When Katryna’s labouring went poorly, it wasn’t just Katryna who passed. The babe died too. Fragile things, babes. Corliss and the others replaced it with Bethany’s bastard. They made a bastard into a changeling.

‘There were hearts on the coffins!’ Mush Face screeches with gritted teeth.

‘They were placed there wrongfully,’ I finally say aloud. ‘I don’t know who put them there, but they never were recited.’

I let that sit for a breath. Then I say one last thing. ‘You killed the only folk who wanted you alive.’ Corliss, Tilly, the Painted Pig. ‘All the rest, if they find out who you are, will want you dead.’

She’s a clever woman, Mush Face, and I see the wards in her own heart clicking into place. Her eyes spark bright and then get dull. She knows it’s true.

From the direction of the main tent come men’s cries. Black Fingers and the guards. Mush Face scrambles to her feet and stumbles away into the field. I need to run too.

I look for the Country Mouse. He’s pulling himself up. The guards will be here shortly. He’ll be safe with them. Blood’s seeping into his linen bandages. No, not linens. His shoulder’s wrapped in a shawl. The one I left behind.

For just a moment he looks over at me. Then he turns and calls out to the guards coming from the main tent. ‘She ran off that way,’ and he points them away from us, in pursuit of Mush Face.

Whispering a thank-you with my heart, I stagger off into the dark field.

32. FRUMENTY

I LIE AGAIN ON the grave of my da. It seems the safest place to wait out Black Fingers and his guards. And I know I won’t be back again for a good long time. Black Fingers. The Willow Tree. Mush Face. I need a fresh place where no folk want me dead.

Looking up at the gravestone from where I lie, the O, N, and S in OWENS look the same even though they are upside down. It seems a kind of magic that they can do this. The W, on the other hand, turns into an M for May. And the E becomes something I don’t recognize. Kind of like where I am now. Some of the things about me are the same. Some are new. And some have lost all sense.