The Piper's Promise by Leah Cypess

Author:Leah Cypess [Cypess, Leah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2023-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

“Clare,” Tom replied. His voice was perfectly calm; no one but me would have realized that he was surprised. And even I couldn’t tell if he was angry. “What are you doing here?”

I had been thinking for weeks about what I would say to my brother when we finally met again. I had a bunch of zingers polished and memorized, to let him know how angry I was. I’d thought about being cold and calm, showing him that all this time, I hadn’t needed him after all. I’d been pretty sure that, no matter what I rehearsed, I would end up just throwing myself at him and hugging him.

Instead, the first thing I said to my brother was, “She’s looking for you.”

Tom did not have to ask who she was. He straightened, every line of his body taut. “How close?”

“She opened the portal into the caves for me.” I swallowed, suddenly seeing her assistance the way he might: as me betraying him. But his steady gaze didn’t change. “She already knew you were here. I think she’s angry at you.”

“Of course she’s angry at me,” Tom said. “I’m late with her children.”

My heart stuttered. I looked around at the sleeping children, and then at my brother. “Why, Tom?”

“Why am I late? I ran into an unexpected snag.” Tom lowered his other leg and leaned back on his hands. “I’m hiding out for a bit while I figured out how to solve it. But apparently I just ran out of time.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know—” I stopped short. Why was I apologizing? “Why did you steal the children? Did the queen order you to?”

If she had, that would make sense. Tom couldn’t disobey an order from the queen. None of the fae could, and he was practically fae. Maybe he was obeying the compulsion reluctantly, trying to find a way…

But he shook his head before my hope could fully form. “She didn’t command me. We have an agreement about what she’ll give me in exchange for them.”

“An agreement? You mean this is part of some bargain?” I looked at the children again. Their breathing was soft and peaceful—unnaturally so; the music we’d heard earlier had been Tom putting them to sleep. “What could you possibly have bargained for in exchange for this?”

“Something worth it,” he said, with a mysterious smile.

“Nothing could be worth it!” But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. Not to him.

And the worst thing was that I wasn’t even surprised. I looked at his cold fae eyes, the self-satisfied curve of his lips, and saw nothing I hadn’t seen a hundred times before. Seen and ignored, or told myself was camouflage, or not questioned at all. By the standards of the Realms, there was nothing cruel or surprising about what Tom was doing.

Out in the human world, I hadn’t wanted to believe Tom was capable of kidnapping the children. But here in the Realms, staring at his impish fae grin and the familiar sparkle in his eyes, I knew that he was.

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