Startled, Anne faced forward.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed. “Sugar apple flowers?!”
A shadowy forest spread out before them. A small section of it was bathed in moonlight, glowing a hazy white.
In midsummer, sugar apple trees produced small, pure-white flowers on their slender, silvery branches. The white flowers, which grew in bunches, gave off a sweet scent and rustled in the faint breeze.
Challe steered the horse into the center of the grove, then brought it to a halt. He first got out of the saddle himself, then lifted Anne down.
In a daze, Anne looked around at the white flowers. “They’re in full bloom! There are so many this year; it’s completely different from last year. We’ll have an abundant harvest for sure.”
Her spirits surged.
Last year, there had been few sugar apple blossoms, and the flowers had been feeble. The entire grove had seemed destitute. But this year was different. The flowers were a brilliant white, as if new life had been breathed into them, and they were plentiful. The sugar apple trees’ silvery-gray trunks and branches looked healthy, too.
Anne walked around the grove, touching the tree trunks and smelling the scent of the flowers. The underbrush was soft, springy, and pleasant to walk on.
Challe poked at some nearby flowers with his fingertips, looking bored. Anne noticed this and came over to him, then tugged on the sleeve of his jacket.
“Thank you, Challe. You brought me here to cheer me up, didn’t you?”
“Just to kill time.”
She sensed Challe’s feelings even in his curt reply.
“Don’t worry. I’ll work hard to achieve the dream you and Lulu shared. I’ll think hard and make it work.”
“Is there a problem?”
“The fairies can’t make anything.”
Anne let go of Challe’s jacket and poked at some flower petals. They felt smooth to the touch.
“All the fairies are incredibly skilled. They’re great at kneading and at spinning silver sugar threads. They learn much faster than humans do, and they’re doing a great job. But it looks like even fairies take time to learn how to shape candy. Ten days from now, the crafters from the Mercury Workshop and the Radcliffe Workshop will come, but we might not be able to show them anything very impressive.”
“They can’t make what they can’t make.”
Challe quickly stated the obvious, and Anne sighed.
“You’re right, of course.”
“You’ll just have to show off what they can do.”
“But we have to convince the other crafters. For your sake, and Lulu’s, and for the sake of all the fairies who have gone back to the fairy market. For Noah and Allele, and everyone who stayed at Hollyleaf Castle, we have to—”
“Anne.”
Challe placed his hand on the nape of Anne’s neck as she breathlessly strung words together. She gasped at the pleasant chill of his touch.
“We are grateful to you all,” he said. “That’s enough. Don’t get so worked up.”
His voice was calm and projected a quiet majesty. Even though Challe was speaking as usual, there was something more dignified about him with the moonlight at his back, surrounded by white flowers.
The fairy king.
She couldn’t look away.
He’s so beautiful.
Everything about him was gorgeous, from the light on his eyelashes to his black hair, each strand of which was brought into sharp relief by the moon’s glow.
So pretty.
Against her better judgment, Anne reached out to touch Challe’s hair. Beads of moonlight clung to it like drops of water. She was spellbound by the texture as she ran her fingertips smoothly through it. It felt exactly like strands of silver sugar thread. Even though it was ordinary hair, it fascinated Anne like nothing else.
Just then, Anne realized something.
“Ah…! Challe! That’s it, Challe!”
She raised her voice, and Challe tilted his head quizzically at her.
“What?”
“I get it! I see, all we can do is show off what they’re capable of.”
It was as if a fog had lifted, and her breathing came easier. They already had something they could show to the stubborn crafters who came to Hollyleaf Castle.
That’s it. Things are beautiful as they are.
As long as Kat and Keith approved of Anne’s idea, for the next ten days, everyone would be able to face their work with certainty.
Enveloped in the aroma of the sugar apple blossoms, Anne couldn’t contain her excitement.
“You really are always thinking of sugar candy, huh?”
Challe looked at Anne and chuckled, wearing an expression of exasperation and relief.
Challe didn’t know what it was that Anne had realized among the sugar apple blossoms. But the following day, he saw her consult with Kat and Keith.
Their meeting went on for a long time. And then, the three of them seemed to find their confidence. They instructed the silver sugar fairy candidates to concentrate their efforts on practicing two skills: kneading silver sugar dough and spinning silver sugar threads.
The other fairies also seemed to notice the change in the humans and focused on their work free of worry.
Mithril Lid Pod came to the workshop every day with the fairies in training. He carried water to ensure the fairies always had some close at hand, he hauled silver sugar around, and he returned scattered tools to their rightful places.
Somehow, he could sense when the cold water would start to warm, and he would get help from those around him to draw up fresh water from the well.
Every seven days, the number of fairy apprentices increased. Currently, they were up to sixteen, and more were bound to be selected from the most recent group.
The fairies were not physically powerful, and none of them had magical abilities that were particularly useful. However, for some reason, they seemed like a more dependable bunch than the warrior fairies who had gathered under Lafalle. Perhaps it was because they had put down firmer roots, or because they had a clearer vision of the future.
Challe was sitting in the second-floor hallway of the west wing, enjoying the sound of laughter that occasionally rose from the workshop below. He had the window open and was relaxing with one leg propped up on the windowsill.
The midsummer sun, which had been beating down on them relentlessly just a few days earlier, had grown somewhat milder. The wind felt remarkably more pleasant, too. Signs of autumn had probably already reached Gillum Province in the north. The wind blowing from those regions carried the chill air of a new season.
“Gillum Province…”
The scent of the breeze reminded Challe of his brother stones, who had taken flight. It had already been more than a month since they’d been spotted in Gillum Province. He wondered where they were and what they were doing.
“Challe Fenn Challe.”
He was deep in thought when he heard someone call his name. Perhaps it was break time, because Allele approached him from the direction of the lesser hall, stopping beside him. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but lost his nerve and fell into a flustered silence.
“Enjoying yourself?” Challe asked, without knowing why.
Allele answered with a cheerful smile, “Yeah, sure am!”
Challe grinned. “That’s the most important thing.”
“I’m really grateful. Challe Fenn Challe…” Allele trailed off again, but then with a look of determination, he started up once more and asked, “Who are you? We think there’s something different about you. Everyone who’s still here says as much.”
“Mithril Lid Pod has never said anything.”
“Ah, him. He’s probably too close to you to see it. When you’re inside a bright circle of light, your eyes adjust to it, and you don’t realize it’s unusually radiant. But we’re looking at it from the outside. The fairies who were chosen from the last round noticed something when they saw you. They were employed for a while at the Church of Saint Lewiston Bell, and they often looked up at the painting on the ceiling of the sanctuary there. They said you might be the fairy kin—”
“Allele.” Challe interrupted him before he could finish and rose to his feet. “I am the bodyguard of a Silver Sugar Master by the name of Anne Halford. When necessary, I wield my blade to protect her comrades as well. But that is all I am.”
“But who will protect and guide us?”
“You don’t need guidance. Each and every one of you is walking the path you chose for yourself. Only you can find your way forward.”
As if slowly absorbing the meaning of those words, Allele smiled. “Ah. I see. You’re telling me we truly are free.”
“If you want to, you could even go look for that woman you love,” Challe suggested.
Allele’s smile grew bitter. “Yeah. I’ll become a crafter and find myself a place to settle among the humans so I won’t have to worry about being hunted anymore. Once that’s done, I’ll go find Farrel. But what about you?”
Challe frowned when Allele returned the question. “Me? What about me?” he asked.
“Don’t you think it’s about time for you to be free, too? You don’t seem fully comfortable. Couldn’t you go find a lady to love as well? There must be one somewhere.”
“I don’t need to look. She’s right beside me.”
“And yet you seem constrained.” Allele cocked his head but then looked out the window at the garden with a start. “Oh, crap. Is work starting? Everyone’s going inside.”
Allele rushed to his room. When he came back out again, he was holding the spinning wheel he had apparently forgotten. As he ran back in the direction of the workshop, he passed Challe and whispered, “Please look out for us anyway.”
Challe watched Allele go and nodded. If the fairies felt more secure believing the fairy king existed and was looking out for them, he figured he could give them that much.
“‘Constrained,’ huh?”
Frankly, Challe was impressed at how observant Allele was. He looked out the window and saw the fairies returning to the workshop. Anne had gone outside with them and was the farthest out, following the others back in. There lay the source of Challe’s discomfort.
She was still here, and she didn’t belong to anybody yet. However, her dedication to her work meant Keith was going to be by her side whether Challe liked it or not. They were always together, sharing the same struggles. It seemed likely that Anne would develop feelings for him at some point.