Once again Will spotted the blue eyes he had seen before, framed this time by raven-black hair as a second girl poked her head out the window. This girl seemed older, somewhere closer to Will’s age, and she seemed unhappy with Laina’s escape plan, but she kept her silence.
Laina motioned to her friend again, and the second girl turned around and eased out the same way, feet first.
The two girls were hidden from the view of their guardians by the carriage itself, and they carefully snuck towards the bushes across from where Will watched. He couldn’t help but admire their craftiness, for both the driver and the footman seemed oblivious.
Backing away from his home, Will began stealthily circling through the woods, working his way around so he could watch the girls and see what they were up to. For a moment he thought he might have lost them, since he had to take a longer route to avoid being seen, but then he heard a rustling ahead.
He grinned. They were good, but it was nearly impossible to move without making some noise with so many leaves on the ground. Reaching down, he pulled his thin leather shoes off. Barefoot, he could probably get much closer without alerting them. Trying to sneak up on others in the forest was a game that he and his cousin Eric often played with each other, and he was fairly certain of his skills.
If I can’t follow a couple of spoiled brats from the city, I’ll eat my shoes, he thought confidently. He wedged his footwear into the crook of a familiar tree so he could find them later, then set off after his quarry.
Will wasn’t perfectly stealthy—that sort of silent movement just wasn’t possible with the early fall leaves carpeting the forest floor—but he didn’t have to be. He only had to be quieter than the two girls, who were no longer even attempting to move silently.
He couldn’t keep them in sight, either. From his games with the other children of the village, he knew all too well that the human eye was designed to detect movement, so he had to follow them by staying at a distance and keeping them within earshot. Over the course of the next ten minutes, he thought he had lost them several times, when they got too far ahead, but he had the distinct advantage of knowing the area. He was able to guess which way they would go, because he already knew the easiest way through this part of the Glenwood. The two strangers would follow the path of least resistance.
They’ll probably stop at the mossy rock, he told himself.
The mossy rock was a large, flat monolith that sat in a clearing not far ahead, and it was a popular spot for the children of Barrowden. In the spring it was a beautiful place to picnic, when all the wildflowers were blooming, but even now, in early autumn, it was a magical place to play or relax.
“Look, Selene! It’s a castle!” That was Laina’s voice, so Will assumed the other girl must be Selene.
“It’s just a big rock,” responded Selene dryly.
“A magic rock,” insisted Laina. “In fact, it’s probably a fairy fortress, disguised by illusion to prevent our eyes from seeing the fair folk.”
Selene snorted. “Bollocks. I don’t sense the slightest bit of magic coming from it. You should know better, Laina. You’ve already begun your training.”
Laina sighed. “Can’t you play pretend anymore? Why do you have to be so boring?”
“If you want magic, call Tyranil,” responded Selene. “You don’t have to pretend.”
“He’d just burn everything,” said Laina, her voice sounding glum. “That’s not very fun.”
“I’ll show you how to make a grass wreath,” suggested Selene.
Will was at the edge of the glen now, and he could see the two girls sitting on the sunny side of the big, mossy rock. A thought came to him and he smiled. He’d give them a scare.
The ground of the clearing was soft and damp, and there weren’t many leaves. Working his way slowly to the left, he crept out into the open from the opposite side, where the bulk of the stone would keep him out of their view. Moving ever so slowly, he made his way forward, taking care to avoid rustling the grass. Once he reached the rock, he could come around from one side and surprise them.
His plan worked, and soon he was just a few feet from the two unsuspecting girls, peering at them from around the rock. Will paused then, studying them. The older girl, Selene, struck him as particularly beautiful.
Will had never cared much for girls—most of those in the village were either much older, much younger, or extremely annoying—but Selene seemed cast from a different mold. She had a certain grace to her movements, a calmness and surety about her that he wasn’t used to seeing. That combined with her glossy black hair and the somber, midnight-blue dress she wore made her seem almost otherworldly, like one of the fair folk that Laina had been rambling on about before.
Selene’s hands were deftly weaving long blades of grass into a wreath while her friend watched. Too bad it isn’t spring, or she could have put flowers in it, thought Will, having forgotten his plan to scare them. He was thoroughly entranced.
“I want to try,” said Laina, inspired by Selene’s efforts. The younger girl turned in Will’s direction, and but for the fact that she was staring at the ground, she would surely have spotted him. Moving forward while bent over, she searched for a good patch of thick grass to pluck.
Utterly still, Will watched her approach, until he spotted a sinuous, green length on the ground just before her. Oblivious, Laina’s hand reached for the grass that was hiding the viper.
“Look out!” shouted Will, leaping forward and shoving the smaller girl to push her back.
Laina stumbled and fell hard, several feet away, and after recovering from her first shock, began to scream.
Selene jumped up, dropping her wreath. “Don’t touch her!” she yelled, rushing forward to defend her companion. She produced a small dagger, which she held in front of her, though Will hadn’t noticed her wearing one previously.
Will’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the sharp steel pointed at him. “It was a snake!” he announced, trying to reassure them. Looking down, he spotted the viper near his feet, beginning to make an escape through the grass. Without pausing to think, he bent quickly, his hand snapping out to catch the reptile just behind its head. Straightening back up, he held it out to one side. “See? It would have bitten her.”
Laina, who had just begun to recover from her first fright, screamed again at the sight of the reptile. Selene’s response was more measured, though. The older girl’s eyes widened, but she stepped back and lowered her knife.
Grinning, Will twisted at the waist and threw the snake toward the far side of the clearing, where it couldn’t threaten them. “In another month they’ll be asleep, but it’s still warm enough right now that you have to be careful,” he told them, confident in his knowledge.
Then Will heard a crashing noise coming from behind him. The bushes shook and branches broke as the carriage driver charged into the clearing. Spotting Will, he ran forward. “Get away from them!” shouted the driver, his face red with anger.
“I was just—”
The world exploded with pain as the driver’s fist caught Will in the side of the head, sending him tumbling to the ground. Stunned, Will stared upward in confusion, trying to clear his head. In his ears he could hear the girls yelling, but he couldn’t make sense of their words.