Ash by Malinda Lo Read Free Book Online Page A

everything they could to trick the changeling into revealing its true identity, for that was the only way to bring the real princess back. But nothing worked, and as the months passed they began to fear they would never see their daughter again. Now, some greenwitches remembered that there might be one other way to bring the young princess back, but it would require someone to journey to Taninli and beg the Fairy Queen to return the child. When Eilis heard this, she knew that she must be the one to go, for this was how she could earn the people’s trust. She told the King and Queen of her intention, and though they were apprehensive, they longed for their daughter’s return and agreed to Eilis’s plan.”
    51

    Ash

    “What happened to the changeling?” Ash asked curiously.
    The huntress paused. “I don’t know,” she answered. “I suppose the changeling remained in the princess’s place. At any rate, Eilis entered the Wood on the day after Souls Night, and though many doubted she would ever return, on the morning of Yule she was seen riding through the gates of the Royal City with a babe in her arms. The King and Queen were shocked when she came before them, for she had aged nearly a decade, though she had only been absent two months. She told them that when she entered the Wood she had ridden for a fortnight seeking out the center of the great forest, where she discovered a small trail paved with white stones. It eventually became a broad avenue lined with trees she had never seen before and ended in a set of huge crystal gates she knew she had arrived at Taninli.
    “When she told the fairy guard that she sought an audience with the Fairy Queen, she was taken to a massive palace built of crystal. In the Queen’s audience chamber, Eilis knelt down and asked for the return of the princess. The Queen told Eilis that her wish would be granted only if she completed three tasks successful y: She must retrieve a gryphon’s egg from its nest; she must bring the Fairy Queen a living unicorn; and she must hunt the great white stag and bring back its head. If she succeeded, the princess would be returned.
    “So Eilis set out to fulfil those tasks, and none of them was easy. But she had an advantage that the Fairy Queen did not anticipate: She was young and determined, and she did not know that she could fail. Though it took many months for her to find a gryphon for they were few and far between even in 52

    MALINDA LO
    Eilis’s time she did find one at last, and she artfully stole the gold-plated egg from beneath the sleeping beast itself. Though it took many months, she did find a unicorn and lured it, with honey and sweet songs, back to the Fairy Queen. And though it took many months, she tracked down a white stag whose rack was as wide as the avenue in Taninli, and she slew him with her small human-made sword. In the end, the Fairy Queen had to honor her words, and she delivered the young princess, no worse for wear, into Eilis’s arms.”
    “The princess was stil a baby?” Ash interrupted. “Even though so much time had passed?”
    “Yes,” said the huntress. “Time passes differently, it is said, among the fairies. And there was always the suspicion, afterward, that the princess had become something more than human during her time with the Fairy Queen. When Eilis returned to the Royal City with the princess, there was a grand celebration and Eilis went back to her duty as the King’s Huntress. From that time onward, fewer changelings were found in the country, for the fairies don’t like to lose what they have stolen.” The huntress took a drink from her goblet when she finished her tale, and the two revelers seated with her clapped their hands.
    “A wonderful story,” said the woman in delight.
    “Did you like it?” the man asked Ash.
    “Yes,” Ash said, and it gave her an idea. She hesitated for a moment and then asked the huntress, “Have you seen a fairy?”
    In the weeks since her father had