“They’re afraid.” I shook my head. “Of me.”
Barlen scurried faster beside me. “Shadowick survives because people are careful. It’s not you they’re terrified of. It’s the Priestess.”
“But she’s not here.”
“Her people are.” He looked up at me. “There are eyes and ears everywhere.”
I slowed near a bakery window fogged with steam. I looked through the glass and was surprised to see baskets of rye and dinner rolls. There was a woman inside peeking over the counter, but once she spotted me, she immediately turned away.
My shadow mark burned softly beneath my clothes as I spotted a group of men huddled on the corner. They glanced at me and tightened their circle as they spoke in whispers.
“What are they saying about me?” I asked quietly.
Barlen made a nervous little sound. “Nothing.”
I laughed quietly. “That’s another lie.”
“They know who you are.” He turned and stopped.
“And who is that exactly?” I asked, glancing back at the men.
“You’re the Academy witch.”
I wasn’t Maeve, a mother, or a Headmistress. I was simply the Academy witch. I suppose it was easier to make an enemy of someone without personal characteristics, family, and quirky traits.
A cart rattled past us, pulled by a creature that resembled a horse if horses occasionally had glowing white eyes and breathed smoke through their nostrils. The driver never looked directly at me, but I caught the symbol stitched onto his sleeve.
A root with a shadow. Everything fed downward.
My gaze drifted over the village again as I watched the shops locked too tightly and the people whispering behind curtains and street corners.
This was how you planted the seed of distrust and fed the fear that kept the roots burning alive and well as fear pressed into every crack of Shadowick so thoroughly it had become strength.
But I could feel something just beneath it… a movement or pressure.
There was a strange, restless current that reminded me of the Academy right before something important happened.
Hope possibly?
Shadowick was churning.
That was the only word for it. Ideas were tumbling silently in people’s minds. Connections were being made when the answers didn’t make sense. It took time, but eventually, when the walls crumbled down around them enough…they just might choose something different.
We were still standing on the sidewalk when I let out a deep breath.
“What keeps it going?” I murmured more to myself than anything.
Barlen’s ears flattened instantly. “Do not ask that.”
“Why?”
“Because people disappear after asking questions like that.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frighten you.” The little creature was scared. I could see it in his eyes and his quick movements.
“Barlen.”
His whiskers twitched anxiously.
