“Sorry for interrupting your playtime,” Elora spoke from behind us. Her voice wasn’t that loud, but somehow it seemed to echo through everything.
Rhys and Rhiannon immediately stopped their fighting, both of them sitting up rigidly and staring down at the pond. Finn moved away from me, at the same time turning around to face Elora, making it look like that had been his intention. The way she looked at me made me feel guilty, even though I was pretty sure I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“You weren’t interrupting anything,” Finn assured her, but I sensed nervousness below his calm words. “Were you planning to join us?”
“No, that’ll be quite all right.” Elora surveyed the garden with distaste. “I needed to speak with you.”
“Would you like us to be excused?” Rhys offered, and Rhiannon promptly stood up.
“That won’t be necessary.” Elora held up her hand, and Rhiannon blushed as she sat back down. “We will be having guests for dinner.” Her eyes went back to Rhys and Rhiannon, and Rhiannon seemed to cower under Elora’s gaze. “I trust that you two will find a way to make yourselves useful.”
“When they come over here, I’ll go over to Rhiannon’s,” Rhys suggested cheerily. Elora nodded at him, indicating that his response was sufficient.
“As for you, you will be joining us.” Elora smiled at me, but couldn’t mask the unease behind it. “The guests are very good friends of our family, and I expect you to make a good impression on them.” She gave Finn that intense look, staring at him so long I felt uncomfortable, and he nodded in understanding. “Finn will be in charge of preparing you for the dinner.”
I nodded, figuring that I had better say something. “Okay.”
“That is all. Carry on.” Elora turned and walked away, her skirt flowing behind her, but nobody said anything until she was long gone.
Finn sighed, and Rhiannon practically shivered with relief. She was clearly even more terrified of the Queen than I was, and I wondered what Elora had done to make the girl so afraid. Only Rhys seemed to shake it off as soon as she had left.
“I don’t know how you can stand that creepy mind-speak thing she does with you, Finn.” Rhys shook his head. “I would freak out if she was in my head.”
“Why? There’s nothing in your head for her to get into.” Finn stood up, and Rhiannon giggled nervously.
“What did she say to you, anyway?” Rhys pressed, looking up at him.
Finn dusted off his pants, ridding them of dirt and leaves from the bench, but he didn’t respond.
“Finn? What’d she say?”
“It’s nothing to concern yourself with,” Finn admonished him quietly, then turned to me. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“We have a lot to go over.” He glanced warily at the house, then back at me. “Come on. We better get started.”
As we walked back to the house, I realized that whenever Elora left, I was able to breathe again. Whenever she was present, it was as if she took all the oxygen from the room. Breathing deeply, I ran my hand up and down my arm to stifle the chill that ran over me.
“Are you holding up all right?” Finn asked, noticing my unease.
“Yeah, I’m great.” I tucked some of my curls behind my ears. “So . . . what’s going on with you and Elora?”
“What do you mean?” Finn looked at me from the corner of his eye.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, thinking of what Rhys had said after she’d left. “It just seems like she looks at you intently a lot, and like you understand exactly what she means.” As soon as it came out of my mouth, it dawned on me. “That’s one of her abilities, isn’t it? Talking inside your head? Kind of like what I can do, but less manipulative. ’Cause she’s just telling you what to do.”
“Not even telling me what to do. She’s just talking,” Finn corrected me.
“Why doesn’t she talk to me like that?” I asked.
“She wasn’t sure if you’d be receptive. If you’re not accustomed to it, hearing another person’s voice in your head can be unsettling. And she didn’t really need to.”
“But she needed to with you?” I slowed down, and he matched my pace. “She was talking to you privately about me, wasn’t she?”
Finn paused, and I could see that he was considering lying to me. “Some of it, yes,” he admitted.
“Can she read minds?” I felt slightly horrified at the thought.
“No. Very few can.” When he looked over at me, he smiled crookedly. “Your secrets are safe, Wendy.”
We went into the dining room, and Finn set about preparing me for dinner. As it turned out, I wasn’t completely socially stunted and had a basic understanding of manners. Most of what Finn said amounted to commonsense things, like always say please and thank you, but he also encouraged me to keep my mouth shut whenever possible.