Free Bones of Faerie03 - Faerie After by Janni Lee Simner Page A

against glamour.”
    The seeds were my defenses—I didn’t say that, either. Maybe there was a chance here, a chance to get Allie and myself free, not through fighting but through words. Faerie folk took words seriously. “If I shared the seeds with you, would you lead us back aboveground?”
    Tolven rubbed his hands over his sleeves. I saw the faint bulge of bandages beneath them. “Above is fire fever, and what little grows there is far more mad thanme. Below is shelter. Below is safety. There is nowhere else, save for the human world, which was so perilous it killed the Lady herself.”
    “Below isn’t safe for humans.” I looked from Tolven to the tunnel. It had opened for him, as it wouldn’t for me. “Can you lead us out?” If we could reach the standing stone, perhaps Allie and I could get Karin out of Faerie through the Arch and stop Caleb and Matthew from trying to enter it at the same time.
    “I can lead you. All the tunnels open for me. Nys saw to it, after the Uprising. None dare deny me free passage.” Tolven flashed a small, secretive smile. Who was he, that his desires were considered so important? “If I free you and your friend, you will surrender the seeds?”
    I chose my words carefully. “If you take Allie and me to the standing stone—the one by the ring of dead trees—I will give you
one
of the seeds. You have my word.”
    “Do humans keep their word?” Tolven asked me.
    “Humans with magic do.” Then, “I do, and would even without magic.”
    “So it is with me as well.” Tolven bent into a respectful bow. “I will risk this thing. I must leave now, but I shall return for you and the other human as I may. Until that time you must stay here, lest you upset Nys and so fall beyond my reach. See to it that you keep yourword. None will treat you well should they learn that you harmed me.”
    We just might get out of here after all. I offered Tolven the stone, because Nys would know someone had been here if he saw it. Tolven took it and left the room without another word. The tunnel closed behind him.
    The stench of decay lingered in the air, but if any more crumbling approached, it was swallowed by the room’s own dark. I kept to the far side of the room, and I did not sleep again.
    I knew Allie’s approach by the light she held. She shuffled down a tunnel—yet another tunnel—and into the room, a wine skin over her shoulder and another bowl of food in her hands. The tunnel closed behind her as she stumbled to my side. I caught her and helped her sit leaning against the wall, carefully steering her away from the dust. Its smell had faded, but I didn’t know how long it would remain dangerous to touch. Allie’s hands trembled as she set the bowl on the floor between us. Her eyes were ringed with dark shadows.
    “He promised not to use glamour.” I handed Allie a vegetable from the bowl. If Nys wasn’t bound to keep his word, we had no power over him at all.
    “He didn’t use it.” Allie chewed listlessly on the tuber. “I pushed a little too hard, that’s all. I wanted toprove I would do as I said so that he wouldn’t change his mind and take me over after all.” Her voice was heavy with shadows of its own. “It was much better, with me doing things for myself. Only”—she reached for another vegetable—“I saw two more patients. One I could save, but the other slipped away faster than I could heal him. That happens sometimes. I know it does. It’s not like I haven’t seen people die, but Caleb was always there with me before. I was never alone.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
    I couldn’t make that right. I put my arm around her shoulders instead.
    “It’s all right. Nys didn’t blame me, so that was good.” Allie opened her eyes. “It’s so sad, the way fire fever makes everything come unraveled deep inside of them.”
    I shivered. “Unraveling and crumbling. They’re sort of the same, aren’t they?”
    Allie shuddered. “Don’t say that.”
    “Is it