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The creek burbled, drifting over wet stones. I ran to it, to the oak, and went on my knees in front of the skull and the stump.
“I want to kill him, brother!” I yelled.
“What has he done this time?” Robert asked.
“He’s taking Mama to a healer in Barnsdale Forest and won’t let me come. Can you believe it?”
“What’s his rationale?”
“Punishment. For disobeying him one too many times.”
Robert hummed in my ear, apparently thinking that over.
I leaned forward, putting my forehead against the smooth, cold forehead of the skull. Its empty black eye sockets stared back at me. “If you were here,” I said, sniffling, “none of this would be happening.”
“I know. I’m sorry I died, dear sister. I didn’t plan on it.”
Scowling, I popped up from the skull and squinted. “Are you getting wry with me now, too? God, I can’t even win against an inanimate skull!”
“Is that all you think of me? That’s not a very nice way to speak of your brother.”
My scowl became a pitying frown as guilt swept through me. I petted the bald pate of the skull and nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Rob.” I sighed and peered up at the clear sky through the weaving canopy above me, as if searching for a sign from God.
I leveled my gaze on my brother. “What should I do?”
“You’ll never see me again if you leave here.”
My hand flew to my chest. “How do you know that? No, it can’t be true.”
“I still think you should go. You’re cunning. You can find a way. You’re an adventurer at heart, sister. Always have been. It’s why I taught you the bow, because I knew you’d need it. You’re different than the girls in town—I see greater things in your future.”
My eyes welled with tears, but I forced them back with a loud, ugly snort. I didn’t want Robert to see me bawl, so I kept it together. “That’s nice of you to say. I don’t want to leave you though. Especially if you’re saying you’ll be gone when I get back.”
“I’m gone either way, Robin. You know that.”
“You’re the only one I have to talk to.”
“You have Emma.”
My head jolted up. “How do you know that?”
Oh, I thought with a flash of clarity, probably because you’re a figment of my imagination. Right.
“It’s not the same,” I said. My knees were starting to hurt from kneeling in front of the stump for so long, as if I was praying to an altar.
“You’ll always have me, Robin. In your heart. Put me in a new vessel, if you must. You won’t ever be alone.”
“But I feel so alone,” I whined.
“You don’t have to be.”
The voice came from behind me, and its abruptness startled me so badly a wave of dizziness tilted my world.
Blinking, gasping, I spun around and jumped up from my knees. I instinctively reached behind me for my bow and quiver . . . and found nothing.
In my haste to escape my beating, I’d forgotten my weapon at the manor.
“Show yourself!” I yelled, balling my hands into fists.
