Rabedy couldn’t tell from her simple response if she thought that was a good or a bad thing.

“It doesn’t seem right,” he quickly went on. “Killing them won’t bring you or anyone else back. It’ll only make things worse between fairy and your people.”

“And yet amends must be made.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“You said as much,” Anwatan said. “So tell me, how were you planning to make amends?”

“I was there,” Rabedy told her. “I was part of it. I want to give myself up to your people so that they can hang me or stab me or do whatever it is that your people do to your enemies. That way, justice will be served, and there’ll be no need for a war.”

“But you didn’t kill me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I was with them. I didn’t stop them. And you weren’t the first they killed.”

She nodded. “And what part am I to play in this?”

“I thought you could come with me. I know they won’t listen to me. They’ll probably just kill me before I can explain, and the war will still go on. But if you speak for me, they’ll listen. They have to listen to you.”

She looked away, her gaze going beyond him into the dark woods above the cove where they stood.

“What makes you think that will be enough?” she asked.

“I . . .”

“We would have you, but the rest of you little men—the ones who actually killed me—they would continue to run free, able to kill again.”

Rabedy shook his head. “The Queen will see that they’re punished. She must know by now and no matter what you think, she would never let something like this go unresolved.”

“You can promise this?”

How? Rabedy thought. Even if he could ever gain an audience with the Queen, nothing bound her to the promise of some Unseelie bogan. And besides, he’d already be dead anyway.

“You seem uncertain now,” Anwatan said.

“It’s just . . . I’m nobody. I know the Queen will do the right thing when she has the facts—she’s not stupid or malicious—but I can’t make her. No one’s going to listen to this bogan. I can only promise what I’m already doing: offering myself up to your people so that justice of some kind can be done.”

“What is your name, little man?” the cerva spirit asked.

Rabedy shivered. Give her his name and she could command him. But for this he didn’t hesitate.

“Rabedy Collins,” he told her.

She repeated it after him, then nodded.

“Thank you,” she said. “That is your true name.”