Page 10 of Shadowed Summer Sun

“I’m sorry. But it was…” As my words died in my throat, a deep warmth spread through my body, strongest at my core. My pulse throbbed, a strange mixture of intrigue and fear lighting up my nerves and making them sing.

I stood, scooping up Badb on my arm and avoiding eye contact with her.

“I know where to go.”

The path through the Green Lands had disappeared once more, but even without the Ol’ Willowies’ light, I reached the Ramshackle Hut in a handful of minutes. Trudging through the bush, the thick undergrowth tore at my legs, but the sting was momentary and dulled. I walked for a length of time I couldn’t place. Hours, minutes?

But then I arrived.

My stomach dropped when I saw the dark home. It was half sunken into the ground and topped with a straw mat roof covered in moss. A dilapidated fence circled the Hut, and on every few posts rested a skull. Both those of beast and man decorated it, and a large, gnarled oak tree dripping in hanged poppets sat just to the side of the decrepit building.

“Oh, come then. What do you bring to Ol’ Jack? What can ye trade?”

I swallowed. Bluestack Jack stood in the doorframe of his home, hunched over and donning a simple farmer’s attire. The truth would serve me best here.

Walking closer to the Hut, I crossed my arms over my chest and met eyes with him. “I seek a bauble and fair trade for one. I am ending the plight that corrupts the land, and a trinket from your keeping seals the spell.”

“There’s no plight that can touch these Green Lands, Summer.” He smiled with too-few teeth and gestured inside. “But I’ll grant your favor if you do so in return.”

A favor exchange from any Fae was a problem, but Bluestack Jack was well known for having a way of making whoever dared enter a bargain with him sorely regret it, his reputation for wicked cunning reaching every practitioner from here to the state line. I clenched my jaw and stood taller.

”Afairbargain, Bluestack Jack. If I do your bidding and carry out your favor, you will give me a bauble worthy of the Invoking spell.”

“Now, how would I be knowing what would serve your spell, a humble man like myself.” He continued to grin maliciously, showing his yellowed teeth as an evil twinkle lit up his gray eyes.

“I’m sure you’re well aware of what I seek to do, having sensed my presence and scared off the Ol’ Willowies leading me here. Have we an accord?” I probed, raising my brows at him.

“A smart girl, ye are. Fine then. Do my favor, complete it in its entirety, and I’ll bestow your precious bauble. It comes in three parts as is the way. Agreed?”

He held out his gangly hand, his graying, old skin pulled taut over his thick Fae bones. Jack may have looked like a withered old man of the hills, but I knew beneath that plastered-on facade was a beast far nastier than a simple Hungry.

Another challenge of three meant I could be here for some time, and I worried that paying too much time to Jack could cost me dearly when facing the final task. A cold wind whipped through the trees, moving a large cloud overhead and darkening this rare clearing within the Green Lands.

The King’s claws found my back, pressing me forward, and I let out a sharp breath.Gods, I know. Sometimes I just need to think, dammit.

I took Bluestack Jack’s hand and shook it. “Agreed.”

“Divine!”

He clapped his hands together, and we were thrust into his Ramshackle Hut. It was dark, lit only by a tiny flame in a pitiful fireplace, and smelled of mud and rot. Badb was nowhere to be seen, and turning, I heard her caw from just outside the door, pecking on it feverishly.

“You’ve locked her out.”

“No need for a crow indoors, deary.” He smirked at me, his lips cracking as they stretched wide.

“Badb!” I shouted to the sealed door, “Find a perch. I won’t be long. You know who to find should the need arise.”

She screeched in begrudging acceptance, and I watched her fly off through one of the small, filthy windows near the door.

Bringing my attention back to Jack, I took in more of the building. It was cramped and dark, standing on rickety walls that shook in the wind. The Fae’s tall form barely fit beneath the domed, earthen ceiling, and it appeared to be just a single circular room.

A straw mat bed lay beside the fireplace, and a wooden box acted as a table at the other end. Tobacco and a brown bottle of liquor sat on the floor next to his meager setup, and piled high on the box was a stack of blue haystalks resembling the poppets hanged from his giant oak.

When I again met his eyes, Bluestack Jack’s evil glee cut me through like a serrated blade. The glamor cloaking his proper form diminished some, and the asphyxiated blue of his skin shone brighter in the dim light.

“Your first task then?” he said gleefully.

“Get on with it, Jack,” I growled in response.

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