the exact notes of his delivery on a music sheet. I still wished I could see his face, and watch the expressions he was sending my way.
He let out a heavy sigh. “Listen, I know you don’t like the idea of me, but you must trust me enough to tell me more about your condition.”
“Why do you think I know any more than I already told you?”
“Because no one blindly trips into magical situations. Whatever you did, whoever you crossed, I need to know the specifics.”
“Why? Why is that important?”
“Why?” He scratched his stubble with a scoff. “You must have hit your head harder than I thought falling off that horse. But to spell it out—if I’m to help you, I need to know what your problem really is.”
I was halfway to a resounding insult when the second half of his statement wormed its way past my burning ears.
“You—you want to help me?” I stuttered, the last two words rising to a squeak.
“I can’t just leave you like this, can I?”
“You can, actually,” I mumbled miserably. “Everyone else has.”
“I’m betting everyone else couldn’t reach you to start with,” he reasoned smugly. “Thanks to those gigantic briars that look like they’ve burst forth from the Underworld.”
The Underworld. I could be halfway to being dragged down there, leaving my soulless body well and truly dead.
Oblivious to my reigniting panic, he went on, “It would be helpful to find out why you were put here to begin with. Whenever I’ve heard of girls locked in towers, there was usually a covetous dragon or a deranged witch in the area. An active threat, so to speak.”
“I’m here for safekeeping, I suppose.”
He made an impatient noise. “Clearly. Any other information you’re willing to share? It could be vital.”
“Are you seriously going to try and help me?”
“I’m not saying it is my first priority, since I already have one, but I will come back to…” He stopped, reaching into his hood to scratch his head. “No. That wouldn’t work. You could be beyond saving by the time I return. Which means I’ll have to do something now. I need to figure out a way to get your body out of here, but with that infernal cage of briars, it will be tricky, to put it mildly.”
I was again stunned silent as he continued muttering to himself, trying to work out the logistics of my situation. This scourge of nobility actually seemed as invested in my predicament almost as my own brother had been.
He was serious about helping me.
“Maybe I should try to clear a way through those briars using my newly acquired loot.”
I came back to myself with a start, his words another rush of disappointment. “Don’t bother. No weapons have proved effective so far. In fact, the more anyone tried to cut them down, the denser they grew.”
He patted his bag, clanging the weapons inside. “But no one had anything like these beauties. According to legend, either King Herla and his men took them to Faerie with them, and they were affected by the magic there, or they were originally from there. Either way, I bet they’d cut through Faerie magic, not to mention prove useful in my journey. Though…”
“What?” I rasped, even when I dreaded hearing his qualification.
He sighed. “Moving your body isn’t a good idea. I should leave it here where it’s safe, while I go in search for the means to wake you up.”
“You won’t find any!” I cried out. “Just get me out of here!”
He just shook his head. “Even if I do, I can’t possibly cart your body around Faerie.”
I gaped at him. “You’re going to Faerie?”
“This was my last stop before I headed there.”
And if he went into Faerie, with the way time passed differently from our realm, it might be ages before he came back. If he came back at all. I would literally be the fabled beauty sleeping in the tower. If I weren’t long dead and rotting in eternal torment in the Underworld.
My shoulders slumped under the weight of resettling despair. “I suppose you’re going there to pester their monarchs, and relieve them of their fairy gold.”
He snorted. “That’s not the goal, even if I’m not against the idea of picking up anything useful I stumble upon.”
“What’s the goal if not fairy treasure, then?”
“I’m going to pursue the Wild Hunt.” He slung the bag across his shoulder, clattering the weapons noisily. “They took someone from me, and I’m going to get her back.”