“When we moved here, there was a story people liked to tell over drinks and campfires about an abandoned fort in the woods on the old trade route to Caetris. Rumor said it was haunted and filled with fae treasure. I asked everyone about it, but no one had ever actually been there, so my friend Toby and I decided to go find it for ourselves.”
“How old were you?”
“Fourteen. Toby was two years older.” She popped the last slice of apple in her mouth.
The witch hunter’s brows drew together. “You went into the Black Woods alone with a young man when you were fourteen?”
There was a world of judgment in the question.
Before she could tell him where he could shove his sanctimonious opinions, her mother leaned down between them to set two cups of tea on the table. She slid one to her and theother to the witch hunter. “The rules here are different from what you’re accustomed to, Captain,” her mother said mildly before withdrawing and taking her place in the rocking chair beside the fire.
Rowan lifted her chin. “I was angry with her at the time. I’d gotten it into my head that I was going to run away. I let Toby talk me into it, and my mother never even noticed I was gone. She’d been called to help with a difficult birth and didn’t get home until I was coming up the lane.”
“I knew,” her mother said. “Tilly stormed into the birthing room just as the head was crowning yelling about a search party. You were always good with the woods though. Toby’s father was a woodsman, and he taught you both how to survive out there. I couldn’t have kept the two of you from the woods if I’d tried.” A shadow crossed her face. “It was safer for the two of you out there anyway.”
“You found the fort?” the witch hunter asked.
She nodded. “It took us a week, but back then the woods were healthy. We had no trouble getting there or back.”
“What was the fort like?”
Her mouth went dry. It felt like some of the apple had gotten lodged in her throat. She took a sip of her tea, but it didn’t help.
“That bad?”
“It was just strange. Dark and quiet and still. I think there must have been a mold or a fungus there that made it smell bad. I got dizzy when we went inside. Toby wanted to stay, but I couldn’t wait to get away from the place. The trees—” No. She couldn’t tell him that the trees had been screaming at her to run. “It was a long time ago. We were just kids.”
They hadn’t stayed long. They’d travelled for miles in the dark to get as far away from it as quickly as possible. They’d never even talked about going back.
The witch hunter was silent as he considered that. After a moment, he said, “It’s common for people to experience strange smells and sickness on cursed ground. Were you very frightened?”
She pressed her lips together, not wanting to admit it to him. Seemed like a bad idea to show him any kind of weakness. Who knew what he’d do with it?
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said.
She glared at him. “I’m not ashamed.”
“Would you say it felt like cursed ground?”
“How am I supposed to know what cursed ground feels like?” Because she was a witch? That’s probably what he thought. “It felt wrong. We didn’t like it. We left.”
“It’s just as well that you did. Is there a road to follow?”
She shook her head. “There used to be one, but it’s all overgrown. You can only tell where it lay by the way the older trees line up. It’s on the river. There’s a pillar there that looks like there might once have been a bridge.”
“I’d like to speak to Toby to see if he remembers any details that might help.”
“Toby’s long gone,” she told him. “His father took their family south years ago. No one’s heard from them since.”
The witch hunter gave a sharp nod. “Is there anyone else who knows the way?”
She scoffed. “You can’t trust anyone in Toam to get you there.”
He was too trusting by far. George would guide him off the nearest cliff and rob his corpse.
His expression set in the determined look men got when they’d decided to do something stupid. He tapped his fingers on the wooden table. “It sounds like exactly the kind of place a witch would claim for her nest. Would you be able to tell me how to get there? Draw me a map, perhaps?”
She grimaced. “I don’t know if I could draw a map. There were turns…landmarks I don’t know I’d recognize until I was there. It was so long ago, the paths might have changed. I could point you in the right direction, I suppose. But it’s days away from here and you’re injured.” She shook her head. “You’ll never make it.”
