“I’ll help you, Nimira.” Celestina spoke slowly. “I don’t like it, but I think you’re right.”
The whole notion that we could prepare to fight a jinn when we knew nothing of his powers, besides that they were considerable, felt somewhat… optimistic. But I had claimed to be an optimist.
A FAIRY HOUSE
Ifra hesitated, some distance from Keyelle and Etana’s door. He didn’t want to tell them what he had become and what he had to do, and yet, he wanted to do all he could to right the wrongs he was causing.
Keyelle answered his knock, her green hood drawn around her hair with a pale hand. The cold was bitter this evening. “Yes? Come in. Hurry, you must be freezing.”
“Jinn have an inner fire.” Ifra had a wool coat and cap thrown over his clothes; he didn’t need more. Inside, the stove warmed the cabin, but everyone was bundled up nevertheless.
“I didn’t expect to see you again,” Etana said. She smiled. “We’ve already had dinner, but there’s a bit left.”
He shook his head. “Your stores must be low in winter. I don’t need food.”
“You don’t need heat or food…” Keyelle shook her head with a slightly pained smile. “What do you need?”
“Nothing. Air, I suppose.”
“You poor thing. I think it must be sad not to need anything.”
“Well, there are ups and downs to it, I suppose.” He glanced at them-their welcoming, unconcerned faces that remembered him, but not why he had come before. “I have to tell you something important,” he said. “Against my will, I’ve been sent to destroy Erris Tanharrow.”
Their faces dropped in shock. He waved down their questions.
“I’ll explain everything. I told you once, but I had to make you forget. This time, write it down, if you have anything to write with.”
Etana produced pen, ink, and paper. To ask them to write this down was somewhat a breach of Luka’s instructions, but not so much that Ifra couldn’t manage it. The scratch of the pen felt like pinpricks on his skin.
He told them the whole story, even showed them Violet’s ribbon, watched fear bloom on their faces. Only Sery wandered off to play with her dolls, with a child’s trust that politics were merely boring and nothing bad could ever happen.
“Ifra, you look awful,” Etana said. “There’s no way to… break free of this?”
“A part of me is no longer my own. I can stop to eat and rest, but if I dawdle too long, I start to feel… sick.” And worse. Ifra had started to have visions of destroying Erris. He imagined different ways that he could hurt him, his clockwork body blown to bits, Violet snatched from the scene, bound and gagged if necessary. These thoughts came not from his brain-at least, he hoped not-but from some dark, other place, and they were accompanied by a sense of satisfaction. His tutor had warned him that his own thoughts would compel him to grant the most difficult wishes, but Ifra had never really believed, or understood, how bad it could be.
This was how jinns became cruel or, at best, detached, like his tutor.
“Only he can free me.” Ifra covered his eyes. “He never will. I’m his loyal servant, and what king would give that up? His son is worse. I suppose my only hope is to restore Erris to the throne and hope he would free me. But instead, I have to destroy him.”
“Do you want us to come with you?” Keyelle looked like she was ready to go out the door that very moment.
“We can’t take Sery,” Etana said, glancing at the girl. She was making a nest from boughs of pine.
“You can’t come,” Ifra said. “You might get hurt.”
“I might,” Keyelle said. “Or I might not. But why tell us this if you don’t want us to help Erris? Etana can stay here with Sery, and I could alert the other Green Hoods.”
“But how can you cross the gate into Lorinar?” Etana asked.
“They let traders cross. I can make up a story.”
“Maybe you could sneak across, but a group of you? The humans might be suspicious. And what about the cold? What if another storm comes?”
“Oh, always so sensible!” Keyelle snapped, slumping back into her chair.
“You know I’m right. Ifra is telling us this so…” Her gaze moved to his. “So someone will know he didn’t want to do this. Someone will know how he really feels.”
Keyelle straightened up again. “Is that true? Are you just telling us this so we can sit here, stuck inside for the whole winter, knowing all our plans are crumbling? I’d rather be oblivious! I’d rather keep some hope.”
Ifra thought Etana was probably right about why he was really telling them. This was his confession. But there was another reason too. “I’m telling you because, if the worst happens, Violet is a Tanharrow too, and Luka’s son wants to marry her. Maybe… she could help your cause. She’s spoiled, but also unspoiled, in a way, because she’s been kept away from politics. She’ll need help and guidance. Of course, I don’t really know her, or Belin, but within moments I could see that Belin is trouble, and Violet… just wants to be loved.”
Keyelle groaned and ran her hands through her red curls. “Either way, we’re putting our trust in an untried, unprepared ruler. But we’re just supposed to give up on Erris?”
Ifra hung his head. “Please don’t try and stop me. It’ll be even worse if I have to hurt you.”
“Well,” Etana said. “Erris already isn’t quite alive, is he? He’s a spirit in a clockwork body. It’s possible Erris is doomed either way. Violet is a real girl. And Belin wants to share the throne with this girl. He must think she’s young and foolish, and maybe she is, but if our network could ally with her, advise her, rally behind her… this could actually be a much better prospect for us.”
“I suppose there is truth in that,” Keyelle said. “I still just feel so hopeless.”
Ifra understood that feeling. Yet, for the first time since Luka bound him, he felt hope. He might not be free, but he could still shape events.
Chapter 18
One afternoon, someone knocked at the door. It was the second Tuesday, normally the day when wizened, wiry Miss Santofair came for our laundry. She was quite late, but as I came downstairs I realized the knock was at the front door and not the kitchen door.
Celestina was heading for it, cursing. “That better be Miss Santofair. My dress is in the laundry bundle. I don’t care that she sees me looking so frightful, she’s a crazy old loon herself, but if it’s anyone else-”
Celestina’s younger brother stood on the other side of the door, flushed, panting and scowling.
“Ander? What is it?” Celestina cried.
“There’s a bunch of people coming after you.” He glanced backward, but the woods were still. “I just ran all the way from town, but I don’t want anybody to see me. I’m not about to lose my skin just because you had to mess around with sorcerers.”
“Wait. Calm down. Who’s after me?” She stepped back to let him in, because he looked like he’d go into a complete panic if he had to keep standing outside.
“This man came into town this morning-a weird man with funny clothes and gold. A jinn, they said. I don’t know what happened. I heard one thing from Louis and another thing from Riley.”
“Well, try and piece it together as best you can.”
“People have been talking about you all winter, you know,” Ander said. “Saying you’re hosting a house full of witches.” He wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. “Like I said, this funny-looking man, he came along and said he’s a jinn and he’s coming for the guy who lives here with you. Said he’s the fairy prince. And some girl named Violet. Said she’s Valdana’s daughter, but everybody knows his daughter’s dead. Anyway, the people in town were saying they’d be better off without Valdana or any of you, and the jinn said anyone who wanted to take down Valdana was welcome to join him. They were all supposed to get their torches and guns and things and meet in the town square.”