“It is dangerous for you to be alone?—”
I shushed her, and we followed Ilsit and Fox inside. The four of us scrambled around the farmhouse we all shared. It was often cramped and felt like it was too close quarters, and with our scurrying, we were tripping over each other in our efforts to gather every illegal thing and pile it outside. Ilsit, her arms being the strongest, was packing the jars and tins into crates, stacking them in a wheelbarrow, and making for the tree line outside the fence.
On her second return from the forest, she gasped out, “Gods, I wish Tessa were here. She’s got the back and shoulders of an ox.”
I let out a nervous laugh.
“Hush,” Jade cried, standing behind me in the doorway.
Ilsit and I froze.
Fox’s ears had always been keener than my own, and inside the house she was already signing,I can hear horses. I can hear horses.
“Make for Nyossa. All three of you,” I squawked, nearly knocking down Jade as I hurried inside to look around wildly for anything left over, particularly our tins of moss. In our frantic half hour, we had actually been able to remove most traces of any medicinals that would have been deemed unlawful.
But we had forgotten the books.
3
NOW: PYRE
Ilsit had groused about leaving me alone and Fox had started waving her hands, but Jade had pushed Ilsit towards the wheelbarrow, one last stockpile of goods inside it. Jade had then grabbed Daisy and shoved her in Fox’s arms, ordering the girl to follow her. Jade was so rarely anything but soft-spoken that the directive stunned them into obedience.
The priest had done just as Ilsit had guessed. He had visited the keep and brought reinforcements with him. Mounted on horses, what seemed to be a dozen men made for my farm on the dust road that led from my property to town. At the forefront were Lord Torm Sheridan, ruler of this settlement, Bertram, his firstborn son, and Gerard, the captain of not only the lord’s keep guard but of the soldiers always stationed here, a gift from Perpatane, the country that had brought their religion here. Father Starling also rode with the lords and the captain, the retinue of guards behind them.
I stood in my front yard as they neared, hands on hips, a look of resignation on my face, as if I admitted defeat. I had kept the gate in the fence open as if to welcome them.
Please let there be not a smudge of moss paste anywhere in thathouse, I prayed to Mother Earth. She was my favorite of the Tintarian gods. The people of Tintar called them the Farthest Four, but I just thought of them as my gods.
“Roberta Finch,” Lord Torm called when his horse neared the fence line. “You have been caught with contraband in the street. I know what it is midwives often dispense, what it is your teacher taught you. You will allow us entry onto your property and into your home. To save your mortal soul, we must purge this evil from it.”
I nodded. “I understand, my lord. Please feel free to tie your horses to the fence. I would offer my stables if they were larger.”
The lord and I exchanged a weighted glare. He had once protected me for the sake of others he loved even though he had no love for me. The look he gave me now said that he was ready to be done with those indulgences. Like Starling, he was closer to sixty than fifty, perhaps even older. And like the priest, he still cut a formidable figure.
Starling squinted down at me from his horse. He was unusually quiet.
“My brother is off traveling,” said Bertram, drawing his horse up next to his father’s and the priest’s. “Thane’s not here to intervene this time. It’s time you paid for all your crimes, woman.”
Torm murmured something to his son, but kept his gaze on me.
Gerard, the captain, nodded at the eight guards he had with him and they all dismounted, secured their horses, and marched inside my house.
Bile rose in my throat. My house, my farm—the place I had dwelt with my mentor Magda, the property she had left to me, the place I had built a life with my husband and then with Fox, the place Jade had called home since Avery died, the refuge Ilsit had run to—was being trampled by thugs. But I remained outside, standing, looking up at the lord, his oldest son, the priest, and the captain.
“Any medicinals? Anything to kill a babe?” Bertram yelled. “I know she has it. I have seen her with blood on her hands.”
A gray-clad soldier came to the door. He did not look familiar,and I guessed at him being not a man originally hired by the lord but yet another Perpatanian installed by their king in the castle keep. “No, my lord. Lots of herbals drying from the rafters. Lots of things to make oils or tonics, but nothing from the list of offenses.”
“No mother’s moss?” called out Torm.
The man shook his head.
Gerard dismounted and walked into the yard, calling out, “There is sure to be some moss in there. Keep looking!”
“Oh well,” said the priest. “Perhaps I am mistaken.”
Lord Sheridan turned to the priest. “Father, I doubt that.” He looked over at the captain. “We search that house top to bottom. This has been a long time coming. Hasn’t it, Madam Finch? You’ve received lenience from the church for the entirety of your life.”
