It always became better in a few minutes. The faeys brought out wild strawberries and honeydew from the bees and ate happily, apparently not noticing that she was not eating hers.

“Yes,” said Karin. “I told you I have something to tell you. I’m going to become a queen.”

“A queen! A queen!” the faeys cried in delight. “And will that pleasant young man you told us about become your king?”

“I don’t see how he can. But I love him, and I don’t want to marry anyone else.”

The faeys gave her more strawberries as though that would solve her problems and finally noticed she was not eating. She ate a few to make them happy.

“And that’s not all,” she continued. “I shall have to leave here, go back to the kingdom where I lived when I was little.”

This caused consternation. “But how could you go away? That would mean you’d leave us! Don’t leave us, Karin! Maybe we could come with you!”

She looked at them between exasperation and affection. She had stumbled across the faeys when wandering at twilight the first summer she had come to Hadros’s kingdom, within a week of when her younger brother had died. She had not then been much taller than they were, and the faeys had since told her she was the first mortal they had successfully tamed.

“If you came with me,” she said, “you’d have to leave your dell. The trip is too long for a single night, and much of it is by ship.”

They had not thought of this. They conferred urgently among themselves for a moment, then announced, “Then you’ll have to give up being queen! That way you can stay here and still marry that nice young man.”