Chapter 44
Forty-Four
Witchlights
Nassir slept, and I meditated.
The cabin was cold, but I’d found an old blanket for Nassir to use. He was clearly worn out from his efforts to build up his magic. As he slept, I decided a walk would warm me up. I had been meaning to see the fate of my old home, since we were so close to it. I just had to see it once more.
I used a tiny amount of my fire to keep warm as I trekked along the familiar path home.
The walk was quiet and eerie in the faint moonlight, but there wasn’t anything here to be afraid of, not after what I had seen in the Wyldes.
My heart was hammering in my chest by the time I reached the bend that would reveal Bryn’s cabin. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to see the cabin gone or for it to have remained untouched as the day I’d left it.
Hints of a solid structure peeked through the bare winter trees as I drew close. I bit my lower lip and held my breath as I rounded the last copse of pines to reveal a blackened husk.
I stopped in my tracks. “No.” It had been burned, but not fully. I examined the remnants of the building that remained while I still had the courage to look at it. The ground had the signs of many feet on it, and the door had been splintered open.
I walked inside and looked up. The loft was gone, and where the roof should have been was just open sky. Anything of value that I hadn’t taken with me was gone. Our large cooking kettle, the furniture, the chest of extra bedding.
The fireplace remained mostly intact. The lower halves of all the walls did too, as though rain or snow had come through and put an end to the fire before the cabin was entirely gone. It looked like a lightning strike got the cabin after the villagers had already taken anything of value.
I felt something uneven under my boot, and when I lifted it, I found a charred lump that had once been a carving of a bear. I closed my eyes and took a shaky breath, moving on.
The cabin had little left to it, so I went back outside and decided to walk the outside perimeter instead.
I found more footprints, and the scrape of claws where a dog had run through the earth. But when I went around to the back side, near the fireplace, my heart sank.
There, a flat river stone had been placed over blackened earth, and I knew it was for Bryn.
This burning was older than the cabin fire, and I approached the stone, which had a crudely carved axe on it.
Smaller stones were scattered around it in respect.
They must have brought him here for his burning separately.
That was when the tears started. It wasn’t the loud sobbing I had done the day he died but a flow of silent tears that fell down my cheeks and dripped off my chin. No matter what the humans around here thought of me, they’d loved Bryn.
I looked around for a tribute for Bryn on the ground. Usually, you would leave a precious rock, or a gem if you could afford it. Since I had neither in my possession, I had to settle for an interesting brown rock. I gave it a kiss and placed it under the edge of the larger stone.
I walked away, feeling this place lift off my shoulders. Any remaining connection I’d had to these mountains was now gone for good.
I wiped my face and sighed, turning back the way I’d come.
I rounded the remains of the cabin and left the clearing.
I was numb to the cold, and since this would be my last trip through this part of the mountains, I decided to take the longer, winding path back to Mila’s.
I walked past the stream I’d once bathed in.
The last patch of oak Bryn and I had started clearing.
My feet wandered without thought, and I found myself in the spot Bryn had found me.
Many times he had brought me here, and many others I had come to sit and think by myself.
I sat again now, looking for the same peace it used to offer.
Did Mila know Lark? Did she know Lark was my mother? How did she not sense I was part witch? Or maybe she did, but she never told me for some reason.
Maybe I could try to find Mila after all this was over. Maybe I should just leave the Wyldes for good. I could take Schula, and we could get far, far away from DuVarick and the Winter Lands and everything else.
Shifting, I faced in the direction of Silver Lake, if the forest wasn’t in the way.
Then I saw it.
It was a curious stone. It was carved with a number of strange symbols, and it was half buried in the soil.
And it glowed a soft purple.
Witch magic. Mila?
I snatched it from the ground and sat up wide-eyed as it glowed brighter and then—
I was standing on the cliff, my arms outstretched as I enjoyed the breeze.
The sun was high overhead, and my black dress billowed around my legs.
A cawing bird overhead drew my attention, and I looked up to see a sleek black raven gliding in lazy circles above me.
He circled down and landed on one of my outstretched arms.
“Puko! Welcome back,” a voice that wasn’t mine said.
The light flashed again.
I inspected the sapphire bracelet on my wrist, watching as the little stones caught the candlelight.
It brought me both joy and sorrow to look at.
I was in a tavern, sitting in a dark corner with a very handsome figure on the other side of the table.
He had a cloak drawn over most of his face, but his smile was enough to melt hearts.
“Lark, my love,” he murmured. “Come back with me to Eidelhein. I wish I had never let you leave in the first place. Surely the Mother never meant you to have this heartbreak. We can go back and build that greenhouse you wanted and forget this ever happened.”
I sighed and played absently with my wineglass. “I can’t just leave Nassir like that. There must be a way to get him out of there.”
“You barely got out yourself,” the figure whispered. “Please, I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you. We can get you back safely, and I’ll come with a few warriors to get him out. We can bring him back to live with us; we can treat his eyes.”
I looked down and rubbed the growing bud that was my stomach. The warm thought of our future brought a smile to my face.
“All right, my love. If you promise to come back for Nassir, I promise to come to Eidelhein. And there is something else I think we need to discuss . . .”
The light flashed a third time.
Weak from the sickness, I handed my sleeping baby to a dark, scarred man with concern in his eyes. I sat resting on the forest floor under my favorite tree.
“I can’t go back without you, Lark,” he said. “I will wait for you.”
“Do as I said!” I cried out desperately. “Do not wait for me. The Mother calls me to her, but I have one last task before I can go. Lay her gently where I told you and play the whistle. If I can give her nothing else, I can let them know her name. They will come, and they will call her Wren.”
“I will not leave you!” the man commanded. “Enough have died on this quest. I will not lose you as well.”
My voice strained and my face wet, I reached out a hand and pushed the man’s chest. “You will have no choice, my friend. I’m sorry.”
A flash of heat and purple light moved through my fingers. The man stood, his motions stiff even as he carried the baby.
“No. Lark, no!” he cried.
“And you will not speak of this to anyone.” My voice shook. “None will know until the traitor is found.”
“Lark!” the man pleaded, but another flash of light overtook my vision.
The man steeled his face and nodded before turning away. I watched him go, then I turned to Puko.
“I’m sorry, old friend. Please find Mila; she will take care of you.” I removed a small scroll from my pocket with labored breath and shaking hands. “This will tell her what to do and shield them both from what has come to be. Fly swiftly, fly safely.”
I kissed his beak, and he nodded once, taking off in the dawn sky.
Feeling a smile on my lips, I picked up a stone from the ground and squeezed it as more purple light flickered out of me.
“If you know these mountains in your life, I hope you one day find this, my Wren. When the seal is gone and you are safe, I hope you will be able to see this. South, you’ll find . . . them . . .”
The light faded, and I stumbled backward on the hard earth, barely catching myself before I fell. I sucked in a sharp breath and stared at the now lifeless stone in my palm.
Was that Lark?
I tucked the rock into the top of my boot and ran for Mila’s cabin. There was a reason Lark had wanted me to see this, and I hoped Nassir might have some answers.