Page 101 of The Iron Dagger
The sharp tang of herbs met her senses, and Hara blearily opened her eyes. Someone held a posset under her nose, and she blinked to bring them into focus.
The woman was so small that at first Hara thought she was a child. Her ears rose in graceful points, and her skin was a pearlescent blue-gray, so thin it seemed almost translucent.
“She will have a tender head for a while, but she will live,” said the tiny woman to someone out of Hara’s eyeline. Hara glanced around from her position on her back.
Pots, lanterns, and bundles of herbs hung from every inch of the earthen ceiling, and the sight of such familiar, homey goods made her breathing ease.
Slowly, she sat up, putting a hand to the scrape on the side of her face, and found that she wore a short linen shift. She had vague memories of what happened after she hit her head, of her mouth filling with water and hands dragging her ashore. She must have slipped in and out of consciousness while they dressed her.
Gideon knelt at her side, his relief palpable. The woman tended a small smokey fire where Hara’s clothing was hanging up to dry, and a man, another creature of her kind, sat at a small table. Seraphine was settled in the man’s lap, purring deeply.
Then Hara’s eyes fell on the last person in the room. He was sitting right behind her, and she gave a start.
“You,” she said to Seith, her head throbbing at her sudden movement. “What are you doing here?”
“He saved your life. Pulled you to shore,” said the fae man. “We saw what happened, and so we offered to bring you here to our home.”
“Thank you,” said Hara, stifling her anger. She did not want to create a scene in front of the people who had offered them the sanctuary of their home and tended her injuries. She turned back to look at their hosts. “What are your names?”
The fae man and woman glanced at each other. “Do you come from the Montag court?”
“Yes,” said Hara and Gideon together.
“Then we would rather not say. We have no friends there.”
“We are not allies of the Montag court,” said Hara. “I am looking for my mother, who Corvus imprisoned when I was a child. Thanks to him,” she added bitterly, glaring at Seith. “She was a Seer, and so am I.”
“A Seer,” said the woman with some interest, her mouth pulled down at the corners. Hara could understand her concern; if she wanted to, Hara could learn every detail of their lives.
“I would never look into your past if you did not wish for it,” said Hara.
The woman relaxed slightly. “We do not believe in revealing our names carelessly, and we will not ask for yours.”
Hara nodded, unsure if they guarded their names because they were in hiding or simply because they were fae.
“You are going to the Maw,” said the woman, standing up straight. She was no taller than Hara’s waist. At Hara’s confused expression, the woman added, “The pit.”
“Yes,” said Hara. She wondered how much Gideon had told them about their purpose. Seith obviously had not spoken much, since his nose looked unbroken.
“That is a cursed place,” said the woman.
“I know that it is being used as a prison,” said Hara.
“It is not meant to be a prison. It is not meant to be seen or touched by mortal hands,” said the woman. “It is our peoples’ most sacred place, to be feared and respected. Now it has been corrupted and turned into a parasite.”
“A parasite?” asked Gideon.
The woman turned large gray eyes to him. “It is a leech, sucking magic from its prisoners. My people used it to disposeof our dead so their memories could live on forever, kept in the stone and in the very water. But to trap live beings inside it is monstrous.”
“Corvus and my father could not have come up with this idea on their own. Neither of them is knowledgeable about obscure scrying stones. Someone showed them how it could be used,” said Gideon, and he turned steely eyes to Seith. “It was you.”
But Seith was shaking his head.
“No. Everyone at the royal court knew that sorbite was used by the wild mountain fae, but they thought it was a low form of magic. My family—” Seith paused, as though the words were difficult to form. “They did not find physical aids . . . elegant.”
“It was my sister and her supporters who showed them how it could be done,” said the woman. “Corvus and his men came to our court and promised protection and fair treatment under their new reign. Our people were never treated well by the Ilmarinens, and these non-magical folk seemed different. But I did not trust them.”
“She spoke out against Corvus and his plans to use the stone to imprison witches,” said the man.
