapons. If you acquired another weapon after my search, that’s none of my business.” She shrugged and turned away from him. “Just don’t let me see it.”

In other words, as long as she didn’t see it, she officially didn’t know about it. It was a strangely compassionate gesture from afeeënwoman who hadn’t shown him a lot of sympathy so far.

Or perhaps she just plain didn’t care. About him or about whateverfeehe might ambush with the knife down the road. Maybe she expected the same lack of caring from him when it came to prying into her business.

“Now I’m going to get some sleep. I don’t care what you do, but we’ll be heading out when I wake whether you are rested or not.” She marched toward one of thetulip petal doors and pointed first at the other door, then at the one in front of her. “That’s your room. This is mine. If you try to come in, I will kill you.”

No chance of that. He wasn’t the type to press those boundaries. Besides, sharing a flower-house like this was already beyond the pale when it came to Tulpenland standards of propriety between an unmarried man and woman.

With that, she stepped inside, the petal door falling shut with a soft shushing sound. Strangely, the cord connecting their wrists didn’t go around the petal door. No, the strand of silver and sparkles wentthroughthe door.

Daisy, the sometimes-three-headed dog, curled up on what appeared to be a moss rug, though she eyed Harm with such big, liquid amber eyes that he couldn’t help but stagger the few steps to kneel beside the dog and pet her. She rolled onto her side, presenting him with her belly.

As cute as she was, Harm just patted her side. He didn’t want to risk bringing out those two spare heads again.

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