them, have they everâ¦â
âOf course they know,â said Linden. âThe woman you call Periâshe used to be a faery herself.â
That was it, he was going insane. Timothy pushed his chips away. âI have to go.â
Linden caught his arm. âItâs the truth, I swear. She started out as our Hunter, back when she was just a little older than me, and we called her Knifeâ¦well, we still call her that, actually, even though sheâs a human now and goes by her true name of Perianth instead. But anyway, she met Paul and they fell in love, and in the end Queen Amaryllis made her human so she could stay with him, but she had to promise to go on hunting food for us and protecting us from the crows as her part of the bargain. Thatâs why she looked sad when you were talking about Uganda. She knows she can never travel, never even leave the Oakenwyld for more than an hour or two, so long as the rest of us need her.â
So sheâd overheard their conversation at the dinner table as well? âHow long have you been spying on me?â Timothy demanded.
A flush crept into Lindenâs cheeks. âSince you came to the House, off and on. I know I shouldnât have, but you were young like me, and I saw the way you looked at the Oak, andâ¦â She played with her straw. âI wanted to find out more about you. What things you liked or needed, if there was anything that I might be able to offer you as a bargainâ¦I had to know if there was any chance you might take me away with you when you left.â
Oh. He understood nowâor thought he did. âThe Oak is where you live?â he said. âYou and your Queen andâ¦the rest of you?â
She nodded.
That explained a lot, thought Timothy. He went on, âOkay, so you wanted to see some more of the world. I get that. But what about your parents? Arenât they going to be upset that you just took off with me?â
âParents.â She ran the word around her tongue as though it were unfamiliar. âI donât have any parents.â
Whoops. He should have guessed she was an orphan, with those worn-looking clothes and tangled hair. That must be why Paul and Peri had been concerned about her. âSorry,â he said.
âWhy should you be?â Now she looked confused. âNo one in the Oak has parents, because there arenât any male faeries. Knife is my foster motherâwell, one of them, anyway. She looked after me when I first hatched.â
Hatched? thought Timothy in disbelief, but Linden wasstill talking: âBut thatâs not the point. I didnât come with you because I wanted to see the world. I came with you to try and find more faeries. Because my people have lost their magic, and we need to get it back.â
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Over the next few minutes Linden did her best to make Timothy understand about Jasmine and the spell she had cast on the Oakenfolk, and how vital it was that their peopleâs magic be restored. âThere are only a few of us left now,â she said, âand if it werenât for Knife and the Queen thereâd be even fewer. Weâre so afraid of being eaten by crows and foxes that most of us wonât set foot outside the Oak unless we have to. But now thereâs even more for us to worry about, because the Queen is dyingâand though she gave me a half share of her power, I canât cast the glamours that protect the Oak nearly as well as she used to. Weâll never be safe, or free, until all of us have our magic back.â
âSo why donât you find this Jasmine and get her to undo the spell, then?â said Timothy around another mouthful of chips. Linden had tried one but didnât like it, so he was finishing off the box by himselfâthough how he could eat so much and still be so thin, she couldnât imagine.
âBecause we canât,â Linden replied. âItâs been nearly two hundred