Chapter 1
It was the wild autumn now. The long golden days of early fall had passed away, the sky had lowered and filled with melted steel clouds, the winds flexed their muscles and tested every route into the warmth of houses. Pip stood outside her tiny cottage in the early morning. The trees of her woods stood bare and stark while their leaves skittered through their trunks and across paths. She knew that in the unseen houses of the town, and the ones nestled against the cleared fields, people were fighting back the wild with light; their windows glowed with candles, and the air was scented with the smell of woodsmoke from their merry fires. It had been a good year. There was no need to hoard wood, to let the dark in at the window instead of lighting a guard against it.
It was her favorite season. The contrast made Pip come alive in the darkening days of the year. She tightened her shawl around her shoulders and stepped into the woods before the mist even rose. The paths today were full of deep puddles, the water still dripping off the branches and onto sodden piles of leaves and needles underfoot. The milky light of morning highlighted the intricate maps of the ground spider webs, the drops collecting on the edge of twigs and branches, turned the woods otherworldy.
Her eyes were firmly fixed on the path beneath her feet, so she didn’t notice it at first — didn’t notice the golden light filling the forest from some unknown source, didn’t notice the silence. Slowly she awoke to the quiet, looked up and stopped still in her tracks. The rising mist had frozen as it curled up from the ground, the dripping rain stopped in midair. Everything glowed golden. She had seen these woods in every mood, in every season…
Her hand slipped to the sword at her side, but she paused. This was no threat, she felt it down to her bones. Whatever was happening, whatever presence she felt all around her, she was safe. Dropping her hands away, she acted on instinct — held them out at the side, palms open, and felt the warmth envelop her. She thought she felt something pleased in the air, something amused. She took a cautious step forward, then another — and then the world came rushing back. The half-hearted rain fell, the mist swirled, the wind wound around the sighing trees. It was as if nothing had happened. She stayed still for long moments, but the wold was ordinary again.
Bemused, she shook herself out of her trance, and resumed her walk until she reached the house where her mother and brother lived. Her mother had the windows ablaze with candles even at this early hour. She hated the dark. The air was scented with the smell of peat, and now that she was close to warmth she shivered, felt the cold and damp, and she hurried inside.
