Chapter 21
The stalls were appalling. The stench was worse than it was in the main section, and the fairies here were too sickly to stand. Some leaned listlessly against their metal cages. Others sat or lay unmoving, staring blankly into the dark, as if they had willed their inner selves to go somewhere far away.
“What can we bargain for you, my little lady?” came a raspy voice.
Cinder startled. She hadn’t seen the old man hiding in the shadows. “I, um, I’d like a fairy, please.”
“You would, of course you would. But that will cost you more than you have.”
“How do you know what I have?”
“You’re here, aren’t you? If you had enough to buy a proper fairy, you wouldn’t be at this end of Slavers Row.”
“That would mean that your fairies are cheap.” Or at least cheaper, she hoped.
“Fairies
