Page 54 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Her spark of courage dimmed. There was a time to fight and a time to run.
“What are you doing over there?” a voice called from behind her.
Bristol spun and saw Tyghan. “Are you speaking to him or me?”
“You,” he said as he walked closer. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the lecture hall?”
“That was the goal. But this creature is blocking my path and shaking me down for money I don’t have.”
“Him?” Tyghan blinked long and slow, making his cynicism obvious.
Bristol’s temper spiked. “Excuse me? It’s been a while since I encountered an eight-foot troll in Bowskeep. Not too many of them order pizza.”
Tyghan sighed. “Let her pass, Deek.”
The creature frowned, stomped his foot in a childish gesture, then shrank to the size of a dragonfly, transforming into an impish being, his wings beating madly. He hovered in front of Bristol’s face, holding his belly as he fell into fits of laughter.
“You!” she said. “You nasty little—”
He buzzed away before she could finish, his cadre of troublemakers following after him. Their laughter drowned out her curses.
“You’ve met?” Tyghan said.
“Yes!” Bristol snapped. “Yesterday, before class, your little neighborhood thugs descended into my hair and whirled it into a thousand tangles. Master Reuben reprimanded me for my disorderly appearance.”
“Thugs?” Tyghan grinned like the word was infinitely amusing. “They’re only harmless sprites.”
“Not when they grow to eight-feet-tall trolls.”
“That’s only glamour, and they were just having a little fun. You should pay better attention to your lessons. Esmee covers palace creatures on the first day. Trolls aren’t among them.”
Pay better attention?“Well, thank you for that little gem of advice, Mr. Know-It-All.”
His brows shot up. “What? I’m not Mr. High and Mighty anymore? I feel like I’ve been demoted.”
“Trust me, I have a lot of names for you. I’m sure eventually you’ll hear them all.”
“You might just stick with Your Majesty.”
She grunted and turned without reply, continuing down the path.See you tonight, Your Majesty, she wanted to say, a remark that would knock him off his secure pedestal. But she bit her tongue because she was afraid that it might make him stay away, and as annoying as he could be in the daytime—at night she wanted him to come. At night, there was a strange truce between them that she didn’t quite understand, like for that tiny space of time, they had a safe secret place where they could both see what it felt like to be someone else.
“A sweet,” he called after her. “That’s the toll. Give them a sweet or a swatch of fine fabric, and those miscreants will be your friends for life.”
That night she saved a cookie from the feast tables and cut a small length of red ribbon from one of her dresses and placed both on her windowsill.
The next morning, she found a perfect pink rose petal in their place.
Friends for life.
She wished all the creatures in Elphame were so easy to please.
Especially ones who barked orders by day but were phantoms by night.
CHAPTER 38
Wear your plainest clothes. A shirt and trousers.
Bristol turned one way and another, looking at her profile in the mirror, frustrated with herself. She didn’t spend this much time worrying over her appearance when she dressed in her fancy gowns. Or ever. She tugged on her sleeves and smoothed back loose wisps of hair and left to meet Tyghan.
