Page 47 of A Land So Wide
“You need to hide,” he urged. “Find the best spot you can, and stay there. Don’t move, don’t make a sound. Don’t let anyone find you.”
“Not till you,” she promised.
He smiled but it looked off, smaller than it should. “Not till me. Go!”
Startling into action, Greer made her way to the gate and ducked through the opening. She dared one last glance back at Ellis.
“Come find me,” she whispered.
The Hunting Grounds were a long strip of fallow fields, untouched forests, and, at their very end, a vast meadow of tall grasses and wildflowers. Greer would need to run at full sprint to make it to Ailie’s tree before the Hunters were released.
As she plunged into a patch of brambles, she heard the voice once more, and it stopped Greer dead in her tracks.
“What are you running from, little Starling?”
She shook her head. Thorns clung to her skirts and cloak, trying to snare her in place, trying to hold her so she would be easy prey for the first Hunter passing through this thicket.
“Leave me alone,” she snarled, fighting to free herself.
“We don’t run from anyone,” it persisted.
“Enough!” she growled, eliciting a gasp from the thicket to her right. Greer squinted and saw the concerned eyes of Madeline Montrosse peeking from the foliage of a tea bush.
“Are you unwell? You look…strained.”
Mad.
Greer knew what she meant to say, and Madeline wasn’t wrong.
What else would you call it, shouting at people who weren’t there, on the one day of your life you were meant to be as sneaky and silent as you could?
Mad indeed.
“I’m fine,” Greer assured her. “Just…all these brambles.”
Madeline stared at her in stony silence before disappearing back into the leaves. “I can’t believe, of all the girls in town, Lachlan chose you.”
Greer wasn’t supposed to have heard that aside and certainly shouldn’t have responded, but her blood was racing high, and she felt bold and brash. “I can’t, either. Happy hiding, Madeline.”
Greer followed the creek bed as it cut across the deepest part of the forest, winding its way to the farthest reach of the clearing. Over the years, she’d drawn so many maps of the Hunting Grounds, she had her path memorized. She knew every turn to take. She knew where every step should fall.
Up ahead was the clearing.
The trees parted back, revealing the weak gray light of the morning. There were too many clouds in the sky for her to tell what time it was, and Greer wondered how long she’d been fighting her way through the wood’s tangles.
There would be another cannon blast to signal when the Hunters were set loose.
As she raced across the open field, her heart pounded heavily in the center of her throat. There was a bad stitch in her side, and she felt as though she couldn’t draw full breath.
She needed to hurry, needed to find the tree before—
The cannon fired. With her sharp ears, Greer caught the whoops of the men as they took off.
Ailie’s tree was just ahead: an ancient, wizened Redcap stretching into the sky like a drowning man fighting to free himself from a torrent of waves.
Everyone in town knew never to touch a Redcap unless you had on thick leather gloves. The stinging sap would burn for days, causing rashes of bubbling hives and yellow, weeping pus.
It was the perfect spot to hide.
