The Wish Granter di J. Redwine

Ready for our next read? Get ready for an epic, romantic, and action-packed fantasy inspired by the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, about a bastard princess who must take on an evil fae to save her brother's soul. It's The Wish Granter from from New York Times bestselling author C. J. Redwine and it's this week's FIRST5 pick!   FOUR   IT HAD BEEN two days since the coronation ball, and Ari still hadn’t found a minute alone with Thad. Instead, she’d been trapped into sessions with the palace seamstress, who was measuring her for her fall wardrobe, afternoon tea with the nobility who’d stayed on at the palace for a few days after the ball before returning to their distant cities, and long discussions with the palace steward about managing the things usually delegated to the queen. She didn’t know which was worse—the nonstop burden of princessy expectations that were (almost) ruining her appetite or the bright flare of panic that stole her breath and sent her pulse thundering in her ears when she thought about Thad being indebted to the strange man who’d crashed the ball. If she could just do something about it—get to the bottom of whatever was going on and make a plan to deal with it—she’d feel better. Instead, on the morning of the third day after the ball, Ari found herself seated beside Thad on the royal platform in the palace’s Assembly hall, surrounded by a crowd of royally appointed nobles whose job was to bring their city’s needs to the king. Judging by the lengthy list of discussion topics the Assembly had submitted to Thad, there was a lot that needed his attention. Ari could think of something that needed his attention too, and since this was the first time her brother had slowed down long enough to be in the same room with her for more than a few seconds, she was going to make the most of it. As pages drew the sea-gold curtains to let the morning sun in, and members of the Assembly broke away from their clustered conversational groups and headed toward their assigned seats at the enormous U-shaped table that lined the room, Ari leaned toward Thad. “Put me on your schedule.” A frown puckered his brow, and he looked up from the list of discussion topics. “What for?” Oh please. As if he didn’t know. “For the talk we need to have.” She gave him a look that dared him to pretend ignorance. He pretended anyway. “What talk?” “Don’t play dumb.” She lowered her voice when she realized that Ajax, the head of Thad’s personal security detail, was standing in earshot just to her brother’s right. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” “We don’t need to have a talk right now.” He looked down at the topics on the parchment in front of him. “We have bigger problems.” “Bigger problems than your debt to a fae who threatened to kill you if you don’t do what he says?” Her voice was bright panic laced with anger. “I don’t think so.” “Keep your voice down,” he whispered as he pushed the Assembly’s list toward her. “Look at these.” She glanced at the parchment and then looked back at him. “What does that have to do with anything?” “Did you read any of it?” “In the half a second I took to look at the thing my brother is trying to use to distract me from the discussion we need to have? No.” She glared at him. He took a deep breath as if reaching for patience and said quietly, “All right. We’ll have that talk. Soon. But right now I need you to see that our kingdom has bigger problems it needs us to deal with.” He pointed to an item on the list. “The western cities are being raided by bands of what they assume are refugees fleeing the unrest in Akram. They need extra protection.” She followed his finger as he tapped another item. “Export sales of food remain strong, but our own people are buying less of everything our merchants offer. That means either their coin is going to something else, or they lack confidence in me as a leader and feel the need to save their coin in case I send our economy into ruin.” “Or the nobility who distrust how the royal family died and who don’t think you’re old enough to make a good king are fabricating these reports in order to spread rumors of instability that doesn’t exist,” Ari said. He gave her an approving nod. “Right. So our job today is to listen carefully, to take action where we’re sure it’s needed, and to send reliable people to research the reports we can’t verify. And we have to do it all without giving anyone in the Assembly more cause to worry about our leadership.” She drew back as the last of the crowd found their seats and whispered, “Your leadership. I’m just a reluctantly official princess who’d rather be baking.” The head of the Assembly stood and called for the room to come to order as Thad leaned close and said, “They need to see you as capable of ruling too. Just in case. We’re in this together, right?” She nodded, though the slash of panic in her chest was stealing her breath. Just in case. Just in case Thad got on Alistair Teague’s bad side. Just in case he didn’t survive. The head of the Assembly gave Thad the floor, and he began moving down the items on the list, calling on each representative to explain in detail what his or her city needed from the king. Roads to the south had been nearly washed away by spring storms and needed to be repaired. Merchants from the north were concerned that the prices of merchants in the south—with their easy access to ships and tourists—were fixed low enough to drive the northern merchants out of business. Slums were growing. Jobs were declining. And everyone agreed that the introduction of apodrasi some months ago was to blame for much of the poverty and crime that was spreading across Súndraille. Ari wondered how long it would be before the king’s decision to pull the city guard from Kosim Thalas’s merchant district made its way onto an Assembly discussion list. It had only been three days since Teague’s demand and already representatives from the capital were murmuring about a spike in violent crime. The meeting went on for hours. Ari tried to pay attention. She nodded at the appropriate times and jotted notes on blank parchment, but between speakers, her thoughts returned to Thad’s debt to Teague and the danger he posed to her brother. All she really knew was that Teague was fae, Thad had made a deal with him, Teague had threatened Thad’s life if the king didn’t order the city guard to stand down in Kosim Thalas, and Thad had been scared enough to obey. And if Thad—responsible, always-serious-about-his-royal-duties Thad—was scared enough to leave parts of Kosim Thalas unprotected, then she was scared too. She needed a plan. She needed to do something to keep her brother safe, but until she learned the truth of his dealings with Teague, she didn’t have much to go on. As the Assembly broke for lunch and the representatives moved toward a side room where a buffet had been laid out for them, Ari turned toward Thad, a question already on her lips, only to find that he was already striding away, his head bent toward Ajax’s as they discussed something. She hoped he was discussing how to keep a creepy fae from coming onto the palace grounds and not just running away from the conversation he needed to have with his sister. This was beginning to feel like that time he’d broken her vintage vase from Loch Talam—a gift from the visiting king who didn’t realize Ari wasn’t usually treated like royalty—and then tried his best to avoid her for over a week before finally confessing to the deed. Ari turned and surveyed the room as it slowly emptied. If Thad wouldn’t give her information, then she’d just have to find someone who would. Maybe she couldn’t get the details of Thad’s connection to Teague, but she could figure out how to deal with the fae. She scanned the representatives who still lingered until she caught sight of a tall woman with a sturdy build, graying black hair, and dimples in her cheeks. Lady Tassi was one of two representatives from the city of Efesnero, which had the port closest to the fae isle of Llorenyae. If anyone in the crowd knew how to keep a dangerous fae from entering the palace grounds, she would. “Lady Tassi,” she called as she stood and made her way off the platform. “Yes, Your Highness?” Lady Tassi’s voice was soft and soothing, and for a bittersweet moment it reminded Ari of her mother’s. Quickly swallowing against the sudden ache in her throat, Ari approached the noblewoman. “I wondered if you might eat lunch with me today.” Lady Tassi covered the quick flash of surprise on her face with a formal curtsy. “Of course, Your Highness. Shall I get us both a plate of food? The buffet room is a bit crowded, and I’m afraid some of the Assembly members are more interested in questioning you on recent events than in letting you have the time to eat.” Ari gave the buffet room a side glance and conceded the point. She’d never work her way through that crowd in time to question Lady Tassi about the fae. “Thank you. I’ll wait for you on the platform. You can use Thad’s chair.” If Lady Tassi thought it was strange to be offered the king’s seat at the royal table, she gave no indication. Instead, she disappeared into the buffet room and returned within moments bearing two full plates of food. Ari smiled as Lady Tassi set the plates down and sat. “It looks delicious. Thank you.” “May I ask why you honored me with this invitation?” The noblewoman raised a bit of braised beef to her lips. Ari searched her face, but there was no animosity. No calculation. Just curiosity, a trait Ari could appreciate. Lady Tassi had impressed Ari as someone who’d remained above the speculation and unrest regarding Thad’s kingship. She hoped that meant the woman would be willing to speak frankly with Ari. Deciding honesty would be the quickest way to the answers she sought, she said, “I invited you to lunch with me because I have questions about the fae, and I figured since you live close to them, you might have answers.” Lady Tassi dabbed her lips with a napkin. “We live close enough to have a few dealings with them each year. Is the king interested in developing a trade treaty with the fae courts in Llorenyae?” “Possibly,” Ari said as she brushed extra sugar off a persimmon cookie. “Our concern is the fae who can do dangerous magic. Not little magic, like the stories of the fae who can grow flowers or change the weather, but powerful fae. The creatures in children’s myths, such as the Wish Granter or the Warrior of the Winter Court.” “All of them can do magic.” Lady Tassi reached for her glass of cherry cider. “But of course the older ones or those born with special abilities have much more power.” How much power did Teague have? Could every fae shut a door with the snap of its fingers? “Well, then how do we keep the palace safe in case a member of the fae courts decides to use magic against us?” Ari leaned forward, eager for the answer, but when Lady Tassi gave her a quizzical look, the princess grabbed a skewer of honey-roasted peaches as if that had been her goal all along. Until she figured out the exact details of Thad’s dealings with Teague, she couldn’t let anyone suspect the king was tangled up with one of the fae. Especially if someone connected the rise in crime in Kosim Thalas to the king’s strange reluctance to send the city guard to patrol its busiest streets. “For safety measures, we put iron fences around our estates and keep iron weapons handy, and we keep some bloodflower poison handy. The combination is enough to weaken or even kill most fae, though of course we aren’t trying to kill anyone we’re in business with.” Lady Tassi nodded a greeting at a passing nobleman while Ari’s mind latched onto these new pieces of information. She couldn’t put up an iron fence without attracting attention, both from Teague and from the citizens of Kosim Thalas, and she didn’t want to advertise the fact that they were trying to keep out a member of the fae. Iron weapons and bloodflower poison, however, she could manage. Thad was hiring a slew of new employees that afternoon to replace those who’d decided they no longer wished to work at the palace in the service of their new king. Most of the staff who’d left had been old enough to retire anyway, and Thad had settled a decent pension on all of them, no questions asked. Once Thad had a new weapons master in charge of maintaining the armory, she could gather some iron scraps from the smithy and commission some weapons. And she could make some sort of excuse for going to the merchant district in Kosim Thalas without Mama Eleni—that woman’s watchful eye would make asking her favorite spice merchant about poison absolutely impossible unless Ari wanted to explain herself to the woman who now saw her as a girl in need of a mother’s guiding hand. As Lady Tassi and the other representatives returned to their seats and Thad entered the room to finish the last nine items on the docket, Ari turned to a fresh sheet of parchment and began making a short list of things she needed. Iron. Bloodflower poison. An excuse that Mama Eleni would accept. Maybe a book or two on the fae so that she could learn more about how they worked and how to deal with them. And, of course, a new weapons master capable of turning her iron into dangerous weapons. Ari stared at her list, thoughts racing, and let the rest of the discussion slip past her. She had a starting point now. And by the time she cornered Thad and made him tell her the whole truth, she’d be well on her way to being able to protect her brother. Copyright © 2017 by C. J. Redwine