So he has made deals before; her eyes light with recognition. Still, it seems remarkably inappropriate that his making a deal should remove him from the game for everyone else, and her resentment of the brand-maker -- the very nerve of it; she hadn't even bothered to make him a changeling -- grates uncomfortably against Anna's respect for the Princess.

But speaking with him was hardly forbidden, and the nature of the bargain he describes reminds her of...herself.
"I traded myself, once, and received myself in return," she says mildly. Fae or not, she doesn't truly intend to speak in riddles; rather, it is difficult to distinguish between Anna's actions and her own. "And even if it was meant to be a gift, not a trade, I think the Queen got plenty out of it to suit herself."

By now she has pulled herself entirely from the pool to sit on the high bank, toes dangling just above the surface of the moonlight.