Page 39 of Ties of Bargains

“I’m not fooled. She’s fae. Of course she isn’t safe.” Harm leaned even closer, his breath warm again the side of her face. “But I think she can be bargained with. Look at her house.”

Val shot a glance at the neat little cottage perched on chicken legs. Right. This old woman was exactly the kind of fae who would bargain for one of Harm’s fancy blue-and-white pottery pieces.

“But do you think it would be worth it? Or should we risk the glade?” Harm eyed the copse of trees, as if he got a bad feeling from it too.

That settled it. If both of them didn’t like the look of the glade, then something was off.

The chicken cottage it was.

Harm shouldn’t relishthe feel of having his arm around Val’s shoulders as much as he did. It was simply the old woman putting thoughts into his head. That was all.

“All right. Go ahead and bargain with her.” Val pulled away from Harm, turned back to the old woman, and sheathed her knife.

Harm let his arm drop. Right. Back to the business of survival.

He put on a smile and strolled toward the old woman. “We’d like to stay the night, but we want an official bargain. You understand, I’m sure.”

“Of course, dearie. Never can be too careful.” Something sharper glinted in the old woman’s eyes. “What would you bargain?”

Harm gave himself a moment to think. If he said a word wrong, he would get himself and Val into all kinds of trouble.

With a deep breath, he held the old woman’s gaze. “You will provide me and my companions with safe shelter for the duration of our stay. We will be allowed to sleep in peace and to go on our way unharmed, unchanged, and unhindered in the morning at a time of our choosing. In exchange, you will be given a wedge of the finest cheese of my homeland and…this.”

Harm reached into his pocket and pulled out a pottery teacup. It showed a Tulpenlander woman with her cap and wooden shoes next to a windmill, all done in blue against the white background.

The woman’s eyes focused on the teacup with the same greed the mouse woman had shown for the cheese. As Harm had guessed, given her prim cottage and invitation to tea.

“You will be given the cheese now and this teacup in the morning. Is it a bargain according to the terms I’ve laid out?” Harm could only hope he’d bargained well. Val hadn’t interrupted, so hopefully that indicated he hadn’t stepped too wrong.

“Yes!” The woman swayed forward, as if she wanted to snatch the teacup out of his hands.

Harm returned the teacup to his pocket and withdrew one of his wedges of cheese instead, holding it out to her.

She snatched it from him, closing her eyes as she smelled it. When she opened her eyes, she grinned, showing off her yellow teeth again. “You bargain well, dearie. I had thought to lure you inside to bake into a pie—young men are so tasty—but for this, I’ll happily let you go your way unharmed.” She tilted her head toward Val. “You do, indeed, have quite the young man. Thanks to him, you’ll both survive the night. Come, come.”

The old woman turned and minced toward where her chicken-legged cottage crouched on the road.

Harm swallowed, not sure if he should follow. Hewas more reluctant to enter that house, now that the woman had admitted to wanting to eat him.

Val leaned closer. “It should be safe enough. Just…don’t eat any of the food.”

“Yes, I gathered as much.” Harm shuddered. “I don’t want to accidentally eat some previous unlucky man.”

Val grinned, as if she found that funny. “Well, there’s that. And, while you bargained for a safe place to sleep, you didn’t bargain for safe food. So don’t eat or drink anything.”

Right. He had forgotten something. But as long as they didn’t eat or drink, they’d be fine.

The old woman finally reached her cottage and stepped onto the porch. She opened the door and beckoned for them.

Two black cats oozed from inside and wound around her ankles, meowing.

Val ground to a halt. “There’s something we didn’t—”

Daisy burst from the ditch, barking uproariously, as she lunged for the two cats.

The cats hissed and dashed back inside. Daisy just about knocked the old woman over as she pursued the cats.

The old woman’s face mottled. “What’sthat? Get it out!”

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