“I have not entered,” Heike said. Blood beat hard in her cheeks. “You cannot take me.”
Death looked at Heike’s feet and frowned. Shadows unfurled toward the door. “Your boots,” they said. “She gave you her boots.”
Heike turned and ran. A blast of winter cold exploded from the cottage and the trees encircling the clearing dropped the last of their leaves all at once. Frost cracked across the grass. Claws tore at her bag and ripped the strap, spilling her food and waterskin. She stumbled and sprinted into the trees.
Shadows raced past her, licking at her heels, tugging at her skirts, catching on her braid. Her ribbon fluttered away and her hair came loose in strands of copper and gold. She looked for her arrows, but there were now only vicious gouges in the trunks.
Death flew, but Heike flew faster. The hills and valleys that had taken hours to traverse now disappeared beneath the boots her mother had given her. Hulking black shapes charged between the trees to her left and right. Death’s voice was a gentle brush against her ear. They said,Do not be afraid.
Heike thought,I am afraid. My mother was afraid, too. We are all afraid.
She thought about Greymist Fair. She thought about being very little and peering into the depths of the well in the center of the village. She thought about the bright streamers andthe smells of spiced meat cooking over the caravan fires. Ulrich making her a wooden doll with horse’s hair when Liesel broke her little toy dog. Learning to dance the ländler with Wenzel in front of the fire in the great room of the inn, with the tables and chairs pushed against the walls. Long naps beneath the bent trunk of the linden tree. Watching her mother work, listening to her mother’s instructions, making her own clothes that wore out slower than they should have and never lost their color. Her mother, standing on the hill against the dawn, not praying.
All at once the trees bowed backward and the forest spit Heike into the cold night. She stumbled as time whipped forward and caught up with her. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness. Greymist Fair was a sprinkling of lantern lights before her, all the way from Ulrich’s cottage in the north to the Klein farm in the south. She kept racing toward the inn, where a light shone in every window on both floors, and when she passed the bottom of the hill where her own cottage stood, she saw him emerge from the inn and charge toward her.
“Inside!” she yelled. “Get inside!”
Wenzel skidded to a stop just before they collided, changed course, and they ran together into the inn. Heike shoved the heavy door shut and peered out through a window.
The forest was still. The darkness between the trees was onlythe darkness of the night. She huffed out the last of her breath and turned to Wenzel, who stood in the small space between the door and the wall with the lamp light creating deep shadows on his face.
“My mother,” Heike panted. “My mother was the witch.”
Wenzel grabbed her arm and pulled her into an embrace. They fell hard against the wall, rattling the lamp on its table. And just as time had caught up with her, so did her own fatigue, and she felt like all the bones had slid from her body and her muscles had turned to water.
“Ulrich and some of the others are waiting in the great room,” Wenzel said. His stubble scratched her temple, and she reached up to hold his head in place so she could rub her cheek against his.
Her mother was the witch. Her mother was the witch. She had loved Greymist Fair more than anything except Heike herself, and she had spent her life protecting it. Again, Heike got the overwhelming feeling that she had been looking at the world with one eye closed, and now both were open. Her mother had taught her everything she knew. But had Heike known whateverythingmeant? Could she see it now?
When the feeling returned to her legs, she stood on her own and said, “Don’t tell anyone.”
They went to the great room, where Ulrich, Gabi, and Lieselwaited at a table by the fire. Heike startled when she noticed Doctor Death standing in the corner behind them, his clothes blending with the shadows and his head high enough to be a trophy on the wall.
Ulrich and Gabi pushed back from the table and stood, relief on their faces.
“The witch is dead,” Heike said. “I found her home in the woods. Death was there, and they said they killed her years ago. They control the wargs. They tried to kill me, too, but I ran.”
Gabi came forward to inspect her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did you discover what killed Tomas?” Liesel asked.
“As soon as I marked the trees, the marks were scratched out by something I didn’t see, like Ulrich said they would be. It sounded like claws raking on the bark. When I ran back, something helped Death chase me. I didn’t see what it was.”
“The wargs,” said Liesel.
Heike didn’t answer, though she knew Liesel was right. She didn’t want to think of those shadows again.
“We’ll alert the rest of the village,” Ulrich said. “The hunting party won’t go out in the morning. If Death itself took Tomas, the best we can do is stay out of the forest, as we’ve always done.”
Heike didn’t think doing as they’d always done was the answer, but she didn’t know what the answer was, so she let them file out and return to their own homes. She slept in the inn that night so she didn’t have to go back to her cottage, her dreams filled with images of her mother speaking to her, though she couldn’t hear the words. The next morning she ventured out to climb her hill before the sun rose. She stood beneath the linden tree as light broke over their valley. The shepherd’s flock roved like a butter-white cloud across the north field. Gottfried strolled toward the center of the village with his gun on his shoulder and The Duke loping beside him. Wenzel was singing as he pruned the roses that climbed the walls of the inn.
Heike took Doctor Death’s sprig of sage from her pocket, considered it for a moment, then put it back and patted it flat. She looked out over Greymist Fair. Her mother had stood here once, not praying, but casting magic of her own. Magic that had been stronger than Death. She had taught Heike everything she knew.
Maybe she had taught her some magic, too.
The Prince’s Riddle
