Page 69 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Ignoring her hostility, I scanned the vicinity. No other gray Middlings in sight. “Why did that woman chase you from her store?”
She blinked at me. “Woman?”
I shook myself. “I mean beyn.”
I needed to get my couch potato mind in gear and start talkingandthinking like I belonged in my kingdom. Maybe then I’d start feeling like I fit in.
“She says we were begging,” the middle faelet peeped, peering at me through a greasy fringe of black bangs. “We weren’t. We just came to see if she’d give us credit for the debt she owes Mama. But she says she doesn’t owe Mama anything, that Mama’s a lying lush.”
The oldest socked him. “Shut your trap!”
He bristled, rubbing his arm. “It’s what she said, Gail!”
I chewed my lip again, assessing the situation. If their mother was, indeed, a drunk, it was safe to assume they were in town by themselves. Probably neglected. Maybe abused. Definitely hungry.
“You three, stay here.” I made my way into the grocery shop.
I yearned to ream out the nasty shopkeeper who’d batted needy faelets from her store like mice in her cupboards, but I held my tongue as I paid for a bundle of sweet rolls and something resembling jerky with a couple good quality pumpkin seeds Briar had given me. He’d said one of those was the equivalent of a five in the USA. Easy to come by and proliferous.
The shopkeeper barely managed a grimace for me before I departed, carrying my new linen-wrapped food out to the faelets.
“Here you go.” I set the parcels in Gail’s frail arms. “If you ration that wisely, you’ll have food for a week. And I left a few pumpkin seeds in there for you. Plant them, don’t spend them.”
The faelets continued goggling.
“We plant seeds all the time, lady.” Gail looked both frustrated and sad. “Nothing grows. Mama’s soil has gone to pot since the river was diverted to Covenlen.”
The Shadow Court?
Wasn’t the Shadow Court a wasteland? Who’d allowed a whole river’s diversion? Obviously, it held importance as a water source if families like Gail’s depended on it.
“Gads!” the middle child exclaimed, lemur like. “Your eyes, lady! Colors ripple through them as they did in the sky last night.”
“The sky changed color last night?” Briar and I had camped in a bower again, which had obscured the sky from sight.
“It’s changed colors for the past few nights,” Gail corroborated her brother’s tale. “Mama says it’s the calling of the Aurora.”
My throat constricted. That name again?
I considered asking the faelets to explain what the Aurora was but figured I’d better pretend I already knew, so I wouldn’t blow my cover. Any more than I already had. By the way Gail spoke, I sensed the Aurora was a storyeveryfae had heard, just likeeveryhuman had heard of Cinderella.
So, I just smiled. “Maybe she’s right.”
A return smile flitted across Gail’s hollows.
“You there!” a voice bellowed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I spun about to see a smocked fae man—or feyr—with arms as thick as ham hocks standing outside the grocery shop. The shopkeeper who’d taken my money stood beside him, lips pinched.
“Thank you, lady!” Gail and her brothers took off running with the food. “We’ll pray to Danu for you tonight!” They scurried under the fence by the stables.
I waved goodbye as a vice of fingers seized me, wrenching me about. The smocked feyr was irate, his pointy yellow ears flushing orange as he rattled me. “What are you about, lady? Aiding beggars with food from my shop?”
I pushed him, which did nothing. I might’ve been several inches taller, but he clearly had me on muscles. “Get the hell off me!” I shouted, my phony accent slipping. “What’s your problem?”
“My problem?” the feyr snarled, his sharp canines gleaming in the sun. “It’ll be your problem when we fetch the magistrate.”
“For what? Giving food to hungry faelets?”
