I sighed and straightened my shoulders.
“I did,” I said. “I wouldn’t mind some help.”
31
Ash didn’t ask anyquestions during our ride to Miriam’s shop. If he was bursting with curiosity, he didn’t show it, but he eventually spoke when I knocked on the door.
“This isn’t really a snail shop, is it?” he said.
The door swung open. “Yes, it is, sonny. It’s just that no one has had the good sense to purchase anything yet.” Miriam stood at the door frame, looking ridiculously short compared to the prince. She crossed her arms and glared at me. “I thought you were imprisoned.”
I pulled Ash inside without waiting for an invitation. “We need to go to Witch Village. Now.”
Miriam gave him a grave look. “The last time I let a human pass through it resulted in death and heartbreak,” she said. “Are you trustworthy?”
Ash looked to me, his brows drawn. He wanted me to answer for him, but his distrust still stung. That was something I wouldn’t easily forget. Yet he agreed to follow me here even when I told him of Lana’s role in the poisoning. Though I sensed his discomfort, he was trying. And that was enough for me.
“He is.”
Miriam sighed and made her usual route to the back room. Ash and I followed. She activated the bricks, revealing the gaping black passageway that only a month before I had been afraid of entering. Now, everything depended on where it led.
“Good luck with whatever you’re up to,” Miriam said. “But if you end up dead, it’s not my fault.”
I knelt and embraced her, burying my nose in her shawls. Her scent of incense and lavender oil was overwhelming up close. “Thank you. You’ve done more for me than I could ever repay you for.”
Miriam looked flustered when I pulled away. “Well, get on with it,” she said in a wavering voice, shooing us into the passageway.
When the wall sealed itself, Ash took my arm. His hold was as tight as mine was during our visit to the dungeons.
“I can’t see a thing,” he said.
I smiled in spite of myself. I didn’t want him to believe I had forgiven him, so I was grateful for the lack of light. “It discourages trespassers from going any further,” I said. “There are no real directions. We have to walk forward for long enough until the passageway opens.”
“Fascinating! We could use something like this for the treasury.”
Eventually the door to Witch Village appeared. I pushed it open. Hundreds of lights gleamed from the hill, the sky bejeweled with stars. Ash’s jaw hung open as he took in the fields of crops and the village in the distance.
