Will closed his hand into a fist, and the limnthal vanished from sight. “It isn’t for sale. Useful or not, it’s the last thing he gave me.”
Aislinn seemed to relax. “Very well, Grandson. I will respect his discernment in deciding to give it to you, but you have chosen a hard road for yourself.”
His face showed surprise at the word ‘grandson,’ and Aislinn laughed.
“Don’t think too much on my acknowledgment,” said his grandmother. “The fact remains that I will not hesitate to take everything you have if you make a mistake, William. Never forget that.”
For a moment he could feel a sense of alien malice radiating from her, but rather than creating fear, it engendered a feeling of sadness in him. How terrible it would be, to have once been a woman who loved and was loved, only to be consumed by a magic that rendered you incapable of anything but hunger and cold logic. Aislinn must have seen the emotion on his face, for she looked away then, unwilling to meet the pity in his eyes.
“I only have one thing more to ask of you, William,” she said. “Bring me his body if you have it.”
“What do you want it for?” he asked suspiciously.
His grandmother laughed. “Nothing malign. I only wish to say my farewells, to bury him in the place where we first met.”
It seemed fitting, but though it went against his human decency, he asked, “What will you give me in exchange?”
Aislinn smiled. “He would be proud of you. What do you wish?”
“My mother and cousin are living in his house, but there are soldiers from Darrow in the village. Can you protect them?”
“I will not go near the house,” said his grandmother. “The creature that owns it and the land it sits upon is not kindly disposed toward the fae, but I can ensure that no enemy finds it. Will that suffice?”
She’s afraid of the goddamn cat? thought Will. How can that be? “That will be good enough,” he told her. “Do you know what the cat is?”
“It is a cat, of the worst kind,” she answered. “It is not my place to speak of it.”
Chapter 29
The sky was beginning to lighten when Will returned to the old shack. His grandfather’s body was still on the porch, but as he started to drag it away a thought occurred to him. Going inside, he returned to the bedroom and opened the blanket chest at the foot of the bed and removed Aislinn’s pillow.
“William?” It was his mother. She lifted her head groggily. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll explain at breakfast. I’m going to cook something nice,” he told her. “Go back to sleep. It isn’t even dawn yet.”
Erisa’s head flopped back down and she closed her eyes. “That’s nice,” she mumbled.
Outside again, he tucked the pillow under one arm and lifted Arrogan by his shoulders so he could drag him into the forest. His grandfather felt heavier than he had the day before, and he was grateful when Aislinn and Tailtiu appeared after he had gone only a hundred yards. Aislinn’s expression was unreadable as she stared down on the man who had once been her husband, then she noticed the pillow under Will’s arm.
“Is that…”
He handed the embroidered pillow to her. “I think you should have this. He wouldn’t let anyone else use it.”
The fae woman accepted it so carefully it seemed as though she feared it would fall apart at a touch. “I can’t believe it still exists,” she muttered. “It should have rotted away by now.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. Whether Arrogan had used magic to preserve it he had no way of knowing. “The needlework is very fine. You must have put a lot of time into it.”
She shook her head. “You’re mistaken. This was his present to me.”
His jaw dropped. “Grandfather made it?” He struggled to reconcile the lace and fine embroidery with his memory of the cranky old man.
“He was a tailor’s apprentice when I found him,” said Aislinn softly.
Feeling awkward, Will didn’t know what to say, so he stood silently for a while. Looking down on his grandfather’s bundled form, he made a quiet goodbye. I hope this is what you’d have wanted. Eventually he nodded to them and began to turn away. “I should go.”
“Wait,” said Aislinn firmly. “There has been no payment for this.” She lifted the pillow in her hands.
“It’s a gift,” said Will.
“Then I must give you a gift in return,” she replied. “Hold out your hand.”
He shook his head. “That’s not how gifts work.”
Tailtiu spoke for the first time in almost an hour. “The nature of our existence requires it.”
Aislinn took his hand and held it up, placing the palm of her own right hand beside it. Another limnthal appeared in the air above her skin. “Call your mark forth, William, so I can make the exchange.”
He did, and a second later he felt something pass between the two spells, as though some energy had transferred from one to the other. “What did you do?”
“You returned his first gift to me, so I have given you the second gift that he gave me,” she answered. “You may find it useful someday.”
Curious and frustrated, he asked again, “But what is it?”
“A small thing,” said his grandmother. “Once you learn to use your magic, you’ll understand.”
His jaw clenched. “But I’ll never learn. I don’t have a teacher.”
Aislinn laughed, long and hard, as though he had said the most humorous thing she had ever heard. “The limnthal you bear is the first to have been granted since Valmon received his over four hundred years ago. You will live a very long life, William Cartwright, if you can keep from getting killed. You will have many teachers, and before your fate is done you will change the world.” Leaning forward, she kissed his forehead before he could react. Unlike before, when Tailtiu had kissed him, he didn’t grow weak. Instead he felt a faint tingling on his skin. “This is my blessing, invisible to most, but the fae will recognize it. If you deal with others of my kind it may save you from a foolish bargain.”
Turning away, she gestured at Arrogan’s body, and a spell ran from her fingers to touch his cold flesh. The body floated up from the ground and followed her as she and her daughter retreated deeper into the forest. Will watched them go, rubbing at his forehead, which itched strangely. He didn’t know what to think of what had happened, so after a few moments, he turned back toward the shack that was now his only home.
***
“This is incredible,” said Sammy, shoving her mouth full of egg toast. “How did you make it taste like this? Even Momma’s isn’t this…” Her voice stopped suddenly, and her face wrinkled as she fought back tears.
Erisa started talking, keeping her voice even. “Will’s teacher was a very good cook. I learned a lot when I stayed with him before Will was born, even though he didn’t let me cook very often.”
That struck Will as odd, since he had been forced to cook the majority of the time. “Why didn’t he let you cook more?”
His mother scrunched up her face. “He said I’d poison my unborn child, among other things, most of which are too rude to say in front of Samantha.”