Page 18 of Gilded Locks

“I’m not sure. It could be a local merchant.”

“Might not be.”

“One of us should go in case he’s still there.”

“Hopefully he hasn’t sold it.”

“Yes. That would be unfortunate.”

Grace kept trying to say something, to break through this private discussion happening in front of her, but her parents didn’t even seem aware of her anymore.

“Okay,” Father said to Mother, “I’ll tend to the wheat and check in with the Pecoras. You can take the wagon. It’s not suspicious to say we forgot something.”

Mother nodded. “Just what I was thinking.”

Grace was sitting with arms folded and glare in place when her parents finally acknowledged her again.

“That was good information, fledgling. We have a plan. Your father needs your help in the fields tomorrow, so get some sleep.”

Grace opened her mouth, but her parents had already turned their backs on her and walked away.

Watching them, Grace’s anger faded to discouragement.

She rose and headed to her room to begin preparations for bed. Her parents’ praise felt hollow, offered so offhand that it was likely just a platitude. Their dismissal of Garrick following her showed they didn’t value her insight.

She was still a trainee to them, a tagalong to Father in his role.

She wanted to do something important. But what?

With a thrill of excitement, Grace realized she’d forgotten to mention the figure she’d seen in the forest.

Grace plopped onto her bed.

She could go to them now, but what would she say?I thought I saw someone in the woods, but I also saw a deer. And there was little moonlight.

No. They’d brush it off.

But she wouldn’t. She would investigate this on her own. And prove herself to be a capable Protector.

Chapter 5

Atwig snapped beneath Grace’s foot. She froze, senses heightened. The forest stood still, bathed in the earthy greens and browns of late summer. Birds chirped, wind rustled treetops, and a rodent skittered along tree roots. There was nothing human but her out here.

She let out a deliberately slow breath and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

She had to be more careful this near the forest fortress.

While it was a relief that Mayor Nautin saw no reason to relinquish tax money for patrols to protect Sherwood Forest, there was always a chance one of Grace’s fellow Fidarans might venture into the trees in search of beech nuts, maple, fallen branches, or deer.

Being sighted wouldn’t be detrimental—they’d think her out collecting or hunting as they were—but Grace’s heart tightened at the thought of a passerby overhearing the words of yieldingthat allowed her to pass through the ward of resistance surrounding the fortress in the middle of the west region of Sherwood Forest. What good were locks if you handed out the key? At least the ward of diversion wasn’t so easily circumvented.

Assuming it still functioned.

Grace breathed deeply of the morning air, letting the chilly mix of sweet maple, nutty beech, and spicy oak swirl together within her and waken her senses, then finished her journey at a run, fast and light.

When Grace arrived at the outer realm of the forest fortress, cold lethargy seeped slowly from the tip of her head, through her neck, her core, and into her limbs. Fogginess invaded her vision and thoughts. The world around her condensed into heaviness. She watched herself heave legs that suddenly weighed twice what they should, and wondered if she or time had slowed.

In the back of her mind blossomed an image of the most vibrant, calming forest glade, filled with green-clad friends, and with it, a confidence that she’d find that paradise farther east.

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