Haven 3 Shadow Magic (Haven Series 3) (27 page)

“I’m not very hungry tonight.”

“Strange. A girl in your condition normally has quite an appetite.”

Mari made no reply. Somehow, every moment of denial kept the truth away from her mind and kept her going. What had she been thinking? She had told Puck they would owe each other nothing after they had lain together. That was a fine arrangement for a male. But it had proven disastrous for her.

Still, her mother’s hands were on her hips. She stood closer now, looming over Mari. Mari said nothing. She fidgeted with the ties to her cloak.

Mother bade her to follow and led her outside into the cold, fresh night air. They went to get firewood together. It was there, in the woodshed, that Mari confessed she was indeed carrying a child. She did not say who the father was. Not yet.

Mother’s lips were compressed into two firm lines. The lecture was long and stern and Mari fully expected it would come to blows, but it didn’t.

Mother told her that they would not tell father, not yet. Maybe not ever. They would go visit an old woman in the forest. A woman who sold potions and poultices. She was a Fob woman, and she was wise in these matters. Mother said that they would talk to this old Fob woman in the forest, and they would see what could be done.

Mari blinked back her tears, wondering what she meant. What
could
be done, after all?

Mother left her there in the woodshed alone, before any more questions could be asked in private. Mari loaded up her arms with firewood and staggered back to the farmhouse.

She wondered where Puck was and what he was doing.

* * *

Piskin had been bitter and vengeful before. He had been robbed of his lady fair, the maid Lanet Drake, after only a few happy hours. He had been abused by Dando, and although Dando was dead, that abuse he still listed in Piskin’s private column of debts unpaid.

The abuses had not stopped there, however. Oh no, fate and every other actor on the stage had a ready foot to kick poor Piskin. After Dando’s friends had chased him from his fairly acquired crib, he had tried to seek reasonable compensation. When another of his kind named Tomkin had stolen the Blue Jewel, Piskin had sought to seize it. After all, it was only right that the property of the dead Dando become his. Dando had greatly wronged him and therefore first claim went to the wronged party. Any court would have stood with him, he felt sure. It was irrelevant that none of the Wee Folk had ever respected the rulings of any court in history. Fair was fair.

But, had Tomkin handed over the Jewel, that which was clearly Piskin’s due? Far from it, instead the vicious bastard had done him a grave injury. His hand was off, and wouldn’t likely regrow for decades, perhaps a century.

If one of his glass-like eyes could have cried, Piskin would have shed a tear for his severed hand. What good was a changeling with a missing hand? How would one carry off a babe with but a single hand? Worse, far, far, worse, was the second question: what mother would accept a semblance of her child when that child was suddenly missing a hand? She would at the very least consult a physician and demand an explanation. Piskin knew that physicians were charlatans, the same as he, but if there was one thing a sham-artist did well, it was spotting others of his own kind.

And so it was that Piskin had no chance of seeking solace in the arms of a fresh maid. That avenue of joy, which he had waited out the centuries of the Pact to experience again, was cut off from him, just as surely as his hand had been removed.

What he dwelt upon now, as he sat upon a tree stump in the gloom of the Deepwood, brooding, was something else entirely. He wanted revenge. He wanted blood and pain and most of all, he wanted his enemies to regret greatly what they had done to him. They would be sorrowful they had ever heard the name of Piskin.

Accordingly, he had investigated the players involved in his mistreatment. He had asked among the growing throng of fools and run-abouts that Tomkin had gathered to him. These dupes believed the black-hearted knave Tomkin to be some kind of lord, some kind of hero. They didn’t tell him much and he knew he was unwelcome, but he learned of Brand and the axe and the disposition of the other Jewels.

Each of the powers involved seemed well accounted for. Brand had the axe, Tomkin had Lavatis, Hob had the horn Osang. The possession of each item of power was known, save for one. That one was the bloodhound. What had happened to that creature? What
was
that creature?

Piskin intended to find out. He sought out the one person who possibly hated Dando, Tomkin and Brand as much as he did. The one person who had been wronged by these foul tricksters. Oberon.

Oberon, Lord of the Shining Folk and sire of many of them, had not been seen much of late. He no longer danced upon the mounds. At twilight, he did not accost maidens and play his pipes as had ever been his favorite pastime. Piskin imagined that somewhere, in the Twilight Lands, Oberon was sulking. Perhaps he was bitter, even as Piskin was. Perhaps his hate ran as deep, and the wrongs heaped upon him were as poison in his mind.

Piskin smiled at the thought. It would be good to have a fellow vengeful comrade. He set off around the nearest mound, starting at midnight. Nine times widdershins did he circle the mound, and with each circling he became less distinct to those in the mortal world.

After the ninth circuit, he vanished completely.

END Excerpt

Be sure to read the rest of the Haven Series by B. V. Larson!

HAVEN SERIES

Amber Magic

Sky Magic

Shadow Magic

Dragon Magic

Blood Magic

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