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“I’m not sure. Best to ask for Hellena at the Inn. She might have some left or know where you could get one.”
I smile and make my way through the crowd until I see a sign for the Nightingale Inn. Looping Meera’s reins around a post outside, I murmur my apologies. It’s going to take a lot of apples to soothe her nerves after this.
A woman wearing a beautiful ruby-red dress exits the Inn, and I slip in behind her, giving my eyes a minute to adjust to the low light. To the left, a steep, narrow staircase leads to a second floor, and to the right is a large room with tables and chairs where people sip what I assume to be tea from pretty painted cups.
It’s as busy inside as it is out, and I scan the room for someone who looks like they might be in charge. I spot a round woman with rosy cheeks and a quick smile, and when she makes eye contact with me, she crosses the room, her gaze never leaving mine even as she waves at people who call out a greeting.
“I was told to ask for Hellena?” I say when she stops in front of me. “I’m in need of a place to sleep.”
“I’m all out of rooms, I’m afraid,” she says, folding her hands in front of her.
“I’ll take anything with a bed,” I tell her. “I’m not picky.”
She tilts her head, and the intensity with which she studies me makes the hair rise on the back of my neck. It’s like she’s reading words written on my insides.
“I do have something else. But it’s on the outskirts. Against the forest.”
“Private?”
Something lights in her eyes at my question. Understanding, maybe. She nods. “My daughter used to live there with her husband, but they moved up north a few weeks ago so he could look for different work. I asked her to wait until after Lady Kaia’s feast day, but she insisted they couldn’t delay.” Hellena sighs. “My loss is your gain, it would seem.”
“The price?”
Hellena waves her hand in the air. “Let me show it to you first. I only have a few minutes, but the walk’s not long.”
I follow her back the way I’d come, freeing Meera from the post and trailing Hellena through the crowd in silence. The further we get from the village center, the less busy it becomes, and I feel Meera relax beside me.
“Are you from the north?” Hellena asks me when we’re able to walk side by side on the road.
“No. I was born in Dremen.”
“In the land of the Goddess of Nightmares.”
I nod. My life has certainly been full of them. I’ve always wondered if that was because of where I was born or a trick of the Fates.
The road curves to the right, and the edge of the forest comes into view. Acaria is a vast land with seas to the north and east, mountains to the west, and hills and valleys and fields in its center. The southernmost part is edged by a dense forest of blackened trees, the ground crawling with mist.
Most people avoid the forest, but I have always felt drawn to it. The thick trees with their branches like reaching fingers and the way sunlight never seems to reach the forest floor.
When my parents died, I was sent to live with my father’s brother and his wife. Every spare minute I had, and I didn’t have many, I wandered down to the forest’s edge and basked in the quiet. The air always felt heavy, charged. It called to something inside me, no matter how many times my uncle tried to beat it out of me.
The forest is the line between Acaria and the Shadow Realm, he said. There were untold dangers in its depths. Beasts eager to pounce on little girls and eat their insides. For as much as he hated me, I would have thought he’d delight in letting me wander in too far so he could find my mangled body and be done with me. Maybe he delighted in beating me more.
“Here we are,” Hellena says, pulling me from my thoughts.
We’ve stopped in front of a rough log cabin that looks as if it’s been built from the same black trees from the forest. That only makes me love it more. It’s not very big. If I had to guess from the outside, I’d say it has two rooms at most. But really, all I require is a good bed and a door that locks from the inside.
She opens the door, and it swings in silently. I release Meera to graze, and she dips her head to nip at the blades of grass. I’ll have to find somewhere warm to board her before the weather turns. But I have a few weeks yet before that happens.
As I suspected, the cabin has two rooms. But it isn’t empty. There’s a small table with two chairs on one side of the large room and a wide bench piled with cushions and blankets on the other side. Between them is a fireplace large enough for a small child to stand in.
The room beyond has a bed in it that’s bigger than I expected. The mattress looks overstuffed with feathers from here, and I sigh at the thought of a good night’s rest on something that doesn’t include hay or dirt.
“Your daughter didn’t take any of her things?”
Hellena gives me an indulgent smile. “They wanted to travel light and fast. They took their plates and dishes and blankets, of course. You can buy all that in the village for a good price if you like.”
I’m not sure I believe the story, but if it gets me this secluded cabin on the edge of the wood, I won’t push it too far. Unless she demands an exorbitant sum.
