I’d hate to think of you and Gram alone in the cottage with naught but a fire-poker to fight off the spiders.” They walked a while in silence, and then Lanwyn shrugged the bow off her shoulder. “You never listen to me,” said her cousin. “I’d rather talk to any creature than put an arrow through it,” said Widfast. “I suppose this is our last hunt,” said Lanwyn. Then she turned and faced her cousin, and together they went into the woods. “Yes, Mother,” said Lanwyn, shouldering her bow. “This cart shan’t pack itself, and woe betide you if I have to load it all alone.” “Back before mid-day,” said Lanwyn’s mother. The girls lit out early the next morning. When she awoke she was drenched in sweat, auburn hair matted to her face, the cat sniffing the air, fangs bared at an invisible dread lingering on the breeze. She dreamed of a falcon, wing pierced by a black-fletched arrow, spiraling out of the sky like a maple-seed.

She dreamed of a shadow returning to Mirkwood, a shadow heralded by bitterness and rot. But she had a hard and sad look about her, as if defeated. Lanwyn, who had sat in silence with her bowl of stew, looked up with tears in her eyes. I could fish off the pier and we could always be family.” I could learn to paddle a boat across the long lake. “Then shouldn’t we go too?” said Widfast, her face reddening.

The latter looked away, returning her gaze to the basin where she scrubbed a skillet with a mottled rag. The only thing the forest is saying is that it’s high time us Woodmen moved on.

“There you go,” said Lanwyn’s mother, looking up from her pile of dishes. But you’re right, there is a shadow of late. “It has been a’fevered since long before you were born. “It’s been changed,” said Gram, sipping a mug of mulled berrywine. A grey cat scratched his ears and laid near the fire, waiting for Gram to feed him his platter of offal and bones. Lanwyn’s mother built a strong fire and had the cauldron bubbling while she finished the day’s cleaning. Gram skinned the rabbit as she always did, and stewed it with parsley and rosemary and wild carrots. The arrow pierced the coney’s breast, and it tumbled, lifeless, into a mound of fallen leaves.Īt supper, the family dined well. In a single motion, Lanwyn readied, nocked an arrow, and loosed it into the clearing. Besides, you’ve got your creatures,” said Lanwyn. “But,” said Widfast, her chin beginning to tremble, “I’ll be all alone.” I’ve heard they’ve built a great city on the lake, and that it bustles with merchants and fishermen and all kinds of interesting folk.” “I’ll have Mother, and besides, there will be more people than I’ve ever seen. The newt, in a gesture of comfort, scrabbled up Widfast’s arm and took a rest on her shoulder. “Spiders or not, Mother’s made up her mind. “There’s no more evil in a spider than in a Man,” said Widfast. The coney, perhaps sensing its chance at freedom, hopped into the underbrush. She wakes up in a sweat.” Lanwyn lowered her bow and clambered down the tree. Mother hasn’t had a night of sleep since she heard. “There are spiders in the forest, they’re saying. “Do you think they have hunting in Dale?” she said. She took aim on a coney, his nose quivering, his eyes black, a shiver racing from his haunches to his skull. She hopped up on her branch and raised her bow again. “I don’t hear anything besides idleness,” said Lanwyn. “How do you know what they’re saying? Everyone knows lizards can’t speak.” “You’re always talking to the creatures,” said her cousin, leaning an elbow against the trunk. He said it’s not long before he’ll have to leave.” “The newt says the forest is getting darker,” said Widfast. The girls were young, not yet fifteen, though they seemed still and comfortable amid the vines and dirt and strange music of the woods. At the base of the tree, Widfast sat cross-legged, chattering quietly with a ruby-colored newt. Here a toad squeezing into a mud-hole, there a rabbit sniffing the air. Before her stretched an acre of misty ground, the loamy soil grown over with creeper vines and dismal, thorny thrush. The clearing was good for coney hunting, and Lanwyn clambered onto a strong, low branch to nock her bow. ‘Tis not far now.” She bent to squeeze under the diagonal of a fallen tree, and her cousin followed.

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