The Curse of Gold Page 2

  “Sire?”

  A calculating gleam filled his eyes. I swallowed and buried my hands in my skirt. I hadn’t spun that morning, and my fingertips were burning.

  “How would you like to be part of the royal family? Perhaps marry my son?”

  “Father!”

  Prince Tiergan leaped from his chair and pointed at me.

  “She’s a common wench with a drunkard father. We should throw her out before she taints us with her presence, not invite her to stay.”

  I stepped forward to respond, but the guards by the throne raised their crossbows and pointed them at me. King Banagher waved away their concerns and chuckled.

  “Fine, fine. If you’re so picky, I’ll take her. Miss Emily, spin straw into gold for us, and you’ll be my queen. How does that sound?”

  I sputtered. There were so many things wrong with that plan, I couldn’t settle on just one to protest. The king merely grinned at my outrage.

  “Guards, please escort Miss Emily to her room. We’ll give her a few days to settle in and show us her powers.”

  The courtiers’ hum of conversation drowned out my protests. Guards grabbed my shoulders and pulled me from the room. Not promising treatment for their future queen. What game was the king playing?

  After dragging me up an endless set of stairs, the guards untied my hands, shoved me into a cell, and locked the door behind me. This just got worse and worse. I fought the urge to bang on the door. It wouldn’t do to leave golden handprints on the iron. Instead, I ran to the window on the opposite side of the room and stood on tiptoe to look outside.

  The capital city stretched below me. Everything looked tiny and far away. People bustled through the streets, but I was too high up to see their faces or call for help. Even if I could fit between the bars on the window, there was no way I could escape the tower without falling to my death.

  Although death might be preferable to what the king had planned. I turned from the window to examine the room and scowled. A spinning wheel and a pile of straw sat in the corner. Just the sight of them made my fingers burn.

  So that was it. King Banagher would keep me here until I showed proof of my fae heritage. Then he would marry me to keep the gold in the family.

  Well, I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. Maybe if I convinced him that I couldn’t spin straw to gold, he would let me go.

  But I had to get rid of the magic somehow. I put my hands into my apron pocket to think and brushed against something solid. I pulled out the carved wooden cat that Peter had given me.

  Peter. I couldn’t believe he had let the guards take me like that. He had run away at the first sign of trouble.

  I didn’t expect him to fight a whole group of guards armed with crossbows, but he could have done something. He could at least have met my gaze and not hidden in his house. If he wasn’t brave enough to look me in the eye when I was in distress, there was no way he would have accepted my secret.

  I brushed away tears, angry at myself for crying. The future I had dreamed of was dead, but now was not the time to cry over lost love.

  Now was the time to survive.

  I willed my magic into the cat. Peter had carved it from hard wood and coated it with some sort of varnish. The magic resisted, burning on my fingertips. It was used to slipping into straw over hours of spinning.

  I gritted my teeth and squeezed the cat harder. The burning eased, and I loosened my grip. I had left golden fingerprints on the wood.

  It was a start.

  “Cenzio, Percival, Crinkle.”

  I recited cat names out of habit as I turned the carving over in my fingers and hoped the cat had survived and escaped. There was no chair in the prison room. No furniture of any kind besides the spinning wheel. When the burning became manageable, I buried my hands in my apron and lay on top of the straw to wait.

  I expected someone to check on me, but they left me alone the whole day. They didn’t even bring a meal.

  Maybe they had forgotten about me. I wasn’t sure if I should hope for that or not. On the one hand, that would mean I could avoid the king and whatever fate he had planned for me.

  On the other hand, it meant I would starve.

  The spinning wheel glistened in the moonlight, tempting me. Magic burned in my fingertips, not happy that I was pushing it into a lump of wood instead of pliable straw. The cat felt a little heavier than it had before. Maybe if I turned it to solid gold, I could bribe a guard into letting me go.

  “Meow.”

  I sat up. The sound was raspy and cantankerous and one I knew well.

  “Cat?”

  An uneven purring filled the room. Where was it coming from? I pressed my ear against the iron door, but that wasn’t it.

  Something blocked the window, creating a cat-shaped shadow in the moonlight. I gasped and ran to him.

  The cat perched on the ledge of my cell window, purring and rubbing against the bars as if nothing were wrong. I reached my fingertips through and buried them in his fur, careful not to push him off the edge.

  He purred louder.

  “I’m so glad you’re alright,” I said. “How did you get up here?”

  “It wasn’t easy.”

  I took a step back and stared at the cat.

  “You can speak?”

  The voice chuckled. It wasn’t coming from the cat. He just looked annoyed that I had stopped petting him.

  I stood on tiptoe and leaned my head against the wall to see the side of the tower. I could just make out a masculine silhouette pressed against the stone. It was too dark to see him well, and he wore a black cloak that covered his face.

  “How are you standing there?”

  “Not easily. There’s a small ledge.”

  For the briefest moment, I hoped it was Peter. But the voice was too deep and cold, and Peter wouldn’t know where to find me or how to climb so high.

  “Who are you?”

  “That’s none of your concern.”

  The cat meowed loudly, reminding me that I was failing in my sacred duty to scratch his chin.

  “That creature is persistent,” the man said. “He insisted I bring him up here.”

  “You climbed up this tower to bring my cat to me?”

  The bit of him I could see shrugged.

  “I was coming up anyway.”

  “Why?”

  His grin flashed in the moonlight. It wasn’t particularly friendly.

  “You’re in quite the predicament, aren’t you?” he said. “Spin gold for the king now, and you’ll be spinning for the rest of your life.”

  “I don’t spin straw into gold.”

  “Then you must rely on His Majesty’s mercy when he finds that your father lied.”

  “The king has mercy?”

  “No, he doesn’t.”

  The voice was grim. I shuddered.

  “What can I do?”

  He paused for a moment before saying, “It is a difficult situation.”

  “I already know that! Did you climb all the way up here just to tell me I’m in trouble?”

  He laughed.

  “That would be a foolish thing to do. I came to make a deal.”

  It wasn’t natural, the way he balanced on nothing and glowed in the moonlight. Something shimmered in the air around him. Some kind of magic.

  “You’re fae.”

  I meant it as an accusation, but he took it as a compliment.

  “At your service, miss.”

  He accented his words with a mocking bow. A foolish gesture since he was standing on such a narrow ledge.

  “I don’t trust fae.”

  “Very wise of you, but you don’t have much choice.”

  I swallowed. Unfortunately, he was right. If I wanted to get out of this, I needed help.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “We can discuss terms later.”

  “Absolutely not. We’re discussing terms now.”

  I knew enough about fae to know that was essential. T
heir bargains always held some kind of trick.

  He laughed again. A low, throaty chuckle that almost sounded like a growl.

  “Very wise, Miss Emily. Well? What do you have to offer me?”

  Not much. I turned the question back on him to buy time.

  “What are you offering?”

  “What do you want?”

  Ugh. Talking with a fae was almost as annoying as being one.

  I considered his question. What did I want? It was important that I get this right.

  “I want a normal life. I want to live without worrying about my magic.”

  That seemed impossible, but I might as well ask for the moon if he was offering.

  “A reasonable desire,” he said. “Given some time, I think I can manage that.”

  “I don’t have time.”

  The magic was already burning my fingertips and moving into my hands. I hadn’t been able to push enough of it into the cat to keep it from building.

  “The king will wait a few days for the promise of unlimited gold. Tell him you need finer straw. Or that you can only spin gold with your own wheel. Delay him, and I will find a way to help you escape.”

  “I told you, I can’t spin straw to gold.”

  “Very well. If you insist on telling that fiction, then I can help with the deception.”

  “And what do you want in return?”

  “I will require something from you each night we meet, and I will not name those things in advance. If you find any of my requests unreasonable, you may refuse me and end our contract. Do we have a deal?”

  “Those are horrible terms. How do I know you won’t ask for something exorbitant?”

  “Oh, you don’t. That’s what makes it an excellent bargain for me. Go ahead. Turn me down if you like. I’m sure you can find someone else to help you.

  He grinned again. I gritted my teeth.

  “I think I’m going to regret this.”

  “Quite possibly.”

  He held his hand out towards me. It was smooth and elegant. Silver rings glittered on his fingers. I reached around the cat and took it.

  The fae’s skin was cold to the touch. It cooled the burning from my magic like nothing else ever had. I gasped, and his grin said he had known all along this would happen. I stood on tiptoe so I could get closer, and he spread his fingers so our palms pressed together.

  My hand looked tiny and rough compared to his. I had callouses from the constant spinning and freckles from days spent in the sun before my curse. He intertwined his fingers with mine and squeezed my hand. The cooling sensation spread down my arm until I shivered from a chill.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I felt cold.

  He tried to pull his hand away, but I clung to it, afraid the burning would return the moment we lost contact.

  “I must go before the guards begin their next patrol,” he said.

  “But I haven’t given you anything in return.”

  “Haven’t you?”

  He pulled his hand away and twirled his fingers in the moonlight. Gold rings glittered against his silvery skin.

  “I thank you for your gift of gold,” he said.

  So that was it, then. Why did everyone want the same thing from me? Why did everyone think gold was the most important thing in the world?

  “By the way, what is the cat’s name?” he asked. “I feel rather foolish simply calling him cat.”

  “He doesn’t have a name. Nothing ever stuck.”

  “No? Well, you should keep trying. Names are important to the fae. Very important.”

  Then he scooped the cat up in his elegant hands and disappeared.

  The night grew colder, and I blamed my lack of sleep on the lack of a blanket. I spent hours drifting to sleep only to wake up shivering. I considered burrowing in the pile of straw but didn’t want to risk turning anything to gold by accident. The light streaming through my window gradually turned from silver to pink to gold, but the chill remained.

  Maybe I had been foolish to make a deal with a fae. They weren’t to be trusted. I closed my eyes to block out the sunlight and drifted to sleep again.

  I awoke to the sound of wood scraping rock and sat up. Sleeping on straw had left me stiff and itchy. I was hungry and tired and cold.

  And I forgot about all of that when King Banagher walked into the room.

  He scowled at the pile of straw as if it were a personal insult.

  “Miss Emily, you haven’t even tried. Isn’t the spinning wheel fine enough for you?”

  The midnight visitor had given me courage I hadn’t possessed the day before in the throne room. He would help me if I could only delay the king a few days. I stood and brushed off my skirt.

  “Sire, I did try to tell you. I can’t spin straw to gold. I am sorry my father lied to you.”

  Any hints of friendliness left the king’s face.

  “Miss Emily, your father has been selling the most unusual golden items in the marketplace with no explanation as to where he obtained them. It made us suspicious.”

  Da. How stupid had he been?

  King Banagher’s eyes glittered with malice.

  “In the end, we assumed they were stolen. Theft of gold is a capital offense.”

  I swallowed.

  “And I’m sure my father will understand that when you bring him to trial.”

  “Oh no, Miss Emily, he’s already had his trial. You see, I offered to pardon your father if he told us where he really found the gold, and he told us about his accomplice who provided everything. He told us about you.”

  “Surely you don’t mean-“

  “You stand under trial for theft of gold. Prove your innocence by showing you obtained this gold through magical means, or you will be executed tomorrow morning.”

  King Banagher stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. A guard brought a bowl of burned oatmeal for me. It was disgusting, but I ate the whole thing, wrapping my hand in my apron to avoid touching the spoon.

  Then I paced the floor, trying to think. My cell still felt cold, and the exercise did nothing to warm me.

  Spinning gold for the rest of my life was preferable to losing my life, wasn’t it? I gagged at the thought of marriage to the king, but it was preferable to death.

  I glared at the pile of straw. It would only take a few hours to spin it to gold. Should I?

  Or should I rely on a mysterious fae who hadn’t said how he would help and didn’t have the decency to outline the terms of our deal?

  Anyway, he said he needed a few days to free me. I hadn’t been able to buy that kind of time.

  I didn’t trust fae. I didn’t trust humans either, but at least I knew what to expect from them. As long as I could make gold, I had leverage. I picked up a piece of straw and ran my fingers over it, accepting my fate.

  Nothing happened. That was when I realized my fingers weren’t burning. They should be burning by now.

  I grabbed a fistful of straw and tried to spin it to gold. The straw splintered and broke and nothing magical happened.

  I shivered. It was afternoon, and sunlight filled my tower cell. It should be warm. I should be warm. I should be burning, but I wasn’t.

  I stared at my hands in horror. The fae had taken my magic.

  The sound of purring woke me up. I jumped off the straw and ran to the window.

  “How dare you?”

  The cat squinted at me, trying to figure out why I was offended but not really caring. I scratched him behind the ears as I pressed myself against the wall to glare at the fae.

  Whatever he felt at my accusation, he didn’t show it.

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  “You took my magic!”

  He held one of his elegant hands up to the moonlight. Gold glittered across his skin.

  “You said you wanted to live as a normal human and not have your magic cause trouble. I thought you’d be pleased.”

  “You didn’t think about me at all. King Banagher wil
l kill me if I don’t spin gold for him.”

  “Is that so?”

  He didn’t sound at all surprised.

  “You knew!”

  “I told you the king had no mercy.”

  “So you’re going to let me die?”

  The words came out as a kind of rasp as I fought back tears. The fae leaned forward and met my gaze with brilliant silver eyes.

  “Of course not. I said I would help you.”

  “I don’t trust you.”

  “Very wise of you. I don’t trust anyone.”

  He held his hand towards me, then pulled it away.

  “Are you sure this is what you want? Last night, your greatest desire was to be a normal human. You’ll never be that if you have magic.”

  I thought of my life as a human so far. Of my friends in the village who hadn’t come to visit me once when I was unable to leave the house. Of Peter, who hadn’t lifted a finger to help me when I was in trouble. Of Da betraying me to the king to save his own skin.

  “I don’t want to be human.”

  I wasn’t sure what I did want, but I didn’t want that. Not anymore.

  “Then let’s make a trade.”

  “We already made a trade. You said you would help me and took my powers in return.”

  “I gave you what you asked for. If you’ve changed your mind about what you want, that means it’s time for a new bargain.”

  “But you didn’t help me. You still owe me. Give me my magic back, and we’ll call it even.”

  “Oh no, that’s not how this works. If you want your magic, I need something in return.”

  “You’re insufferable.”

  I reached into my pocket and held up the wooden cat. Other than the clothes on my back, it was all I had to offer.

  “It’s almost solid gold,” I said. “Worth a small fortune.”

  He shook his head.

  “I don’t care about gold.”

  “That’s impossible. Everyone cares about gold.”

  He shrugged. This was just my luck. I finally found someone not interested in gold when gold was all I had to offer.

  “You have other things of worth,” he said.

  I shrank back a little. What exactly was he after?

  “This magic is worth your life,” he said. “So it must be traded for something equally valuable.”