Page 7 of Ties of Bargains

Daisy’s grin grew, and she flopped onto her back, presenting her belly for a rub.

The human obliged, going down on one knee to better pet the dog.

Daisy wiggled and squirmed, her tongue lolling in happiness. Then, as Val had expected, two more heads, identical to the first, emerged out of her main head to join that one in grinning and tongue lolling.

“Aaah!” The human gave a cry as he fell back onto his rump, unbalanced thanks to that heavy pack he’d insisted on taking.

Daisy took that as a sign to tackle him, trying to wiggle onto his lap for some aggressive cuddling even as all three of her heads licked his face.

“Your dog—pft—three—blegh—heads.” The human tried to cover his face and fend off the heads, even as he was trampled by the squirming, overexcited dog.

“She’s a fae dog.” Val wasn’t going to coddle the human. A three-headed dog wasn’t the scariest thing he’d see here in the Fae Realm.

Overstimulated, Daisy’s eyes went wild as she leapt off the human and tore away into the forest, running in random circles before she raced back the other way. She spun a few more times before she flopped onto the ground, panting and teeth still flashing in her doggy grin. The two extra heads merged back into her main head, leaving her looking like a normal dog once again.

The human rolled into a sitting position, adjusting something up his left sleeve. A knife, probably. He likely thought she didn’t realize he had a knife tucked up his sleeve, as if she hadn’t noticed that highly suspicious exchange with his father and the way the fabric hung heavy.

But it wasn’t her business. She’d searched him for weapons as instructed, and she could truthfully say she hadn’t found any. She wasn’t obliged to confiscate any weapons he gained after her search as long as she didn’t see them.

“Daisy is way too normal of a name for that dog.” He swiped his sleeve over his face before he climbed to his feet, hefting the pack. He glanced from Daisy to her. “You enjoyed that.”

“Yes.” Val turned and headed into the nighttime fern forest once again. They’d already delayed enough.

The human finally lapsed into a longer silence as they hiked over the moss and flowers, Daisy racing back and forth through the darkness.

After about an hour of walking, the fern forest brightened ahead of them, lit by thousands of faerie lights. Figures moved through the shadows headed in the same direction, from a tree nymph with her hair of leaves trailing down her back to the flitting pixies shedding glitters of dust behind them as they flew on their buzzing dragonfly wings.

The human had gone back to gawking. Fine by Val. If he was gawking, he wasn’t talking.

Val led the way as the ferns opened into a field of moss with humongous flowers growing from it. Someof the flowers loomed high above them on tree-thick stems. But others were simply buds growing right up from the earth. Occasionally, one of the petals on the buds flopped aside, and a fae would step out of the flower-house.

As they headed for the center of the flower field, the buds grew closer together while ten-foot-tall stands of grass formed something almost like walls, hedging them in.

Music drifted on a sweetly scented breeze, coming from a building formed of various rose- and ivy-covered arbors. Elaborate gardens of hedges, fountains, and flowerbeds with non-ginormous blooms extended around the building in a chaotic, meandering manner.

Fae dressed in everything from swirling silk dresses in vibrant colors to outfits of leaves and flower petals drifted through the gardens and beneath the arbors.

As Val, her charge, and her dog approached, the fae halted their conversations, turning to stare at her. They whispered to their companions, sneering expressions twisting their lips and narrowing their eyes.

Whatever. Val didn’t care how much they scorned her for being a courtless mercenary. She would much rather be a member of a Wild Hunt band than bound to a court and the whims of its often fickle ruler. She knew firsthand what those in power did to those who couldn’t fight back.

Beneath an arbor festooned with trailing ivy, Queen Mab’s throne of flowers and thorns perched, as sweet and spiky as the faerie queen. Her sycophants buzzed around her, attempting to win her favor, while the restof her court swirled around the room-like space formed of the various flower-covered arbors.

To one side, a cluster of humans played various instruments, blood dripping from torn fingers. Their faces were blank-eyed and hazy, too dazed with faerie fruit to know their own names, much less what they were doing.

Her package’s gaze lingered on the other captive humans, his blue eyes as wide as the plate she’d found tucked in his pack.

The crowd parted for her, and Val strode through them without meeting anyone’s gaze. She halted in front of Queen Mab’s throne, not bothering to bow. After all, Mab wasn’t her queen.

Daisy sat behind Val’s legs. Relaxed, but still guarding Val’s back.

Queen Mab, an over-dressed pink-haired pixie, sprawled on her throne, her tiny heart-shaped face barely peeking above the layers of frothing lace piling around her neck. “Is this the human you were sent to fetch?”

“Yes. Here’s the human for which your emissary to the Human Realm bargained.” Val gestured to the human puppy. All Mab would have to do was claim the human as hers, and Val’s job would be complete.

Her long lashes sparkling with pixie dust, Mab swept a greedy glance over the human. “He’s a handsome specimen, isn’t he?”

The human straightened his shoulders, his jaw working, as he faced the pixie queen. A good show of bravado, but all that bravery would be nothing butdandelion fluff once he was faced with the cruelties this realm enacted on captive humans.

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