“Ill-nurtured harpy!” Esmeralda swore. “The pox on you lot and your favors. What do you want?”
Reagan grinned. “The pox is of little concern to me, Montoya.” She rubbed her hands together. “A promise that you will grant me a moderate-sized favor of my choosing.”
“A small favor.”
The troll shook her head. “She is the wife of the heir to the throne. This is no small thing.” A dark smile touched her lips. “His Majesty has hanged you humans for less.”
I gasped, but Esmeralda didn’t blink. “A quick enough death, in the scheme of things.”
“For you, perhaps,” Reagan said, rubbing her hands together. “You are a fragile creature, human.” Her gaze flickered past me to élise. “Tell me, girl, how long did it take for the last half-breed to die? How long did he hang from the noose, his better half clinging to life while his human half dragged him towards death?”
The silence grew and I shuddered.
“Six days,” Reagan said, answering her own question. “And I rather think one of his fellow sympathizers put him out of his misery.” She chuckled. “In fact, I think I’ve reconsidered. It will take a large favor for me to excuse myself from this conversation.”
Esmeralda’s voice was grim. “And buy your silence that a conversation took place at all.”
The troll considered the arrangement and nodded. “Done.”
A prickle of power ran across my skin and, without another word, she hobbled awkwardly towards the back room, bright yellow skirts brushing against the cane she used.
“You should have negotiated specifics,” élise said tonelessly. “Leaving it open-ended was a large concession.”
The whole exchange was disturbing and bizarre to me, which must have been apparent to the others by the expression on my face. “Trolls value favors even more than they value gold,” Esmeralda explained. “When they make a promise to do something, they must fulfill it, no matter what the cost to them, which is why they almost never promise anything for nothing.”
“You cannot break a promise to a troll, Aunty,” élise warned. “She will extract her pound of flesh when you least expect it, mark my words.”
I blinked. “You’re related?” And what could be so important to tell me that was worth the bargain that had just taken place?
“Aye,” Esmeralda admitted. “My fool of a sister fell in love with one of them. Only good thing to come of it was the girls.”
“She married a troll willingly?” I could not keep the astonishment from my voice. She’d told me trolls couldn’t marry humans, but how else…
“Not married,” she replied. “It is forbidden for a troll to bond a human. What goes on behind closed doors, though, that is more difficult for them to monitor.” She winked, and I looked away, uncomfortable.
“If it is forbidden, then why did Tristan bond me?”
“As I said, they will stop at nothing to break the curse.”
“I would marry you to a sheep if it would set us free” the King’s words echoed in my mind. “They don’t have much regard for humans, do they?”
“Much?” demanded Esmeralda. “Try none. They see us as little more than animals; see the children of troll-human unions as abominations that deserve nothing more than abject slavery. They hate humans. They tolerate us only because they need our trade to survive.”
“Not all trolls think that,” élise said softly.
“The ones who matter do. The aristocracy.” Esmeralda spat on the floor. “Twisted creatures, as no doubt you’ve seen. They won’t even lower themselves to bonding a troll commoner. Instead, they insist on picking and choosing amongst each other and the result is a palace full of inbred monsters. Deformed, sickly, insane – but powerful.”
I thought of Marc’s twisted face, constantly shrouded in darkness, and a shudder ran through me.
“Aunty, you’re scaring her,” élise said.
“Good – she should be terrified. This is her reality now, and she needs to understand the politics if she is to be of any help.”
“Aunt Esmeralda!”
The tension between the two was palpable. I was no fool – it had become clear that élise had brought me here to speak to her aunt, but it seemed the conversation had gone beyond what she had intended.
“Help with what?” I demanded.
“You’re supposed to keep her out of things, not involve her more!” élise hissed angrily.
“Quit talking about me as though I’m not even here,” I snapped. “You’ve clearly brought me here to tell me something, so get on with it.”