'But how?’ I ask, thinking of the small children I’ve tended to, the others who run around the village. Most of them are quite young, too young to be out here alone. ‘The wards are always up, aren’t they?’
The fae female I fought the first day snorts. ‘But they’re always down for a few moments for acertain slavewho doesn’t understand her place. A child could easily slip through.’
Gods, this could be because of me?
‘Where?’ I ask, worriedly.
'Out in the trees,’ the fae male says, pointing.
‘We can’t leave him out there,’ I say. ‘Where exactly?’
‘He was close to the ridge.'
I start off toward the forest’s edge, not willing to leave a child where there could be danger. After all, protection exists around Halsford for a reason.
As I walk into the tree line and begin making my way through the underbrush, I realize that two of the fae have followed me.
'Which way?' I ask, trying to stay calm.
But I can hear rushing water.
'Down there. Toward the river.'
I pick up my pace, my mind awash with visions of the boy falling into churning waters with no one there to help, fear gripping me.
I tear through the bushes, brambles scratching at me and vaguely aware that I’m going much further than I’ve ever been before. But I keep going because only the Gods know what dangers may lurk. If a child died because of me...
The fae are at my heels.
I see the bluff in front of me too late and, as I skid to a stop just at the edge, one of the fae behind me plows into me. I yelp as I’m thrown forward, off the top of the steep hill. My legs flail in the air and, just for a moment, I’m flying…
My feet hit the ground hard and I overturn, sliding down toward the riverbank, my body going over itself again and again until I stop just before the water’s edge. I lay there in the gravel for a moment, stunned, while my mind catches up to what just happened. I groan as I turn onto my back and gasp for breath.
My body hurts everywhere. It takes me a minute to take stock of myself, but I don’t think anything’s broken.
I try to get up, but fall back. I can’t see the child anywhere.
‘Help,’ I call weakly up toward the top of the hill.
That’s when I hear it. Laughter from above me, sickeningly callous, and I realize with a certainty that makes my already pounding heart lurch and my blood boil, that there never was a boy outside the wards. They tricked me to get me out here.
A prank, perhaps?
Something worse?
I manage to dig the knife out of its sheath and I hold it under my hand and along my arm so that it can’t be seen just in case.
My head feels light and fuzzy, and I wonder if I hit it on the way down.
I'm not sure how much time passes in my haze, but there’s a noise and I’m suddenly alert. I can feel trembles in the earth where someone or something is pounding toward me.
Has some creature come to make me it’s dinner? Are the fae here to finish me?
I ready the knife that’s in my hand, though I can’t recall getting it out, and I steel myself to the pain as I jump to my feet.
My body revolts at the movement, and I fear I’ll faint. But then I see them coming and I know that fainting isn’t an option.
They’re not fae after all. These are men. Human, I think from their builds. There are four of them, but I can’t tell who they are. Their faces are covered with cloths, slits cut out for the eyes.
