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I pulled free and wiped my eyes. “Then what? The priestess will come and destroy it again when she comes to imprison me for life or executeme.”
The three of them surrounded me in a group hug, and my tears keptflowing.
“Sharlot, we’ll fight the entire army to protect you.” Oryn brushed a tear away with his thumb. “We will aid you withanything.”
My throat thickened. “But I was supposed to help you and the wolves.” I broke out of their arms and scanned the mess around us, then stared at the doorway to the storage room, where I kept backup herbs. “Maybe I still can.” I traipsed to the back room and found most of it still in onepiece.
I grabbed an empty bowl I’d found on the floor and dumped my bag down, then took out the bottle of river water. My hands trembled as I picked up a jar of poison ivy off the shelf. Time to test the herbs to see if anything reacted to thepoison.
“Are you sure we’re safe here?” Oryn asked from the doorway as he glanced over his shoulder toward the trashedstorefront.
My head spun. Was he right? What if the guards showed up any moment? “Okay, everyone grab as many of these herb jars as you can. We’re leaving thestore.”
Once outside with arms full of jars, I rounded the building and marched deeper into the woods. I stared left and right, studying for any movements. But it wasclear.
“Where are we going?” Neroasked.
“To my place. It’s a bit of a hike into the woods.” I’d always thought Grandma had been paranoid, having her house so far from the store and hidden over a hill, but now I couldn’t be more grateful. I honestly suspected for years she’d put a camouflaged spell on the property because to date, not one person had ever stumbled across thehouse.
No one said a word, but we walked fast. I always traveled a different path between the store and my home. Grandma had taught me to not create a track between the two places should I ever need a hiding spot from theshop.
We climbed a slope and over the crest I found my home. I smiled and hurried forward to the two-story wooden cabin with a small porch out front. Everything looked intact, even the bird feeder in the field. I adored waking up to theirsongs.
At the door, I reached for the top of doorframe and grabbed my spare key from theledge.
“I’ll go in first,” Oryn insisted, and I wasn’t arguing in case there was a surpriseattack.
I waited, and Nero held myhand.
Halfway through the living room, Oryn turned with a grim look on his face, his nose wrinkled. “What is that funkysmell?”
“What?” I hurried inside and the pungent smell hit me.Right. I had been making cottage cheese and had left it out toolong.
“It’s just cheese. Open the windows.” My tiny kitchen had a long counter against one wall, a fire stove at the end and shelves filled with provisions. Near the window was the culprit, hanging from a horizontal stick balancing over a bucket. I grabbed the gooey mess in the cheesecloth and ran outside with it, holding my breath. Yep, it was bad. I threw it deeper into the woods behind my home, figuring I’d clean it later with the rest of the mess in my store. Now, I had to find a solution for the poisoned water, and how in the world I’d remain in Terra while the priestess huntedme.
