Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories Read Online Free

feet slightly, as if half-asleep. She was thinking through the
rote words of a binding spell, to tie the glaistig to her and let her call it whenever
she chose. The difficulty was that she had to touch the creature for the
binding to take effect.
    Within touching distance, the glaistig hesitated,
staring at her. Its eyes threw back the moonlight like the glassy surface of a
pool, but Kade could read confusion and suspicion there.
    Before it could flee, Kade leapt forward and grabbed
its hands. It shrieked in surprise, the shrill piercing cry turning into a
growl. It tried to jerk free and only succeeded in dragging Kade across the
dusty yard.
    Kade stumbled, the gravel tearing into her feet. The
glaistig was a head taller than she and heavier. She dug her heels in and
gasped, “Just tell me why he sent you after my new favorite musician and we’ll
call this done.”
    “Let go!” Far gone in rage, the creature’s voice was
less alluringly female, but far more human.
    Straining to stay on her feet, Kade hoped it didn’t
get the idea to slam her up against the barn or the stone wall of the innyard,
but the creature seemed just as bad at advance planning as she was. “I’m giving
my word. Tell me why he sent you and I’ll let you go!”
    The glamour had dissolved in the struggle, and the
residue of it lay glittering on the earth like solid dewdrops. The glaistig
abruptly stopped struggling to peer at her, confused. “What are you?”
    “I’ve power over all the fay and if you don’t tell me
what I want to know now I’ll bind you to the bottom of the village well in a
barrel with staves and lid of cold iron. Does that tell you who I am?” Kade
snarled. She had no idea if that would tell the glaistig who she was or not. And
with her spell trembling like sinew stretched to the breaking point she couldn’t
have bound a compass needle to true north.
    The glaistig shivered. “He didn’t tell me.”
    “Oh, come now, you can do better than that.” Sweat was
dripping into Kade’s eyes.
    “I don’t know, I don’t know,” it wept, sounding like a
human woman again. “I swear, he told me to come here after the music-maker, he
didn’t tell me why. Do you think he would tell me why? Let me go.”
    Kade released the spell in relief and the glaistig
flung away from her. It stumbled, then fled towards the river in an awkward
loping run. Kade sat down heavily on the dirt. She realized Giles was standing
beside her, that he had been outside watching nearly the entire time.
    He said, “You could have been killed.”
    She got to her feet, legs trembling with strain. “No,
only nibbled on a little.” She shook the dust out of her hair. “I can call that
glaistig back whenever I want it. Though I’m not sure why I would. This all started
out in a very promising way, but Devereux hasn’t tried to fight me, or set me
any puzzles to solve.”
    There was a moment of silence, then Giles said, “What
do you mean?”
    Something in his voice made Kade reluctant to answer. She
watched the glaistig disappear among the trees near the river. Beautiful as it
was, it was still just as empty-headed and perverse as the rest of the fay. It
might guide a child out of the forest or care for elderly fishermen, but it
would certainly kill any young man it could catch.
    Giles asked, “Did he have any reason at all to kill
the potter?”
    “No.” She could all but hear him drawing that last
conclusion. If Giles Verney, balladeer, knew enough about Kade Carrion to
realize that killing the village potter would bring her here, than surely the
local sorcerer would realize it as well.
    “The potter did nothing to him, knew nothing about
him?”
    Kade looked at him, his face a white mask in the
moonlight. “What did you think this was?” she asked quietly.
    “I didn’t think it was a game. I didn’t think he did
it just to get your attention.” He didn’t sound shocked, only resigned.
    With a snort of irony, Kade said, “It’s what we