Inside the burial ground, the elders performed the modified rites over Fiona’s body. They watched her corpse sink into the ground, and when it had disappeared from view, they laid the stones atop, although those too were quickly swallowed up by the hungry clay. By the time the elders were finished, the small funeral crowd outside the wall had dispersed, and Rowan was alone with Tom, gazing at the decaying necropolis that housed her sleeping cousin.
Ollen Bittern looked mournful when he hobbled out through the arch. “Terrible business.”
The other two elders followed, their solemn eyes downcast. They nodded to Tom and Rowan, and then the three old men, their duty done, started back to the village.
Tom bit his lip as he watched them go, and Rowan could tell he was trying to keep himself from crying. There was no use hiding his grief. Rowan could tell he was being ravaged by it. His face was swollen and discolored, and his eyes were red and lifeless. Rowan had never seen him look so bad.
“You haven’t been sleeping, have you?” she asked, taking his hand as they walked home.
He shook his head and looked off into the trees. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I didn’t even really know her. People aren’t supposed to react like this. I feel so foolish.”
“No, you’re not foolish,” Rowan said. “I didn’t know her either, but for some reason, I’ve been sick with grief as well.”
He nodded. “If she’d died normally, it might be different, but to go like that—with such violence. And then everything since has been so warped, so gruesome.”
“It’s true,” Rowan said, a heaviness settling on her chest. “It’s as if a plague has descended on Nag’s End.”
Rowan watched as the crows flew overhead, northeast to southwest, and she was quick to make the sign of the Goddess.
“Things will be okay,” Tom said, that blank look still in his eyes. “I just need to get back to normal. I’ll pitch in more around the tavern. Work will help.”
“Do you want me to come visit you tomorrow? We could go on a walk.”
He turned and smiled at her—a genuine smile, the first sign of life she’d seen from him since Fiona’s death. “I’d like that.”
When they started back on the path to the village, Rowan heard something coming toward them through the trees. Since they were outside the village barrier, she was especially uneasy, and she tensed at the noise, but relaxed when Jude came into view. Tom groaned.
“What?” Rowan asked.
“I don’t want to see him right now.”
“He saved your life the other night. I have to say I didn’t expect that from him.”
“Jude is Jude. No one knows why he does what he does. Anyway, he’s driving me crazy lately—always pestering me to sleep or eat.”
“How awful of him,” Rowan laughed.
When Jude reached them, he was breathing heartily. “Father wants you at the inn,” he said to Tom. “Come on, let’s go.”
Rowan was offended that Jude didn’t bother to acknowledge her, and Tom looked to his friend with sympathy. “I’m going to walk Rowan home,” he said. “We’re past the village barrier.”
Jude tossed back his head in annoyance, and finally making eye contact with Rowan, he gave her a quick smirk. “Tom,” he said. “Father needs you right now. It’s about tonight’s hunt. He told me to fetch you as fast as I could. Rowan will be fine. She could take on a wolf any day of the week.”
“Jude,” Tom said, losing patience. “I’ll be home after I walk her.”
“Fine,” Jude said, closing his eyes in frustration. “I’ll walk her. Just hurry up and get home, will you?”
Tom seemed to think it over, and then he looked at Rowan. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked. Rowan nodded, and he set off quickly back through the shortcut to his end of the village, leaving her to walk with Jude, a wide berth between them.
“I have a message for you,” Jude said when they were alone.
She turned to look at him and saw that he was grinning at her.
“What?” she asked, barely able to believe her ears. “What can you possibly have to say to me?”
“It’s from Mama Lune,” he said. “She needs to talk to you. She says it’s an emergency.”
Rowan stopped in her tracks and looked at the strange, handsome boy she considered anything but a friend. “You must be joking.”
“I’m not,” he said, his dark eyes awash with wickedness. “Why do you think I had Tom run off like that?”
Rowan balked. “You mean your father doesn’t really need to speak with him?”
Jude shook his head. “The run will do him good. Clear his head. And I’m to take you through the woods to Mama Lune’s.”
He reached for her, and as he took her hand in his, she felt a strange electricity, a connection passing between them. Suddenly his eyes widened as if he’d felt it too, but Rowan pulled away.
“What does she want with me?”
“Did you not get the note from Mama Tetri?” he asked, and Rowan nearly stopped, she was so surprised. “She’s come to Nag’s End specifically to see you. Did you not know?”
“What?” Rowan asked, a sick feeling in her stomach. The idea of the witch traveling all the way to Nag’s End solely to speak with her filled her with foreboding. She knew for certain that she did not want to hear whatever the woman might have to say. It wasn’t that she believed in magic, but Bluewitches were diviners. What if this one had actually seen something about Rowan’s future? What if she knew something about Rowan that she herself did not want to know?
“If she wants to speak with me,” she said, clearing her throat, “she can come and knock on my door.”
Jude groaned. “You know she can’t do that.”
“Well, why not?”
“Your father hasn’t been exactly friendly to witches. And Mama Lune hasn’t liked him ever since he tried to have her sent away from the village.”
“My father did no such thing,” Rowan said, outraged.
“Sure he did. Back when we were small. She told me so.”
Rowan spoke deliberately, as if she were trying to explain something to a child. “Understand me now, Jude. I don’t care what that witch has to tell me. She’s no friend of mine, and I refuse to go off into the woods alone to seek the council of a charlatan.”
Jude laughed and shook his head. “I can assure you she’s no charlatan, and you won’t be alone. I’ll be with you.”
Rowan closed her eyes. “Jude, listen to me. The only thing I’d like less than spending time with a witch is spending time with you and a witch. Do you understand me?”
A dark wave passed over Jude’s exquisite features. “Fine,” he said, and taking a step away from her, he started walking back toward the woods. “Suit yourself.”
Rowan turned and started walking away from him, but after a few steps she turned back and was surprised to find he’d actually gone. She was alone, outside the village bounds, and night was drawing near. Whether goblins and fairies existed—and truth be told, in her heart of hearts, she thought they might—there was no question that a dark force was afoot in the Black Forest, and quite suddenly she was terrified to be alone outside the village barrier. And then she thought she heard something move somewhere back behind the trees. Wrapping her cloak tight around herself, she hurried along the path, keeping her eyes on the woods as she went. She did not relax until she felt her hand on the heavy oak of her front door.
Despite enthusiasm, the hunt turned up nothing—not so much as scatological evidence of the creature they sought. Jude went along with the others, pleased that he’d successfully convinced Tom, who was in no shape for a hunt, to remain at home. Yet as he made his way through the trees, Jude felt certain that while there had been something in these woods very recently, it was no longer there. He knew long before the hunt was over that their efforts would come to naught. But he also knew something else: whatever he’d sensed out there, had been sensing in the woods for some time now, a group of villagers—no matter how rich their weaponry—were no match for it. When he finally settled down to sleep at the break of dawn, weary from the night’s hunt, he felt a strange emotion—something he’d not felt since childhood. He tossed and turned, trying to quiet his heart, trying to comprehend the source of the heaviness there, and then he understood. He who had walked the night woods hundreds of times, he who had seen things out there that would make a grown man cry, was suddenly and utterly afraid.