Free The Spinner and the Slipper by Camryn Lockhart Page B

around his captain’s wrists and neck, so heavy that they brought him crashing to his knees. “Titania has told me all, how you took my cloak of darkness and sneaked back into this world against my will. Did you really think you could get away with it? Did you really think me such a fool that I would not find out?”
    “Please, my king!” the faerie cried, his horrified gaze moving from Oberon’s terrible visage to the pale face of Eliana, who still lay upon the floor.
    Oberon saw where his captain’s gaze went, and he looked back down at Eliana. “What did you promise to give him in exchange for this magic of his?” he demanded.
    Eliana tried several times to speak before finding her voice. “I—I promised to name him,” she managed at last.
    Lightning flashed in the faerie king’s eyes. For he knew exactly what such a promise meant. His handsome face warping into an angry snarl, he reached out and caught Eliana’s head in a viselike grasp. He dragged her up to her knees, pulling her face close to his own so that she must stare deep into his eyes.
    “You will forget,” he said, enchantment lacing every word. “You will forget everything you have seen these last three nights. You will forget my captain, his face, his voice, his every word. I hereby strip you of all memory of him.”
    “ No! ” cried the captain, struggling against the heavy chains. “My king, I beg of you!”
    But Oberon let go of Eliana, and she sank senseless to the floor, her dark hair spread out upon the rich carpet beneath her. The faerie king turned then to his captain and picked him up by his collar as though he weighed no more than a mewling kitten. “I’ll teach you to compromise your loyalty to me!” he said.
    Another wind whirled about the room, tossing the gold threads into tangles and snarls. But when it settled, each skein lay rolled as neatly as it had been before Oberon’s arrival. In the center of the room stood the spinning wheel, and Eliana lay beneath it, pale as a ghost.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Broken Hearts
     
    A key slid into the bedroom door, and King Hendry entered a breath later with his queen two steps behind. Both stood in mute amazement, staring round at the piles and spools of shining gold, more gold than either had ever dared dream of in all their years as ruling monarchs.
    Then King Hendry’s eye lit upon the maid lying upon the floor. “Gracious me!” he exclaimed. “Is she dead?”
    The next moment both king and queen, their servants crowding in behind them, knelt over Eliana. The queen felt for a pulse and breathed a grateful prayer when she found one—not out of any real concern for Eliana but rather from relief that they had not lost their gold-spinner.
    “The work may have been too taxing,” King Hendry mused, sitting back on his heels and looking round at the mounds of gold. “She’s not used to producing this much at a time, and we’ve worked her hard three nights running.”
    The queen stood and beckoned to her servants. “Take the gold to the royal treasury at once. And see that my ladies weave gold cloth for the finest dress! Lady Gold-Spinner must be presented on the third night of the Spring Advent Ball wearing a dress of her own creation.”
    The servants hastened to obey. As an afterthought the queen commanded them to lift Eliana up from the floor and place her gently on her bed as well. After all, it wouldn’t do for a new lady of the realm to spend her day sleeping on the rug!
    By the time Eliana stirred, the room was empty of the gold. King Hendry and his queen had slipped away long before, and only one serving maid sat perched on a low chair near Eliana’s bed, ready to wait upon her new mistress the moment she awoke.
    Eliana sat up, blinking in confusion. Her mind crashed with such a confusion of thoughts, she could not even hear the maid’s queries after her health. She drew her knees up and pressed her aching forehead into them, willing the pounding in her head to subside.
    At