The Hob's Bargain

me something, but I couldn’t focus on it. I lifted up the quilt—it wasn’t one of Ma’s, she never used flowers in her patterns.
    I stared at the bodies lying in the wagon. Death had marked them so they didn’t look like the people I had loved. Someone had closed their eyes, but I tucked the horse blanket over Daryn’s head anyway, climbing on the wheel to get close enough to do it. Then I covered them back over with the flowered quilt.
    â€œI think I have some information that the village elders need to hear,” I said, stepping down from the wagon.
    â€œAbout the raiders?” asked Kith. “From what you said, you didn’t even see them.”
    â€œMmm?” I looked up at him. If I’d told Daryn about my vision, he might still be alive. I’d promised to tell him about my sight if something bad happened. An atonement I couldn’t make now except by proxy, with the village elders standing in Daryn’s stead.
    I even had a good reason to do it, to take my punishment. Magic was loose in the mountains again. I could feel the pulse of it under my feet. I didn’t know exactly how it happened, or why. But Gram’s stories had always ended….
    The old woman smiled at the children who were bundled in quilts on either side of her.
    â€œBut someday,” she said, “someday, the magic will return. And with it will come the white beast, the sprites, and the giants. The gremlins, the trolls, and all that is fey.”
    â€œBut Gram,” piped the boy, “won’t they be angry?”
    If Quilliar had been right, Fallbrook needed to be warned.
    I spoke quickly, hoping no one had noticed my lapse. “The quickest way to the village is back to our—to my home and down by way of the path next to Soul’s Creek to the river.”
    â€œWhat do you want to talk to the elders about?” pursued Kith doggedly.
    â€œI have the sight ,” I said.
    There, it was said, never to be taken back. I could not have more effectively set myself apart from the villagers if I had slit my own throat. I couldn’t bring myself to care. I would tell the elders, and pay the price they demanded.
    The numbness that had protected me since I climbed out of the cellar was fading, being replaced by pain so great it made me want to scream. No one left of my family. No warm husband to huddle beside when I awoke to a crisp, spring morning—never again.
    I had done my screaming in the cellar. I turned back down the trail toward—well, it didn’t seem like home anymore. It had been that for—I glanced unobtrusively at the sun—only a little more than a day. The numbness settled back down again, like a soft quilt protecting me from the cold.
    â€œWhat did she say?” asked one of the men I didn’t know very well. I thought his name was Ruprick.
    â€œShe’s in shock,” said Albrin shortly. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
    Kith’s yellow gelding passed me and moved to block my path. Kith sheathed his sword and held out his hand. There was nothing in his face, but when I took his hand, he swung me up behind him, much as he had done in those long-ago days when I’d been his best friend’s little pest of a sister.
    His horse, Torch, danced a little, throwing me forward and giving me an excuse to press my forehead against Kith’s back. If I cried, I could trust him not to tell. Though he’d become wary, behaving as if we all were strangers to him, he wasn’t a stranger to me. I knew he could be counted on to keep secrets.
    The group was slowed by the oxen, and Kith ventured ahead now and then, sometimes leaving the trail entirely. I could tell he was looking for signs of the raiders, though their trail had turned west just past the croft, away from the village. I hadn’t seen any sign of them after that. Since Kith remained silent, I assumed he hadn’t either.
    Even insulated by my sorrow, I could sense the wild magic that had been gathering since I’d first felt it. The power caused me to sweat as if this were high summer rather than spring. The air was growing heavy with it. I felt as if I were breathing underwater—but no one else seemed to be affected by it. The animals knew, though. Even the imperturbable oxen started to act restless. The horses danced and skittered like untried two-year-olds.
    Torch stopped abruptly, bracing himself. His hips dropped