‘I … I thought they were just stories.’ He remembered the moment when the blood-covered man had transformed into the wolf-creature before his eyes. ‘But now … I don’t know.’

‘There are very few, it’s true. Most were banished back to the place they truly belong when Trogir vanquished the dark god, Lorgukk. But some of those terrible creatures still exist. It was one of these you saw today.’ She placed a hand on his arm. ‘We will talk more of these things in good time, Lann. You are safe and I will do all I can to keep you that way. That is all that should concern you right now.’ She sighed. ‘The cattleman in the next room, Orlof – he’s a good man, no?’

‘He’s been part of this farm for as long as I can remember.’ He waited for her to say something, then added: ‘Yes, he’s a good man. He’s my friend.’

‘Could a friend like that be trusted to run this place if you were not here?’

‘Why would I not be here?’

‘Because you are coming to live with me.’ The smell of lavender and sage filled his head again. ‘That is, if you would like to, of course.’

Fleya ordered the men to put the boy’s things on to her wagon. When she told them that she was taking the boy away to live with her too, they mumbled something under their breaths, but nobody dared question the decision. Only Orlof summoned up the courage, though he still would not look the witch in the eye as he did so. In response, Fleya took the man to one side and spoke quietly with him, and when they came back, whatever it was she’d said seemed to have satisfied his fears.

With everything on board, the witch set the ponies into a walk, taking Lann away from the Fetlanger farmstead for the last time.

Faun Forest

4

Fleya proved to be precisely what Lannigon needed during the first months of his blindness. Kind when she needed to be, severe during the times when he began to wallow in self-pity and doubt, she made him understand that his new life without sight didn’t have to be as terrifying as he’d first believed it would. He found himself inspired by her enthusiasm, and threw himself into the things she suggested, learning to develop a greater sense of the world about him through smell and touch and sound.