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(Continued)

Perhaps she was from the desert region, or perhaps the far corners of the Kemet. Trying the formal greeting of the desert, I held my hands at the waist a shoulder-length apart, bent my wrists down, fingers spread, palms up, then brought them up till they were parallel with the top of my shoulders.

“Forgive me.”

She took a few more steps back, looking as if a wild beast had just stood on its hind legs and asked her to dance.

“Are you traveling peddlers?”

Her eyes squinted into shadows. “Are you daft?”

My hands dropped, and I cocked my head to the side. Had I done something wrong?

The lady’s eyes rolled up into her head before closing, then she sighed. “We’re not travelers, we’re trapped here.”

I stared at the floor. Trapped? Then why the dead tannink’esh? And why not just leave? Coming in, I hadn’t seen any issues with leaving by the front door.

“And we’re not together.”

My eyes peered into hers. The other faehin’s words echoed that sentiment… and it didn’t seem like she was lying either. How could that be? Were they all trapped here?

“Then what brought you here?” I asked.

She scoffed and turned her face away. “Let me know when you figure that out.”

“Then the dhaiga didn’t send you?” I asked for extra clarification.

“Who?”

A dark-haired faehin skipped out from behind a pillar and walked up to us. She stopped behind and just to the side of the blond woman. She was just a bit shorter and wore a earthy dress. She bounced on her heels with her hands behind her back.

“Hi, my name’s Enydd.” Her eyes slid from my face down my arms and chest and back up again. “You won’t attack us again, will you?”

“My apologies.” Out of habit, I placed two fingers to my chest once more and bowed. “It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“Oh, good.” She awkwardly placed her hand over her heart and dipped her head, mimicking my action.

“My name is Abirami,” I said, straightening up. “So you are trapped here as well?”

“Hmm… maybe.” She placed a finger to her lips and looked around, then bounced on her toes and leaned in as she stared into my eyes. “Oh, it was was the strangest thing. I was just walking through the forest, just having a wonderful time, when, you’d never guess, I fell from that arch there.” She pointed to a nearby overhang. “Then the walls closed in around me, and, boop. Here I am.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Boop?”

She nodded gregariously. “Yeah. Boop.”

The blond lady sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.