The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White
PROLOGUE
"You're lost," her sister's imaginary voice whispered.
"You have to have a destination to be considered lost.”
And Eva had no destination. That was a luxury for someone else, someone who hadn’t fled their home in fear for their life.
Branches creaked in the slight breeze. The forest below their canopy cool and dark, full of shadows and mystery.
The place she’d chosen as her new home was called the Hags’ Forest because of the trees which really did look like hags, their forms hunched and misshapen, gray silk-like hair spiraling from their crowns to brush against the forest floor in places.
Walking beneath them left you with the feeling of eyes on your back. A silent presence that lasted until you felt the sun on your face again.
Eva had never feared the forest or the hags as so many in her village had. To her, they were old and dear friends. They'd been a source of comfort, a place she could retreat to when the village became stifling. The hags had taken her pain and loneliness, giving only silent acceptance back.
They were her friends, watching over her while she uncovered the hidden bounties under their canopy, guiding her to the best mushrooms and berries the wildlife might have overlooked.
Hunger had struck deep this winter. The fall harvest had been lackluster. Her family had only avoided starvation because of Eva's foraging. A mistake on her part. She should have been less efficient. Made more mistakes. Let them feel hunger. People always feared what was different, and she'd always been the oddball, almost from her first steps.
It wasn't natural to know what was wrong with an animal simply from looking at them. No one else felt their pain or happiness. Only Eva.
Turning down a proposal of marriage from the most powerful man in the village hadn't helped. It had only served to highlight her differences.
Her mother always told her that things that stuck out too much were eliminated. It turned out she was right. Eva was the nail and they the hammer. She could either get in line or be crushed.
She'd chosen a third option. To be her own person. She was now paying for that hubris.
Because with hunger, came desperation. With desperation, madness.
Good people put aside their conscience when survival was on the line. They abandoned their scruples. They threw them away like they were yesterday's trash while telling themselves it was for the best; it was the only way.
In the end, Eva had faced a decision—go, or be the sacrifice they needed for their crops. They'd intended to water the ground with her blood in the hopes of a more fertile growing season. An old practice that hadn't been followed since Eva's grandmother was a child.
She'd chosen life.
Now, looking into the deep, dark interior of the forest, she feared she'd only prolonged the inevitable. The hags she'd once cherished might now be witnesses to her death.
People were not meant to survive for long on their own. Eleven days Eva had wandered beneath the hags’ watchful eyes.
She did not hunger. The forest provided plenty of food. But it was only a matter of time before she made a mistake.
While the hags might not intend her harm, the beasts roving at their feet would not be so kind. Already she had evaded two using the whispers of the trees to escape before danger drew too close.
Eventually, she would tire.
Armed with only a bread knife she'd swiped from her mother's dinner table, Eva didn't like her chances if she encountered one of the dangerous creatures that even the men in her village feared to face on their own.
Eva tilted her face up to catch a glimpse of the sun peeking through the leaves. Ah, well, at least she’d tried. Better to die while fighting for her next breath than to go meekly to the slaughter.
"Besides, you're not dead yet," she told herself.
And until she was, she'd do what she could to survive.
There she went. Talking to herself again. She could practically hear her younger sister's voice in her ear, saying, "Don't let them see your crazy."
Of course, her sister would never be caught dead out here. She preferred the soft comforts of the village and had never understood Eva's fascination with the forest.
"Perhaps that's why you're here, and she's there," Eva muttered as she continued down one of the game trails she'd found that morning. She hoped it would eventually lead her to water, something she was in desperate need of.