Crescent (Book 1)

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Tonight, darkness is my friend. The corridors are shrouded in shadow, and I'm lucky to sneak past Jackaby's offices unseen. The path beneath the castle is the same as always: Frigid, muddy, and eerily quiet. With a satchel in one hand and the skeleton keys dangling from my other, I feel my way down. The smooth walls become cracked and worn, telling me I'm nearing the end of the path.

My steps are slow, my hand out in front of me until my fist meets wood. The door feels just as massive in total darkness, the curling metal hardware of the lock cold against my hand. My blood races. I can't let myself consider what might happen if someone comes looking for me.

Plucking one of the worn keys from the loop, I turn it when the key finds home. The door swings open on gnarled, rusty hinges. Living darkness creeps out. What I'm doing is stupid. I feel it in my gut, but I force myself inside anyway. My feet hit sand, and through my boots, I can feel that it's ice-cold.

"Hello?" I call. My satchel is heavy across my shoulder, and I reach into it, feeling along the bottom for the food I'd snuck from the kitchen earlier. I remember the witch's bony back beneath her robe. Her wrinkled hands and skin like paper over her bones. Guilt gnaws at me as I pull the sliver of cheese from the bag, holding it out in the open air. Ceth may be starving her, but I'm the one using her hunger against her. "I brought something for you," I say into the dark.

There's no one, nothing, for a time. Part of me wonders whether Ceth moved her- although killing her is probably more likely- but then the door slams shut behind me. Like a snake coiling on its stomach, something slithers in the dark, but I feel no fear.

Her voice is a quiet rolling hiss. "There you are, pretty little thing." The sand shifts as a mass settles before me. "Have you brought me a gift?"

I swallow, remembering what I came here to do. "I seek answers."

Her voice is a low laugh, rattling against the corners of the room. "That you do." The cheese in my hand disappears as if she plucked it from my palm. The scent of magic quickly follows, along with the sound of her chewing. She inhales the food so fast I wonder if she's been fed at all since I last saw her. I doubt it. "What is it you wish to know, Perdita?"

"What is 'perdita?' What does it mean?"

The witch laughs again, the sound stronger than before. "Such little time, and this is how you wish to spend it?"

No. NO. I want answers- I need them. "Do you know about what's happening on the border?" I dig for more food as I wait for her answer.

"There is a great force gathering in Vervale- what some might call 'the great sickness.' It's been gathering for some seventy years that the High Lord has ruled."

"Is Ceth the cause of it?" I press, holding out a single wedge of an apple I prepared. The wedge disappears. She eats more slowly now, and I contemplate pressing her further for time.

"Some would say that it's fate that caused it- like all things. It's fate that aligned the stars, created the cosmos."

"Yes," my tone is sharp. "But for those of us that don't believe in it..." Another minute of silence passes, and I dig into my bag, extending more food.

"If I have any more, he'll know- and likely kill us both for it."

I wince, my suspicions confirmed. Ceth starves her, keeps her weak. Giving her only enough to keep her alive. "How about a different game then?"

A moment lulls by. "Go on then."

"I propose a game of recall. We take turns describing places we will both know... and if the other guesses correctly, they get to ask a question."