She hung her head. I saw her hands move. They’d changed color, the wire cutting in. The binding hadn’t been cruel, but she was twisting it up, doing it to herself.
I wondered momentarily if she was doing something. A plan, a working of some sort.
“I could trade you information,” she said, looking up at me.
“You could,” I said.
“If I can keep my power,” she said.
“Then I guess we’ll have to do without,” I said.
“You have little idea what you’re about to walk into. One small piece of knowledge stands between everything here and ruin. If you wish to talk about a lack of choice, then you should know you have little choice but to take my offer. You must spare me.”
“Blood Hags survive for as long as they do by taking the lives of others,” Tiff said. “Not to be confused with sanguine hags, like Bathory. From what Mara said, she took an immense number of young lives to live as long as she has. Stepping into their shoes. I don’t know about you guys, um, I’m really not feeling the mercy.”
Pretty strong words and sentiment, coming from Tiff. There were a number of murmurs and mutters of agreement. More to the point, nobody disagreed.
Mara bowed her head once more.
“Power,” she said. “I can offer you power, then.”
“It’s not going to work, Mara,” I said. “I know you’re pretty much compelled to strive for survival, and I’m guessing you’re numb to the sheer number of lives you’ve taken, but it’s kind of a big deal. We’re not interested in bargaining. We’re giving you one path if you want to live out the rest of that stolen lifespan of yours.”
“As I see fit?” She asked. “At my home, unmolested?”
I didn’t glance at the smoke. Let her realize on her own. Face a life with fear of onrushing death. Let her do it without her creature comforts, or the routine she’d maintained for countless generations.
I didn’t give her an answer to her question. “Take the first step on that path by telling us whether you’re involved.”
“I was the architect of it all,” she said. “I’ve been striving to these ends since the township was established.”
There was a dull rumble. Cracks sounded elsewhere in the forest. Birds took to the air.
“Peter?” Ellie asked, alarmed.
“No,” Rose said. “Peter’s fine, as far as I can tell. He’s over that way. The trees fell… elsewhere.”
“She lied,” Alister’s female relative said. “She’s losing her hold on this place.”
“That means she has no involvement,” Rose said. “Do you know who is involved, Mara?”
“Laird Behaim lives with a dark thing, one of the demons your kind deals with, living in his corpse, peering from the wound,” Mara said.
More trees fell. More birds took to the air.
I saw Alister’s relative breathe a sigh of relief.
“Try again,” I said. She knows more than she lets on, about goings-on in Jacob’s Bell, to know that that was even a possibility.
“Yes, I know who is responsible,” Mara said.
Not a single tree fell.
“Who?”
“Rose Thorburn,” Mara said.
I could hear something rumble. As if the very earth was cracking.
Here, however, we were safe.
“Ah well,” Mara said.
“Straight answers,” Rose said, stern. “Who’s sinking Jacob’s Bell?”
“He’s been safe in his demesne all this time,” Mara answered. “Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one.”
“Johannes?” Rose asked.
“Yes,” Mara said. “In the time you’ve wasted here with me, he has left his demesne. Until I forswore myself, I was watching. Paying attention to my surroundings. If you leave now, and your path isn’t barred, you should get there in time. But your path will be barred. You’ve lost, for your arrogance.”
The trees were silent, spelling out the truth to her words.
“Hillsglade House,” Rose said.
14.09
The hag and the house. Whichever one we left behind, we were screwed.
“Peter and Roxanne,” Rose said.
“It doesn’t matter,” the crone said.
“Evan’s getting them,” I told Rose. “They’re headed this way.”
“We can’t leave Mara here,” I said. “If you stay, I can go-”
“I would like a word with you, monster,” Mara said. “Perhaps-”
“Well fuck you,” I said. I turned back to Rose, “I can fly, I can get there faster.”