Page 49 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
A horrid realisation rushed over me. This was more than just cursed earth. Fey blood held magic. Magic that could be used to summon dark things. Rituals that meant death.
Some of them were fey girls. It wasn’t uncommon for fey girls to go missing, most nobility offering a high price andpromises to those who bore their bastards, children they could pass off as mortal to breed magic into their lines. Only most of those girls weren’t seen again.
Emrys moved back to the other records in the far corner as I turned over the reports again, hating the bitter taste of fear that had coated my tongue.
A small cough caught my attention, taking me back to the hallway, another cough followed from just beyond the main doors. I went to the entrance, moving down a step and finding two small boys sat on a half-collapsed bench, just outside the healing house’s doorway. One was trying to wrap a bandage around the other’s thumb. They had a blue tinge to their skin, speckles of violet freckles and thick, dark-silver hair. Duvek, beings of the deep waters before they came to land. Creatures of great elemental powers before the purge. I didn’t think there were any magic-wielding duveks left, if the Council records were to be believed.
The boys continued to quietly bicker amongst themselves.
‘What seems to be the problem?’ I asked, startling the pair, who stood to attention like miniature soldiers.
‘Sorry, miss. I have a splinter,’ the younger boy muttered, looking down at his poor excuse for shoes as he held up his thumb for my consideration. ‘The mort tree got me.’
‘A mort tree?’ I ushered them back to sit down before I took his hand gently to examine his thumb. Just beneath the surface was the dark purple shadow of a splinter that I knew would burrow further into the flesh the minute an implement went near it.
‘They have the best berries,’ he offered quietly.
‘They also have the nastiest bite,’ I challenged, reaching into my pack and pulling out my healing kit, placing it on the ground so I could retrieve a salvor leaf. I laid it in my palm,allowing the heat of my magic to turn it to nothing but white ash. I dipped my finger in the powder and pressed it gently over the top of his thumb, watching the dark splinter beneath freeze in place. Stunned by a magic just as ancient as its own.
‘Are you a mage, miss?’ he whispered, leaning closer in wonder to see the points of my ears, so similar to his own.
‘No.’ I smiled, reaching into my pack for a sharp needle, making quick work of prying the dark object from beneath the boy’s skin, trying my best not to hurt him.
‘He’s been told three times to stay clear of that tree.’ His older companion sighed, coming closer to watch as the small thing came out.
‘The berries keep vanishing,’ the boy said with relief at the sight as I laid the dark worm-like splinter in my palm and reduced it to ash with a clench of my fist.
‘You can only pick mort berries during a full moon,’ I reasoned, getting back to my feet as I dusted the ash off my skirt. That was the tale my father had told me, cautious of my adventurous nature and the trees that grew beyond our house.
‘Where is this tree?’ I asked them, worried how far they had wandered to find it and on what cursed ground from the wars it was situated.
‘It’s over there.’ The boy pointed over my shoulder in the direction of the outskirts of the wood that surrounded the village, just down a small dirt path where some people attended to horses and moved carts through the village.
‘Maybe she’s a witch,’ his companion whispered.
‘She’s pretty enough to be one,’ the first boy replied loudly, forcing me to bite back a smile as I gathered up my healing pack.
‘You’ve stolen my line,’ came a sharp feminine voice from behind me, followed by the crack of a ripe apple being bitten.I rose to my feet in surprise, the boys darting away at the newcomer’s arrival.
Leaning on the stair rail mere inches away was a tall, lean woman. She wore a man’s shirt that hung provocatively off one shoulder, revealing skin covered in all manner of dark ink marks. The shirt was tucked into a mass of skirts, one side tucked into her belt, showing her worn, high leather boots.
Her auburn hair was braided back from her face and left to cascade down her back. She was clearly unbothered by the cold weather, considering me carefully before taking another bite of the fruit.
‘Are you one of the healers in charge?’ I asked, wondering where her apron was, or if she wasn’t a healer, what she was doing lingering around healing houses.
‘I hope not.’ She grinned, her amber eyes, heavily lined with dark makeup, flared a little brighter with amusement. ‘I see Emrys has finally arrived to cause trouble for us all.’
‘Do you want to speak to Lord Blackthorn?’ I frowned, unsure how she knew he was here.
‘He wouldn’t like that.’ She grinned wickedly, revealing that two of her teeth were fanged in the way some ancient feys were. ‘Besides, if I wanted to listen to lies, I’d listen to my own.’
Her words tangled inside my mind. A clear warning pressed between them.
Here, came whispered on the wind, turning my head sharply to consider the forest, seeing the strangeness to the trees and remembering the boy’s injury. Mort bark shouldn’t be here.
‘Who are you?’ I asked, turning back to the woman. But there was nobody there. Just an apple core on the ground where she had stood.
If she was ever there at all. My heart thudded in my chest with unease but I didn’t have time for her riddles as I movedacross the village clearing to the beginning of the forest where the boys had pointed. I reached the wall of trees and had to pick up my skirts to avoid the brambles that had overtaken the grassy ground.
