Page 106 of A Land So Wide
“Do you…do you speak English?” Greer asked, heart faltering. There were a few groups of hunters and nomads from the south who occasioned through Mistaken, looking to trade. They never stayed for long, knowing to cross the town’s border well before sunset.
The stranger took a step back, eyeing her warily. Her mittenedhands clutched at the gaping collar. The coat was far too big on her small frame. “It was an even trade; I didn’t steal it.”
“A trade?” Greer repeated, trying to temper her flare of irritation. She had the overwhelming urge to grab the young girl and shake her. She could feel herself lean into the motion but held back, alarmed by the dark impulses that festered under her skin, ever since Finn had slipped her that canteen of blood. She licked her lips, trying so hard to slow her thoughts, to hold back her urgency. “I just…I’ve been searching for the man who wore that coat. When did you trade with him?”
The stranger looked to her companion, as if wondering how to answer.
He wore a furred cloak and was far older than the girl. His eyes were lined and weathered. Wide streaks of silver ran through his long black hair. The girl had so many similar features that Greer thought she must be a granddaughter.
“Yesterday,” the man finally answered. “We were checking traps along the river, and he wandered out of the trees.”
“He was full of hunger,” the girl interjected. “Delirious with the pains of it. He gave me the coat in exchange for a meal. When I tried to give it back, he wouldn’t take it. He said he owed me more than he could ever repay.”
That sounded just like Ellis, stubborn and proud to a fault.
“How did he look? Was anyone else with him?”
The pair exchanged a glance that Greer could not read.
“I’ve been looking for him for days and have been so worried,” she pressed. “Anything you could share, no matter how small a detail, would be so welcome. Even if it…even if it sounds upsetting. I can handle it. Please.”
The older man shifted, looking uneasy. “How do you know him, this man? Are you kin?”
Greer nodded eagerly, hungry for information. “Yes! Well, nearly. We’re to be wed. But…” Greer’s words faltered, losing their momentum.
The granddaughter opened her mouth, ready to say something, but apparently thought better of it and looked away, uncomfortable.
The man offered a small wince of remorse. “It would be best to forget him. He is gone.”
“Gone?” Greer repeated, trying and failing to draw breath.
“Bewitched,” he intoned. He toyed at a strap of leather around his throat, studded with metal beads and woven wires, and mustered an expression of sympathy for Greer. “You won’t see him again. The Fire-Eyed Ones will have had their way with him by now. I’m sorry.”
“The Fire-Eyed Ones,” she echoed.
The older man nodded. “Evil spirits that walk the earth, always looking to feed. They can look like you or me but are not.” He frowned, as if searching for the right words. “You can always tell their true nature by their eyes,” he went on. “They burn like flames, like animals in the dark.”
“My grandfather thought you were one at first,” the girl admitted, looking sheepish.
“Oh,” Greer said, uncertain of how to deny it, thankful it was daylight. She had no idea how long Finn’s infusion would affect her and couldn’t imagine what would happen if these strangers should happen to see her eyes flash.
“But now we know you’re not.”
“You do?”
The girl pointed at her throat to a necklace that looked just like the one her grandfather wore. “The iron keeps them back. It…” She frowned, searching. “It wards them away. You would not be so close now if you were one of them.”
“But that man you are with,” the grandfather began. His thick eyebrows were drawn to an almost solid line, concern evident on his face. “He is not a good man. He is not even a man at all.”
“I know,” she admitted reluctantly.
“You know what he truly is?”
Reluctantly, Greer nodded. “We call them the Bright-Eyeds.”
He looked surprised. “You know this, yet you travel with him?”
“I need his help.”
