Three Kings, One prey

r

this. Gasher Crane and his son Boris, with his fat neck were i

r beating like a good girl,

de my cotton dress cling to me. The hem was in tatters and I was without the cracked shoes they had made me put up with for three winters. Wild bramble had put

ant to

Baron Eder, that old ruin of a man with his greasy wrinkles who couldn't be bothered to turn into so much as a mouse, had set his eyes on me

sand o

t a smile on, you stupid girl," she'd bellowed, "the Baron and his lot will be here at first light to make th

ld be no quarter shown. They would put chains on me like a hound and h

fusal to let me have clean water. Off in the distance was the smudge of the Whispering Woods against the horizon. Forbidden

s there

town over, where all of Gasher's "ward" was known to them and they would do their honourable duty and see me return

time of day. I had my whole life to know the likes of Gash

the damn woods! You f

. I was wiry with endurance from years of hard work and not enough to eat, no muscle to speak of, but my s

ks and pines were thick enough to put an end to any light from the full moon that had se

t her go and be eaten by the shades, you idiot, maybe that will te

crawling back before the sun i

rs and cold. They would think they had value for

istance, an owl hooting or some small creature skittering by. Still I put one foot in front of the other. In my head I could see I was li

gasping for air. Thirst and hunger were upon me as well as a weariness I could not put into words. The back of me throbbed from Mertle's skillet

then opened

ner of trap, an old hunting pit perhaps. I came down hard, what seemed a full story's drop, on a floor of slick dirt a

lity to draw breath. When I did, the odour of it reached me. A musky thing, serpentine, part

f scales on the dirt. Th

e, I wrenched myself into a sitting position to h

ral tunnels. The floor was more than dirt. It was alive with snakes, a writhing mass of them. Dozens, if not hundreds. Tiny brown gardeners and pythons of a dark hue and leng

r and they had me

ce between us but the tunnel was too slick and my ankle would not allow it

ition, fangs sunk in deep. For a moment it stayed put to

of my lungs, loud enou