Page 8 of Ties of Bargains

“Whatever. Just claim him as yours, and I’ll be on my way.” Val resisted the urge to fiddle with the end of the cord looped around her wrist. The binding rope—and that loss of freedom that felt too much like moments from her past—was her most hated part of retrieval missions. Well, that and being stuck with whatever whining, pathetic puppy she’d been sent to retrieve.

“That fae had been quite correct when he said I would procure a delicious morsel for my collection if I did what he said.” Queen Mab’s gaze remained latched on the human, as if he were a piece of fudge she wished to devour. Or perhaps more like a dog with a bone she wished to chew to splinters.

The human blinked, then lunged forward so quickly that Val barely managed to snatch the cord and hold him back before he reached the faerie queen. “What fae? What did he tell you to do?”

“Hush, pup. Heel.” Val yanked on the cord, forcing the human to stumble back to her side. The human didn’t realize the perilous position they were in. Technically, Val was still under Mab’s employ until the retrieval was complete. Still, Val stood on shaky ground when it came to operating in the Fae Realm, unbound to a court as she was.

“Mouthy thing, isn’t he?” Queen Mab waved a delicate hand bedecked with rings formed of flowers.

“Please. I need to know what that fae said.” Undeterred by Val’s reprimand, the human brushed at his coat and faced the faerie queen again.

Queen Mab’s gaze sharpened. “What will you give me, human? Information isn’t free.”

Val yanked on the cord again. “Wait to make bargains until after I hand you over.”

If he made an unwise bargain now, he’d drag Val into it as well, unless she could extract herself from this situation first.

“Let him speak, mercenary. I’d like to hear what he has to say.” Queen Mab’s smile smeared too slick for her petite face.

Val sucked in a breath to protest, but the human was already stepping forward, his shoulders squared. “I would request that you tell me who this fae was and what precisely he told you when it came to me, my family, my duchy, and my father’s bargain, and how that led to my present predicament.”

“What would you give me in exchange?” Queen Mab’s rosebud mouth pursed, as if she was looking forward to pouncing on whatever the human offered.

Val braced herself with an internal sigh. The binding magic of a bargain already hung heavy in the air. There was nothing for it now but to plot her way out of it when it went wrong. For it would go wrong. An innocent pup like this would no doubt stumble into something terrible.

He swung his pack off his back, knelt, opened it, and reached inside. He paused for a moment, his shoulders rising and falling as if he was preparing himself for something difficult.

Then he straightened, presenting one of the blue-and-white plates from his pack. This one had a depictionof a tulip field with a windmill in the background. “This pottery has been incredibly precious to me and my forebears. It was cherished by my grandmother, and I…” The human’s voice grew rough, almost choked. “This is one of the last things I have to remind me of her.”

Val worked to keep her face blank, even as she all but gawked at the human. He had a whole stack of that pottery in his pack—including everything from plates to teacups—and he hadn’t acted at all sentimental about them when she’d come across them.

But he had mentioned using them as trade goods. She’d brushed it off as wishful thinking on the part of a naïve puppy, but was it possible she’d underestimated him?

With each word, Queen Mab leaned forward, the greed in her eyes so rampant she was nearly drooling. She’d drink up all the implications that taking that plate was robbing this human of something precious to him.

“And…” The human paused, as if he hesitated to go on. When he spoke, his voice was lowered, as if he were imparting a great secret. “It is a source of our wealth and power in the Human Realm. I will give it to you once I have heard the information I requested.”

Queen Mab held out her hands and flexed her fingers, as if she wanted to snatch the plate from the human’s hands. “Very well. I agree to your bargain.”

Magic snapped into place, sealing the bargain.

The human held the plate away from Mab’s grasping fingers. “The information?”

The faerie queen slouched on her throne, all butdisappearing in the mound of her swathing garments. “Fine. A fae came here. I don’t know his name, so don’t ask. He said that a prince in a human kingdom connected to my court was sick and that his father would soon attempt to bargain for a cure. I was to send one of my people to wait in the faerie circle to make the bargain when the king came. The bargain needed to be a life for a life, and the older prince’s life was the one that must be demanded. I was to use a mercenary from the Wild Hunt to fetch my prize.”

Val flexed her hand on the knife. A curious tale, indeed. One she would’ve brushed aside as not her business, except that whoever this fae was, he’d roped her into the deal by including that tidbit about using a mercenary from the Wild Hunt. That had made it Val’s business.

Why would this fae go through all this trouble of meddling if he wasn’t even going to stick around or get a prize of his own out of this bargain? It didn’t make sense.

Had Diego, her Wild Hunt leader, known what was going on when he sent her to the Court of Dreams, telling her that her services would soon be needed? At the time, Val had assumed he meant that she would soon find work here in the troubled section of the Fae Realm, thanks to the skirmishes between the Court of Revels and Court of Knowledge. But had this mysterious fae contacted him too?

The human nodded, his eyes still slightly distant as if he were mulling over what he’d heard.

Queen Mab reached out her hands, making a grabbing motion.

A trick. If the human handed the plate over now, Mab wouldn’t be obligated to tell him anything else. As far as he would know, she had told him everything.

The human’s gaze sharpened, holding the plate out of the queen’s reach. “Is that all?”

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