“I grew up in the Twisted Wood, farther north from where we’ve been. That’s why I have a bit of an accent, yeh see? A small village called Dianquill. Yeh’ve probably never heard of it.” Dinah shook her head, her eyes trained on the hundred foot drop before her. “I’m not surprised. It was a hundred people, maybe more. My mother died when I was just an infant. My father was a huntsman, and he supplied most of the food for the town, along with a few other men. It’s how he made our living. Dianquill was also known for their berry harvest every spring. Most of my childhood was spent foraging in the forest for berries, looking for those rare fruits that would fetch a fortune from travelers stopping through.
“I was just fifteen years old when I met Amabel. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, this tiny red-haired girl, obviously hungry and dressed in filthy rags. She belonged to one of the strange families who lived deep in the woods. Their family couldn’t afford to move to the village, so Amabel and her sisters came in to buy goods now and then before retreating back to their isolation. That day I gave her some Julla fruit that I had in my bag and she scampered off into the trees. A week later, she found me again while I was hunting. Her father had gone mad with a sickness and died, but before he passed he taught his daughter to be the best tracker in all of Wonderland. That’s how she had found me, and that’s how she found me every week from that day on. In return for food, she taught me how to track. Though I might seem skilled to yeh now, I am nothing compared to Amabel. She could track a deer for a hundred miles and at the same time follow the path of a man who had walked that land twenty years prior.”
Sir Gorrann paused to take a long drink from his waterskin. “We married when I was nineteen, and I tell yeh, I have never loved another woman. Every morning when my eyes open, I can see her face—her long red hair, her bright eyes, wild as the sea. With my father’s help, I built us a house on the edge of town. We were deep enough into the woods where we had some land and peace, but close enough to the village that I could continue to supply our family with income using my skills as a hunter. Hunting became almost too easy with Amabel’s tracking skills. We had a bounty, and life was sweet and easy. We were so happy. And after our third year of marriage, we welcomed a daughter, Ioney. She looked like her mother. I thought I could never love anything more than Amabel, but I lost that battle the day I first laid eyes on Ioney. Our family was complete, and I wanted for nothing. I was a happy young man. Then they came. It was a damp spring day, not unlike this one….”
His voice sputtered out. The Spade had stopped moving, and Dinah held her position on the rock. Tears were gathering in his eyes, and she saw his weathered hands clenching with emotion. Though she was utterly fascinated, winding tendrils of guilt began to snake through her for asking him to recount these details. “You don’t have to….”
“QUIET, GIRL!” he snapped. “Yeh asked, and yeh’ll hear it. Be patient. It’s been a spell since I’ve spoken of them.” His mouth distorted with pain as he continued his story.
“As I was saying, it was spring and the warm rains had come and gone. I was out hunting a white bear, the same kind that almost took yer limbs, when I saw smoke rising from the village. I ran back, but it was too late. The entire village was smoldering; no building was left untouched. Several of my closest friends had been slaughtered defending their homes. The women and children had been left alive, but most of the men had been cut to pieces. My father was hanging from a burning log that had once been my childhood home. All of the villagers’ food and livestock had been taken, their homes gone forever. An entire village, wiped out in less than an hour by a few cruel Cards.”
Dinah’s eyes narrowed. “Cards? From Wonderland Palace? Not the Yurkei?”
“I thought it was the Yurkei at first as well, but no. A friend who died in my arms told me that while some of the riders had been painted to look like Yurkei, they were undoubtedly Cards. The arrow buried in his stomach was topped with a red glass heart, so there was little doubt. Indeed, it had been Heart Cards, on their way to fight with Yurkei. Their provisions had run low, so they had taken what they wanted from my village. I closed his eyes and climbed upon my horse and galloped for my home, faster than I had ever ridden in my life.”
Dinah longed to stop his story, to put her hands over his mouth to save her the horror of what was coming.
A tear made its way down his face. “I was too late, too late for my darling girls. The Cards had come across Amabel while she was tending our herb garden. She lay motionless on the ground, her red hair wet with the blood that flowed from her chest. Her hand clutched a bow and arrow, and I can only imagine that she intended to use it to defend our helpless child, my brave love, the love of my life. For this she had been shot clean through the heart. I longed to hold her there forever, her body still warm, but I had to find my daughter.”
Dinah closed her eyes and pressed against the cool rock face, desperate to hear no more.