Page 33 of The Prince or the Bard?
I narrow my eyes at her. “What does that mean, then?”
“I guess when you made the bargain, you lost your willingness to be foolish.”
A shadow falls over me. I glance up, shielding my eyes to view Unagh’s worried face. “That’s it,” my sister says. “That’s why you finally stopped loving Cillian Cloudtongue!”
“I never truly loved him. We barely knew one another. Falling in love as quick as all that would be—”
“Foolish.” Unagh tilts her head, the faint impression of gill slits visible on her neck. “In the letters you wrote to me, it was obvious you were head over heels in love with him.”
“You’re fifteen! What do you know about being in love?”
“I'm sixteen now."
"The question still stands."
Unagh clucks her tongue at me. "I know that it takes a bit of foolishness to make that leap.” Is it my imagination, or does my little sister blush? “Laoise. What if this means you’ll never fall in love again?”
Scoffing, I push the thought aside. But my sister has planted a seed of worry in my mind. What if she’s right?
Ah, but there’s no use fretting about it, is there? I already made the bargain. There’s no way to get my foolishness—or whatever I lost—back.
Niamh twists a tendril of kelp-strewn hair around her finger. “That would explain it, why you were devoted enough to make a bargain for High Queen Fiadh’s sake, and the next thing I hear, you’ve up and quit her service.” She’s frowning, though not quite at me. “I knew something wasn’t right. You’ve never been the inconstant sort.”
I stand up to squeeze the water from my hem one-handed. “Perhaps losing my foolishness is for the best,” I say, then laugh as I adjust my arm in the sling. “I can’t believe I was so madly in love with a bard after only a few months! I bet he had a girl in every town. It’s no surprise at all that he left to find more songs.”
“And what about the prince?” asks a voice.
Out of reflex, my back straightens immediately. I drop my hem, trying to look presentable.
Though she is backlit by the late day sun, I’d know that silhouette anywhere after so many months standing behind her during court dinners. Grasping a walking stick for support, High Queen Fiadh stands just behind my now very pale sister, her eyes darting between me and the beckoning sea. A carriage with four horses, each twice the size of a púca, waits a safe distance from the rocks and sand.
“Your Majesty,” I say, curtsying. “The reports were true. You look exceedingly well.”
“I feel much improved, thanks to you. I wonder, will you walk with me? Perhaps you can show me the location of your future cottage.”
Why is she here? Royalty doesn't just drop by Diarmuid’s Row, even if this particular royal is my cousin.
But I give the only reply I can. “I’d be honored, ma’am.”
With a backward glance at Niamh’s curious face and my sister’s shocked one, I pick my way across the rocks to join the high queen.
“You were starting tocall me Fiadh,” the queen remarks as we stand before the foundation stones of my cottage, "before you left."
“It was always an accident," I reply with an almost wistful smile. "I wouldn’t dream of it now, ma’am.”
The high queen stretches her back. It’s clear the poison hasn’t left her completely. I can see the pain in her face when she walks, and the slowness of her pace. If she shifted into her púca form, I wonder if she’d come up lame.
“You seem different,” Queen Fiadh says.
“So I’m told, ma’am.”
“I’ve often asked, but no one would tell me. What cost did you pay for the faerie clam’s pearl? I fear it was steep—no, I know it was.” The corners of her eyes crinkle, even as the edges of her mouth turn down.
“It’s nothing to worry yourself over, ma’am. I’ve only lost my foolishness. I think.” My hands go to my hips as I inspect the stonemason’s work. “Perhaps it was high time.”
“Your foolishness?” The queen’s voice is so high, I cannot help but turn back to face her. Her eyes are wide, emphasizing the continued gauntness of her face, the sunken hollows of her cheeks. “My dear cousin, this cottage and land cannot begin to repay you for what you’ve give up.”
Though the back of my neck prickles at her words, I try to laugh it off. “I assure you, ma’am, I didn’t even know it was gone until today.”
