Wishes and Wings by Kathleen Duey Read Free Book Online

ball of cheese, a cloth sack of berries, and a cup of water. He drank the water and handed her the cup back. Then he thanked her and hugged her hard, and went on. She watched him go, hoping he would be safe.
    As Alida walked back into the meadow, the faeries were still talking. As she sat on the ground next to her sister, Terra leaned close. “I remember Ruth a little,” she said. “Does she still live in that house out on the edge of Ash Grove?”
    Alida nodded.
    Terra smiled. “She must be quite old by now.”
    Alida nodded again. “But she’s still strong.”
    â€œTaking more food means Dunraven is hiring more guards,” William said loudly. “He has to feed them.”
    It made sense.
    Alida felt her stomach tighten and looked at her mother. There was worry in her eyes.

Chapter
9
    E veryone wanted to help the farmers in Ash Grove.
    No one could figure out how to do it. “In the old days we could have offered them some of the cheese we brought with us and a part of whatever we can make as the year goes on,” Alida’s father said.
    â€œWe can’t give them anything,” one of William’s sons said. “Someone will wonder where it came from and someone else will whisper and …”
    â€œWe could give the food to Ruth Oakes,” Terra said. “And she could—”
    â€œNo,” Alida interrupted quietly. “We can’t put her in danger.”
    Terra sighed and nodded.
    The faeries began to argue.
    Alida noticed that many of the ones who usually listened were speaking out.
    Everyone was angry.
    Would the guards come to Ash Grove more often? If they did, becoming good neighbors with the people of Ash Grove would be almost impossible.
    Alida kept thinking about the girl in the woods.
    Had she been sent out to pick berries?
    Was she from a poor farm family? Maybe she had been crying because she was scared about her family starving.
    As the summer went on, the faeries’ meadow became more beautiful. The berry bushes and everything else they had planted grew so fast that Alida wondered if her mother had made more new magic. But she didn’t ask.
    Once the bushes and the slender trees were tall enough, the faeries built a log fence inside one of the wide circles.
    It became a pasture for their cows and goats.
    Inside the other circle they built three log sheds.
    The biggest one was for the weavers. They would need room for their looms and spinning wheels, their spider boxes and bags of thistledown.
    The smallest shed covered the entrance to a deep root cellar, where they would keep berry jam and dried lilac flowers and sweet winter squash and whatever else they raised in their gardens.
    The third was for the cheesemakers to work in. As soon as it was finished, the faeries started saving every drop of soured milk.
    No one said it aloud, but Alida knew they all wanted to have enough cheese to share and hoped they could find a way to do it.
    â€œWe need more glass jars,” Aunt Lily said one evening when they were all watching fireflies. “Weare going to be swimming in berries. Too bad we can’t go to Market Square.”
    Alida saw her mother sigh.
    â€œWe used to steal a handful of seed corn now and then on the way home,” William said wistfully. “I miss corn. The cows would like it too.”
    Aunt Lily smiled. “We always left something in trade. Berries, or a good spoon carved from oak heartwood.”
    Alida’s mother stood up suddenly. “We have to get used to the way things are now.”
    Her voice was high and angry, and everyone stopped talking when she walked away.
    Alida followed her.
    They crossed the meadow and found a place to sit in the soft summer grass.
    â€œThe longer faeries live in one place,” her mother said, the words rushing out, “the more their magic seeps into the soil and the water. In the other place we had sick babies and elders everywinter. We tried to heal