Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
His words reverberated in my mind, fogging up my senses. My sight, my sense of sound, didn’t return to normal until the dance had ended and the guests applauded. I remained staring up at him as the people moved around us, chatting and sampling desserts, completely unburdened.
As the shock thawed from my body, horror settled in. I would have collapsed under its weight, were it not for his hands on my waist, effortlessly propping me up.
“I can’t do that,” I finally said, my voice slow and stunned. “I can’t give you my child.”
Something indiscernible shifted in his bright eyes. “Why not? People give up their children every day for far lesser reasons.”
“I’m not those people,” I argued. “And then, I won’t have children at all if I don’t please the king.”
“And if you don’t, he could hurt you, and ignite a war in your name,” said Roderick. “Well, Gertrude’s name.”
I slammed my hand on his chest, not caring how this appeared to onlookers. “This isn’t funny!”
He raised his brows. “Do you see me laughing, Ottoline?”
My hand slid down his shoulder to feebly grip his forearm. “There has to be something else you can ask of me.”
He searched my face, then quietly said, “You have nothing else that I would want.”
“You want to rip my child from my arms the day it’s born, and what? Replace it with a changeling that I’d raise as a prince? Is that it?”
“The only one who qualifies as a changeling here is you, my dear,” he said with a brief laugh. “You can always have more children. And I would never hurt it, that I can promise you.”
“You think he would have more children with me after I tell him our firstborn is going to be used to pay a faerie debt? Are you mad?” I spat, pushing away from him.
He caught my wrist, holding me still. “I’m not mad, I assure you. Everything I do has a good reason, even if it might mean nothing to you.”
“This,” I said, trying to be firm, but shaking as tears threatened to pour from my eyes. “This is why no one likes your kind, because you do things like this.”
Hurt flashed across his face. “If you don’t want my help, just say so.”
“I don’t want this,” I blubbered, shaking my head. “I want you to put me back where I was.”
“I put you back, and Gertrude will have you beheaded for treason,” he reminded me.
I looked up at him, feeling the walls closing in on me. No matter where I turned, I ran into a dead end. There was no way to break through and make myself an exit out of this mess.
“Do you want time to think about it?” Roderick said, his voice subdued.
“I don’t have time.” I wiped at my face, sniffling. “Is there anything else you could possibly want? Anything?”
He shook his head, and panic reared its ugly head within me. “You said you wanted something done with the law, right? Or that you’d collect your payment from the prince. I could have him talk to you, discuss whatever it is you wanted to amend.”
“You should have realized by now that Prince Heinrich is about as useful as a wet matchstick,” he said, eyes flitting to where the prince in mention stood with his friends. “Whatever I’d need from him would have to be something that would sway his father, push him into doing as I please.”
“Then offer to pay the debt yourself,” I suggested, licking my dry lips. “You—You could turn the whole treasury into gold. That could get him to do what you want.”
Roderick shook his head at me. “If bribing him worked, then my father would have been able to change the law when I was a child. No, I need something stronger than a bribe.”
“But the gold—!”
“—is something he only wants from you,” he cut me off. “For him, this is petty vengeance as much as it is a payback. He won’t be satisfied until King Ludwig’s daughter does what he brought her here to do, which is to reimburse him, and to give his son an heir.”
Cold sense began to sink in, putting all the pieces of his bargain together. “You want the firstborn so you can use it to jerk him around.”
He smiled bitterly, perfect teeth all on display. “See, I told you I wouldn’t hurt it.”
Letting out a shaky breath, I checked behind me at where the king sat surrounded by an entourage of lords, not paying me any mind. But I had made up my own.
“Would I get to see it? The child?” I asked. “Or would you take it and disappear?”
“That will depend on the king.”
Didn’t everything in this world? I didn’t know why I thought my life would improve exponentially when I’d agreed to this farce.
I supposed I had assumed that Gertrude’s prior experience back in Castle Schwarzdorn would continue here, that I wouldn’t be surprised by anything ever again.
Yet, here I was, caught between the whims of a madman and the demands of a trickster, back into a corner I needed to trade parts of myself to escape.
I’d always heard about faeries stealing children, but I had thought those were stories to make people feel better about their offspring dying from a childhood disease, or getting lost in the woods. But I supposed the easiest answer was usually the truest one.
Exhaling heavily, I finally nodded. “All right. We have a deal.”
Roderick held out his hand to me. “We have a deal.”
I shook his hand and a flash of light sparked between our palms before traveling up to my wrist and settling there, forming a tight, golden bracelet, like Gertrude’s choker.
“This will give you the ability to turn anything you touch into gold.” He bent to whisper in my ear, making me shudder. “I’ll check up on you later.”
“Why? To gloat?”
Facing me, head cocked to the side, he asked, “Now, why would I do that to you?”
“You tell me. You just twisted my arm into trading the first child I birth.”
His eyes grew somber. “I only mean to twist your future father-in-law’s.”
Eyeing his build, I said, “You could probably snap his arm right off without breaking a sweat.”
“If only such issues could be resolved with brute force. If I harmed him in any way, I would set my cause back several centuries, if not reinstate faerie-hunting for every man who fancies himself a hero.”
That made me wonder how viable it would be, to sic people on him when he came to collect my child. “So you can be hunted and defeated by us mere mortals.”
“Of course, I can.” He leaned in, heat igniting in his eyes. “But don’t get any ideas.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because, if I die, so do all my enchantments.”
Withdrawing from me, he stepped back into the surrounding dancers and seemed to vanish from their midst.
I stood there, unable to make a move until Heinrich appeared by my side. “What did he want?”
“A dance, considering you barely gave me one,” I lied.
“Right. Sorry,” he said, ducking his head. “I just…”
He had nothing to say, and I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t in the mood to talk as well.
The rest of the night passed in a haze, and soon, I was led back to my room with the understanding that tomorrow, I would continue turning whatever Wilhelm gave me into gold.
I couldn’t wait to be done.
The morning came with a brutal headache and a bad taste in my mouth, and it wasn’t from the deal I’d struck with Roderick.
I rolled into a seated position, feet hanging off the floor, put my pounding head in my hands and groaned.
“Are you dying?” Gertrude asked.
I squinted at her through my lashes. “Right now, I wish that were the case.”
Huffing miserably, I reached for the pitcher Birgitta had brought before I’d gone to bed and poured myself a glass of water. I threw back one glass then poured another, soothing my dry, sticky mouth and already lessening the headache.
On my third drink, my eyes had adjusted to the view and I saw her, standing with her hands on her hips, scowling at me. “Why? Is the guilt of your treasonous acts finally killing you?”
“If you must know, it’s because the king is under the impression that women in your family are miracle workers.” That was when it occurred to me that she might know something about where this insane presumption had originated. “You wouldn’t know anything about that now would you?”
Gertrude pulled a face, pinched with petulance. “Why would I tell you anything?”
“You’d better hope I don’t die then, because then you’d have to figure out how to give the king what he wants, which is a princess who can turn things into gold.”
Her dark-blue eyes widened with shock. “You must be joking.”
I glowered at her. “Do I look to be in a joking mood?”
“No,” she said slowly, frowning, not from her usual irritation,, but stunned confusion. “No, but that ability hasn’t been possible for decades, centuries even.”
I jumped up, instantly becoming lightheaded and falling back down on the bed as I squawked, “You mean one of your ancestors really could turn things into gold?”
“Irmintrude the Alchemist, she was the demigod daughter of the smithing god.” Her reply sounded so practiced, as if she were quoting a line from a book, no doubt something she had learned before I had come into her employ. “Does Wilhelm think I inherited that power?”
Another attempt at standing worked better than the previous one. “Yes! And he’s threatening me with imprisonment and war if I don’t turn everything he gives me into gold!”
“Serves you right for usurping me,” she spat. “This is the Fates punishing you for what you’ve done to me.”
“No, you idiot, I saved you from that fare.” She only scowled harder at me, and I threw my hands up, stepping past her to the closet. “He’s convinced I’m you, remember?”
“Then why don’t you undo this illusion and let me go back to my life?”
“Because I can’t! The sorcerer who did all this wants me instead of you and—argh!” I pressed the heels of my palms to the sides of my temple and slumped against the closet door. “Gertrude, if I could trade places back with you right now I would, but I can’t.”
She opened her mouth, no doubt to argue, but was interrupted by Captain Grunewich knocking on the door and announcing himself. “Your Highness, I am here to escort you to breakfast.”
Sighing out my tension, I called back, “I’ll be a few minutes.”
Looking deep in thought, likely for the first time in her life, Gertrude ignored me while I dressed myself. I paid her no more attention, before I headed out, one thing on my mind.
To have my latest deal with Roderick tested.