Wulf #3
"Kinky. Anyway, I have a proposition for you. As I'm sure you've guessed, we came here to buy some of your fine fabrics—wispfloss, mirrorflax, and so on. But since you're not safe here anymore, how about this: I can send people to help you pack up all your precious belongings immediately."
"Pack up all my belongings?" the old woman sputters.
"You have to move somewhere, don't you? Within a day or two, you can be settled in a luxurious room far from the Loomdark, with all your meals prepared by a wonderful chef every day.
Guards will stop unwanted visitors from bugging you.
You'll also have free rein to use a carriage whenever you want to visit Clara and her father—or to have them brought to you.
You can keep spinning beautiful fabrics.
The only catch is that you'd need to give me first choice in buying from you from now on. "
"How savvy you are at getting what you need and winning loyalty all at once," Eris murmurs from the mirror.
The red-cloaked girl seems thrilled at this offer for her grandmother, but Ida is skeptical.
"Oh-hoh! Is that all? You must be richer than Gilda herself, to offer all that," she scoffs. "I suppose I'd be sleeping in a great big mansion if I agree to spin for you?"
"A great big castle, actually."
The moment she realizes who she is speaking to, the typically ill-tempered old woman bows at once. Cursing about her back again, she smacks her granddaughter's arm.
"What are you doing? Lower your head, child, for this is Queen Reinhilde herself!"
Clara bows at once, but blabbers in confusion. "B-but no, it can't be! She's too kind to be the evil queen—and besides, I've always heard the queen never leaves the castle!"
Ida swats her again. "What kind of loose-lipped oaf calls the queen evil in her presence? Quickly, beg for mercy before she has you executed!"
The red-cloaked child is trembling now, but Verena pats her shoulder.
"Relax, Red. No one is getting executed.
And there's no reason to fear someone who just scooped your souls out of slimy monster guts and returned them to your bodies," she adds.
She looks pointedly at the old woman. "Not that you owe me, but I wouldn't mind if that soul-rescuing thing factored into your decision about coming to work for me. "
Ida straightens, looking out the window at the dead leibwraiths scattered outside her cottage. Finally, she nods slowly.
"I've been in this drafty shack since my husband passed some decades ago.
That sweet fool used to go into the Loomdark to hunt.
He always brought back magical tidbits for me to weave into my fabrics—that's how I made wispfloss, from the hide of a wight and some other rare things.
Takes magic and know-how to do what I do, but…
I admit, I'm tired of venturing out into the fringes of this damned wood to scavenge what I need for my beloved craft. "
She looks back at Verena. "If your offer's legitimate, Your Majesty, I certainly wouldn't turn down spinning in a castle in comfort for the rest of my days. Still, I'll need things from the Loomdark to make the fabrics you're after."
"Of course. I can send Wulf to gather what you need."
"Send others," I say at once. "I must keep close to protect you."
The red-cloaked girl leans over to whisper loudly to her grandmother. "Crones, but he's so loyal! Tall, too. Is this one of the Favored?"
"Must be," the old bat nods.
I quietly revel in being mistaken as one of her lovers.
Verena sighs. "I guess it makes sense that you don't get fresh gossip out here, but I don't have Favored anymore. Now, if it's a deal, I'd love to see this wispfloss I keep hearing about."
The old woman hobbles over to a large chest in the corner of the room. When she pulls out a glimmering, rich purple fabric, Verena gasps and praises the workmanship at once.
I could already tell Ida liked her, but as my vantaei holds the fabric up to the light, speaking in seamstress terms I don't know, the never-smiling old woman laughs.
Clara joins the excitement, leaving me alone near the mirror to watch with Eris.
For a moment, I am enthralled by the smile on Verena's face. Whatever enjoyment my beastly heart has in violence and slaughter, she must get from beautiful things.
Perhaps if I spend all the coin I have saved from my hunts and bring her enough beautiful things, she will choose to stay in this world. Eris seems to believe she may be safer here. I believe the same thing, for I will die before letting this woman come to harm again.
Both because of my pledge to her, and because she has won me as easily as she won Ida.
"You said you will teach Verena to read," I murmur to Eris.
"She hopes to find a way home in the many journals hidden in her concealed passage.
" He sees my jaw clench and sighs. "I dislike this as much as you do, Huntsman, but it's a lesser evil.
If I don't help Verena search for answers, she's bound to find some other life-threatening option to rival the faerie debacle. "
"How long will it take for her to learn to read?"
"How long do we have left with her, you mean?"
I nod.
Eris watches Verena make the old woman and the girl laugh again, longing clear in his features.
"Hopefully just long enough for us to convince her to stay."