Chapter 5: First Frost

"I remember everything I need to," I said.

Kranz smiled.

"Then you'll remember what I write in my book for you. For the double price."

I had no idea.

Gerd had told me on the road that the Finders kept a book of every witch they took.

"That she was ransomed," I guessed.

The smile stayed on his mouth and left his eyes.

"That she burned, Highness. Every one of them burned, in my book. That was what you paid for."

He sat back in the saddle and looked at me for a long, quiet moment.

"You're not yourself," he said. "A man comes back cold from the dead, people talk. They say a witch's knife lets something in."

"People say a lot of things."

"They do." He turned his horse. "I'll be at your little field on the first frost. I wouldn't miss it."

He rode down the hill with his six finders and my mother's ring.

We had her in the low field at Velde that night.

It was a long strip of mud under the town wall, with green barley the height of my shin.

"Can you do the whole field?" I asked her.

"Not tonight." She pressed her palm to the soil and frowned.

"It's tired. Give me every night until frost and keep people off it."

"Why at night?"

"Because if anyone in Velde sees me do it, they can swear on me, and I'm in your parish now."

"I'm not burning for two marks a month," she added. "Make it three."

"Three."

She laughed so loudly that a dog barked up in the town.

The first frost came twenty-two days later.

I woke before dawn because the window glass in my room had gone white at the corners.

By the time I reached the low field, half of Velde was already standing along the wall above it, wrapped in blankets.

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