The Story of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book One

Chapter Twenty-One

When I returned to my room, I found two things. First, Luke had placed a pile of books on my desk that was so tall it threatened to fall over. The second was the backpack I'd tossed in San Francisco.

My banmuinen and I sat away from the bag as it lay there on the bed. I explained to them what the bag was and who gave it to me.

"Should we get the guards to take this bag and destroy it?" Elsie asked.

"There might be a spell on the bag," Jeanne whispered.

Beth was still not speaking to anyone. However, she looked pretty worried I was going to make her open it, and believe me, I thought about it. However, since Luis hadn't stormed in here, I figured out it would not kill me. 

I also realized that it represented another gift I foolishly took from a Fae. Years of my mother's training fled just because family and friends charmed me. She'd drilled into me to never accept gifts without asking what they want in return and don't say thank you. That gift on the bed had bound me just as the box of jewels and the key had bound me. To break the geas on me, I must offer something more valuable in return. I had no idea what that would be. I decided to be the brave one and approached the bag with a letter opener I'd taken from the desk.

I poked the bag and jumped back to stand on the chair. The other women all squeaked and cringed.

Nothing happened, of course. I blew out an embarrassed breath and hopped down from the chair. Then I inched towards the backpack and sat down next to it.

"Oh be careful, My Lady!" Jeanne squawked.

Seeing that I was still not dead, I risked opening the bag. Everything that Mike had given me was in the bag, along with the cherry cokes I'd lobbed at my kidnappers. They had no dents.

"We should get rid of it, My Lady," Elsie advised me once more.

"Can't..." I mumbled, my lips twisting, appreciating the irony of gifts I couldn't give away. "It's a gift from a Fae."

"Oh, dear..." Jeanne put her hands against her heart in dismay.

"Try pouring salt on it."

I looked up from the bag in surprise at Beth's suggestion. It was a good idea.

"Why are you helping me?"

She looked away from my stare. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I'm not happy about this. Erick was mine, but I did something horrible to you when we were kids because I was jealous. You should execute me... but you haven't, My-My Lady." She swallowed and grimaced as she said the honorific. Must have tasted like earwax in her mouth to say it.

It wasn't much of an apology, but I wasn't ready to accept one anyway. "I should, but I won't."

Elsie scoffed. "You made a geas with Our Lady when you agreed to be her banmuinen. Nothing is yours unless she allows it."

Wait. What? I closed my eyes and shook my head. Never mind. It wasn't the time right then to explore that statement. "Do we have any salt?" 

"I can go check with Danela, My Lady," Elsie said turning to me with a beaming expression as though she expected head pats for giving Beth a dressing-down.

"Great, th-uh-go do that." I winced as I almost thanked Elsie.

She left to go check and we all sat there staring at the bag until she got back. It had remained stationary and didn't eat one of us — not even Beth.

There are truths about Faery-lore that I learned from many trips to the library, and at my mother's knee. Yarrow is poisonous to the Fae, for instance. I'd found out that the knife Joseph had cut me with was dipped in yarrow when Luis learned of my symptoms.