Chapter 41 Traps & Trade-Offs
Chapter forty-one
Traps & Trade-Offs
“Oh, sweet gods above,” Jon muttered. As Helena pulled herself into a sitting position, she cried out in pain and clutched at her side. Acting on instinct, I ducked into the wagon and knelt beside her in the dirty straw.
“Who’re you?” she slurred, squinting up at me and wiping fresh vomit off the side of her face.
“I’m a friend,” I said gently. Behind me, Jon and Devil let out twin snorts, and I glared at them before turning back to Helena. “I’m Will’s friend…Marina. Do you remember me?”
“Marina…” she muttered. “The Abbey girl?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, you had him wrapped around your finger for years, didn’t you?” She let out a hoarse cackle, then gasped and put a hand on her side again. The rest of her words came out between labored breaths. “Well…you can…have him now. He’s…all yours! Happy?”
“Your ribs are injured,” I said, keeping my voice level. “I can help, if you’ll let me.”
I put my hands out, but Helena eyed me suspiciously, her gaze flickering over my now-pointed ears. “Fine,” she said at last, releasing a long breath and moving her arm. “I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it?”
I settled my hands on either side of her stained, pink bodice and called out my healing magyk.
Knitting together the faint cracks in three of her ribs took me several minutes.
Helena remained still and silent the entire time, except for her ragged, wheezing breaths.
After finishing the last rib, I pushed my magyk out into the rest of her body, searching for anything else I could fix, but she flinched away from me, breaking the contact.
“What are you doing?” she snarled. “It’s just the ribs, so you can leave the rest of me alone, thanks very much!
” Before I could even apologize, she hauled herself to her feet and staggered to the door of the wagon, but nearly fell out when she tried to exit.
I followed her and fought down the horror rising in my chest when I saw her out in the sunlight.
She looked absolutely frightful—her dress disgusting and torn, kohl smeared across her face with the vomit, long golden hair matted with straw and other unmentionable things.
“Helena, what are you doing here?” I asked as she stuck a hand down the front of her bodice and produced a flask from between her substantial breasts. She unscrewed the lid and took a long drink, then sighed with relief and tucked it away again.
“My dearest father thought I would make a good sacrifice to the Arden, I suppose. Having lost my maidenhood long ago, and now my mind, I’m of no further use to him.” She let out a wild laugh and spun her fingers around at her own temples.
“We have to send her back,” Devil said immediately. “She can’t stay here.”
“No.” I shook my head, looking from Celia to Helena. The answer struck me when my eyes fell onto Quince’s miserable face. “Were you all taken by the Iron Fist on suspicion of being touched by magyk?”
The other prisoners all nodded slowly, and Celia cleared her throat.
“They took me years ago,” she said softly.
“Kept me somewhere in the city, an underground cell block. Not long ago though, they started bringing more people in. I heard rumors, but never anything certain. Something about Locksley Abbey, and a tournament, and then rumors of executions. When they brought her in, they said she’d gone into the Arden and had her mind all torn up by the Fair Folk, or some nonsense like that. ”
“Hmm,” Helena mused, sidling over to Jon, who had turned back into a man and wrapped a kilt around his waist. She looked him up and down, then said, “Now that I’m here, I’m not sure I’d mind being torn up by the Fair Folk…”
Horrified, Jon stepped away from her, while Devil stifled a laugh.
“She’s the bait,” I murmured, and all eyes turned toward me.
“Johar put her in the wagon…knowing we’d do this.
He wanted us to have her.” I strode over to the second wagon and turned to Jon.
“Open it. Quickly.” One of the fauns tossed him a large axe, which he used to hack the lock off the wagon’s door.
He pulled it open and Devil sent two lights inside to illuminate the cargo.
“Coin,” he muttered. The wagon was, in fact, full of chests. Not as much as we’d expected, but still more gold crowns than most people in Nottingham would ever earn in their lifetime.
“What’s he playing at?” I whispered, mostly to myself.
Devil looked at me with a line between his brows. “Mayhem?”
“It has to be a trap…but I can’t see the trigger…” I closed my eyes, desperately trying to work out the puzzle, but there was a shout, a flurry of shadows, and the sound of cracking branches.
Suddenly, we were surrounded—not by the Iron Fist, but by Titania’s winged soldiers, with Hippolyta leading them.
They landed all around us, bronze swords drawn and arrows ready to fly.
The human prisoners screamed, scuffled, and tried to hide back inside the wagon, while Devil’s band warily lowered their weapons and looked to him.
“Commander!” he shouted at Hippolyta, raising his bow, but not aiming directly at her. “What is the meaning of this?”
“I would ask you the same thing, imp!” she cried, stalking toward us with her blade up. I quickly moved between them, stopping Hippolyta in her tracks.
“You will not touch anyone here, human or fay,” I told her firmly, even though my hands had begun to shake.
“That is not up to you,” said a soft but furious voice.
Whispers flew all around me as Titania stepped out of the trees.
She wore her usual white chiton, now covered by a leather cuirass, with bracers on her forearms and her dark curls braided back–as if she were expecting a fight.
On her head was a circlet made of twigs, red autumn leaves, and marigolds.
Even though she did not announce who she was, I sensed that every human present already knew.
The Fair Folk, Devil’s friends included, dropped to their knees as she walked along the deer track, eyes running over the guards still asleep on the ground.
When she came face-to-face with Aliena, however, she stopped.
“My lady,” whispered the minstrel, giving a shallow bow.
Titania tucked a strand of white hair behind her ear and murmured, “My little songbird.” Then, she turned toward me. “I will have an explanation, Marina. Now.”
“I am responsible,” said Devil, stepping in front of me.
“Unsurprising,” Titania answered dryly, “but I cannot imagine this was done on Oberon’s orders. Even my husband is not this foolish. You endanger the entire Arden with your schemes, Puck, and I will not allow it to continue. If your maker will not deal with you, then I shall.”
Her voice was so calm that I actually jumped when she conjured a flame in her hand.
The soldiers around her raised their weapons too, taking aim at the cluster of human prisoners, and at the incapacitated guards.
Larch lifted one of his hatchets and pushed Celia behind him, while Jon moved in front of the prisoners, grip tightening on the handle of his axe.
For a split second, Hippolyta hesitated, but Devil did not, pointing an arrow directly at Titania.
He sent a bolt of light along the shaft, causing the tip to glow and spark.
“Do it!” he snarled. “Let’s see how many of your own you are willing to sacrifice just to rid the Arden of those who mean you no harm.” He jerked his head at Helena, Quince, and the other humans, who looked much more defeated than afraid.
“Stop!” I cried, unable to stand another minute of animosity.
I pushed Devil’s wing aside and approached Titania with my hands out.
“Please, my lady, we would never knowingly endanger your kingdom. We had no idea there were prisoners here. We only wanted to take the gold, then send the soldiers on their way. We can still do that. No one needs to die today.”
“You think I do not see what is happening?” Titania barked. “More humans invading my forest because no one else here will do what must be done to protect us!” She pointed specifically at Larch and Celia, who backed away, hands clasped together.
“None of them are a threat!” I said desperately. “Can’t you see that? Their own people turned on them, hurt them, killed their loved ones. All on suspicion of their ties to the Arden, to your world!”
Titania bared her teeth. “I do not care who they are.” A rope of light shot from her hand and whipped out, wrapping around Helena’s arm and jerking her forward. The girl screamed and fell onto her knees in front of the faerie queen, shaking and sobbing.
“No!” I tried to get between them, but Devil seized my arm.
“Make a bargain,” he whispered urgently before letting go. I put my hands back up as Titania brought a magyk flame dangerously close to Helena’s face, her amber eyes trained on me.
“I’ll make a deal with you!” I said quickly.
“A bargain for their lives. Please…” Titania hissed and grabbed Helena’s hair, the flame in her hand intensifying.
Without thinking, I sent a stream of shadows out to form a shield over the girl’s head and shoulders, which caused Titania’s flames to jump back.
She released her captive but I formed a shadow shield and held it out in front of my own chest, then braced myself with Devil at my back.
“If you wish to spare these people,” Titania spat, “you will get them out as quickly as possible. I will entertain no more humans in my forest than are already here.”
“We will send them all home as soon as possible. What would you ask in return?”
“In return for my patience and generosity, the soldiers are mine.”
“W-what will you do with them?” I stammered, desperately glancing at Hippolyta, whose mouth had formed a hard, resolute line.
Titania’s answer sent a shiver down my spine. “I learned long ago that fear is the only way to keep humans out of the Arden, and so…I will make them afraid.”