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Chapter Nine
Ash
“I’ve waited long enough,” I told Nua and Gillie as I joined them in the kitchen one morning. “I’m going to get my stuff.”
It had been three weeks since my new arm was attached. It felt like part of me now, like it had always been there. I could grip and hold things without any issues, and I could even feel sensations with my fingers thanks to the fungi attached to my nervous system, which I tried very hard not to think about.
Nua and Gillie had gotten me a simple dark wooden bow and a brown leather quiver filled with arrows. In these three weeks, I had become shockingly proficient with it. It was like my new arm already knew what to do. When I was practising, it pulled my bow from my back before my brain had even registered that I was going to move. My fae eyes were sharp, my aim somehow impeccable. It was like I’d always been meant to use it.
I’d even taken down some rabbits for Gillie to cook for our dinner. I’d cried when I shot the first one, but at least its death had been clean and instantaneous.
I still practised with my dagger. And I felt confident that I could defend myself if any unseelie Folkwerelurking around my old cottage, even though I was sure that it would have just been abandoned. They hadn’t cared about it when I was in it. Why would they care about it now it was empty? To them, I’d been the only thing of value in there. They’d left Briordan’s stuff to rot—even Caom and Idony had, who’d known him.
“Ash,” Nua began worriedly, darting a look at Gillie. “Do you reallyneedyour things from there? We can—”
“Yes,” I interrupted in a hard voice. “I do. They’re mine. I want them.”
Gillie nodded, ladling tea into a mug. “Fair enough. But seelie and unseelie usually can’t just walk onto each other’s land, lad. You might not even be able to cross over the treeline.”
I clenched my jaw and gestured at my neck. “She tethered me to her land before. Even though it’s been broken, maybe it means I can still get onto it.”
Gillie nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe.”
“I’m going to try, anyway.” I sat down at the table and twisted my shirt in my hands. “I’ll go when it’s dark. I’ll be careful.”
I was incredibly nervous. Not just because I would potentially be sneaking back onto unseelie land—which was dangerous and undoubtedly stupid—but because it would be my first time travelling alone in the forest. I’d been outside to practise shooting, but I’d never gone far.
“Will I be able to find the house when I’m coming back?” I asked nervously.
Gillie chuckled. “It’s a sidhe, not a house, lad. An earth mound. Most forest Folk live in them.”
“I can come with you,” Nua said hurriedly. “I won’t be able to go onto unseelie land, but I can—”
“No.” I smiled at him to take the sting out. “Thank you, but I want to do it on my own. I can’t just hide here forever. I need to get used to the forest and… being on my own.”
Nua pursed his lips and shot Gillie a worried glance, but the silver-eyed fae was nodding in agreement as he joined us at the table.
“Ash is right, my love. He’s healed now, and damn good with his bow. He’ll be alright.” He looked at me with a grin. “Now you’ve been here, you’ll be able to find your way back. We have many charms on this place to keep it hidden, but there are a few things you can spot to make sure you’re in the right place.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Are they mushrooms?”
Gillie chuckled. “How did you know?”
“You’ll wait ‘til it’s dark though?” Nua asked anxiously. “I can show you the path I took to leave your notes. But you’ll still have to be wary of the Carlin’s guards. And if you spotanyof them near your old cottage, don’t risk it. Please, Ash.”
“I won’t.” I picked up the mug Gillie had set in front of me. “I’ll be careful. And I doubt there’ll be anyone near it. No one ever went there when I was in it, and they’d never think I’d be dumb enough to go back.”
Gillie laughed as Nua raised a brow at me.
I tried to hide how nervous I was as I waved at Nua and Gillie, a big empty cloth bag slung over my shoulder next to my bow.
I paid careful attention to the mushroom markers Gillie had told me about, so I’d be able to find my way back. The cluster of orange peel fungus on the ground. The six perfectly formed fly amanita beside a rotting log, their white-spotted red caps big and curved.
I already recognised the smooth domes of the pale death caps. He’d told me all about them when I was a kid. And there was the enormous white puffball at the base of a tree. It was bigger than my head.
My breaths were quick and shallow as I walked quietly between the trees. I knew the immediate danger was the Carlin’s guards, but I couldn’t help but wonder if any other solitary Folk would be lurking nearby. Nua had told me that many lived in clusters near the market, but the ones who chose to live this far out didn’t like to be disturbed, and were rarely seen.
Still. I wondered what they were like. A picture of that big deer-faced unseelie fae came to mind. He’d scared me, even though he’d never done anything violent in my presence. He was just… totally inhuman.
