I felt like we were walking to a funeral.

  Perhaps that wasn’t too far off.

  Our trudge through the dark forest was not quiet. Terrence cried. Very quietly and stoically at first, clearly trying to hold onto whatever shreds of courage he had despite this nightmare. Then he got louder. He bawled and babbled. He asked questions and begged the townsfolk to stop whatever all this was and pleaded for them to let him go home to his parents.

  Agnes shushed him and patted his back and said all kinds of things that could have sounded very soothing. Except she was a monster. So, under the circumstances, the poor young man remained distraught.

  His eyes would fill with fresh tears any time he glanced my way. He pleaded for them to untie me, and let me leave, and of course there was no response.

  I wondered what I looked like. My head felt fuzzy and thick. One eye had nearly swollen shut. My lips felt warm and puffy. I could feel cracked, sticky blood smeared and drying all along the lower half of my face. My nose was aching and painfully hot.

  Probably better not to know. Not that it matters. We’ll probably all be dead in a bit.

  Being eaten seemed like a very bad way to go. I mulled on this with numb horror as we walked.

  There are much better ways to die. Most, I think. Stabbed? Quick. Burnt? Painful, sure, but also quick. Fever? You’re half-unconscious for most of that anyways. And you get to lie down in a bed. Easy.

  Sweat trickled down the back of my neck.

  I don’t want to be eaten.

  Renner marched stoically at my side. Every now and then I’d dare to glance over at him. He walked with his eyes straight ahead and his shoulders squared. His face was a storm. He never looked back at me.

  I wish he had run. I wish he hadn’t stopped fighting. Even if…

  The memory of my pulse thrumming against icy steel flashed unbidden through my mind. I blinked back tears.

  We’re going to die anyways. At least he might have made it.

  I wonder if he regrets it.

  But Renner’s expression betrayed nothing.

  “I’ll leave town,” Terrence was saying. His voice was high and thick. “M-my parents, too. We’ll go east. To one of the cities. And I’ll never say a word, I swear-”

  “Shut up, already,” Ward hissed under his breath. One of his hands had been clasped on the youth’s forearm throughout our walk. “You’ll be fine.”

  The younger man shot him a wild-eyed look.

  He rolled his eyes. “Look. This has been… what, ten years?” He turned towards Agnes for confirmation.

  She sighed and glanced over. One of her bony hands was holding an iron lantern up at head-height. The sky above us was the color of coal, with the light of only a few faint stars struggling to break through the rustling canopy. Her flickering fire was the only real source of light, and any time she turned around it cast her face in all sorts of ghastly shadows. “Since Gentry. Rest his soul.”

  “Right. Ten years. Well. For Agnes.”

  Terrence was shaking like a leaf. “I don’t know what that means, why does it matter-”

  “Nothing’s gonna change!” Ward snapped. “Ten years without a problem. No one the wiser. You’ll talk and you’ll go home and you’ll feel like scum for a bit, but nothing about your cozy life will be any different. Maybe every now and then you slip someone a drink or keep a lookout, but-”

  “No.” Josiah was walking just behind me and Renner. He’d tied a rope to each of our bound wrists and was holding it loosely. The few times I’d stumbled over fallen, shadowed branches or due to the dizzy fog in my head, he’d stopped and waited without comment for me to collect myself. “Kid’s not getting involved.”

  “That may not be up to him,” Agnes murmured from ahead.

  Josiah made an unhappy noise deep in his throat. His steps were slow and heavy behind me.

  “I’m not going to hurt people. I’m not that sort of person. I won’t be.” Fear choked his voice. His wild eyes cast about, as if he was thinking of making a run for it.

  Ward practically dragged him forwards. “Just be still. We’re almost there.”

  He wasn’t wrong. The stench of decay and rotted meat trickled in through my swollen, blood-caked nostrils. I gagged, fighting for sips of air.

  Agnes produced an iron key from her apron and approached the looming, blackened birdcage. She stuck it into the rusted padlock, and with a grating click the metal popped open. She opened the door. Then she turned and held her free hand out, beckoning me and Renner towards it.

  My heart began to race. I couldn’t breathe. Everything started to blur.

  No, no oh no, it’s not a cage for birds it’s for people this is where Gil was going to take me I don’t want to go I don’t want to be torn apart!

  I felt hot tears spilling from my eyes again. They stung my split cheek and lips. My chest heaved with the need for air.

  Terrence started to cry again, too. “They won’t tell anyone!” he bawled. “Look, they won’t, right? You won’t? Please, saints, this can’t be real-!”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Agnes hung her lantern in a low branch and gave a long, sharp whistle. Josiah’s good hand wrapped around my upper arm and he pushed me forwards.

  I spun towards him. He wasn't like the others. Not exactly. He'd looked unhappy during all of this. He'd looked sad. I met his solemn eyes, begged him silently to help. Moaned a plea from behind the foul gag.

  He stared down at me. Swallowed. Then cast his gaze downwards and led me on.

  I imagined trying to run. I’d tear free of the tether, then turn and disappear into the darkness. Renner would follow, of course, and the two of us would find a place to hide. We’d get each other untied and he’d follow me back to Snowmelt. Captain Rell would be furious and in the morning we’d find Terrence, and he’d be frightened but alright and Durst would be in town somehow and he’d hold me and tell me I was safe and Royce would come too and his eyes would be blue and bright and he’d tell me a joke these awful people would be locked in a-

  The cage stank. The air was fetid. My head was still throbbing, still spinning, and I collapsed to my knees. Tiny charred bodies, slick with rotting feathers, pressed against my legs.

  Renner followed after. He stood beside me as the door was closed and the padlock snapped shut. I hid my face, because it didn’t seem like me weeping and broken and bloody should be one of the last things he saw.

  Terrence’s cries turned raw. “They won’t say anything, I won’t, you don’t have to do this, it’s not right, why aren’t you listening?!” And then he did try to run. He barely made it a step. Ward jerked him back with an unhappy snarl.

  Agnes continued whistling.

  Then the screaming started.

  Terrence threw his head back. His sweat-slicked skin glowed orange in the firelight. “Help! Someone help! Help, we’re out- mmph!”

  Ward swore and struggled to keep a hand over the thrashing man’s mouth. Josiah shifted forwards to help.

  The trio struggled for a few moments. And then they fell silent as Agnes’ whistle died out.

  I cringed back. Their shadows were writhing, all but Terrence’s. And something… something was moving through the trees. Something large. I peered into the darkness, my heart pounding like a drum.

  Wood creaked and groaned. Branches swayed. I blinked, shaking my head, sure that I was seeing things. A hulking shape in the shadows, drifting towards us, and with every step the firs bent away. Straining to run.

  “Is it again?”

  The voice was like dead, rattling leaves. Old. Hungry.

  The shape grew larger. Slouched into the ring of lantern-light. My mind went blank, as if denying the hideous form before us. Refusing to acknowledge that the monster could exist. But it kept creeping forwards, further into the flickering light, and the pieces sharpened one by one. Formed a picture that was all too real.

  Mottled green skin textured like treebark. Sunken eyes hued like spoilt pondwater. Straggly black hair that grew out of its head and draped along the curve of a hideously humped spine. A very long face atop an enormous body, with a very wide, grinning mouth. The teeth inside were thick and flat, like broken stumps.

  Terrence kept screaming. His face was the color of bared bones. Ward and Josiah struggled to hold him still and muffle the awful sounds of terror.

  The creature laughed. It sounded like autumn leaves being dragged across stones. “Already? Oh, little Agnes, what delight you bring!”

  The hag lurched towards us. I fell back against the burnt, warped wood, my mind blank with terror. Renner flinched away, too, and I could see his shoulders trembling. His face was ashen.

  It’s my fault. It’s because of me. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.

  Her mouth split into a hideous grin. She stooped down to eye-level and peered in at us. Wretchedly long fingers wrapped around the wood.

  Then her mouth opened wide and she let out an awful keen. My ears rang.

  “Oh, no, no! Wretched, lost, oh, Baltha didn’t mean it!” She straightened, lifting the structure- and us- with both hands. She shook the cage. Renner and I were thrown backwards. I slumped against the cage wall and he hit the base with a grunt. She gave a sharp wail.

  Agnes cleared her throat. “Baltha, ah, I can help. Let me. Please.” She gave a strained smile.

  The monster dropped us, then turned and gave a little hiss. Then she pressed her huge hands against her face and moaned. “Help. Yes. Fix them.”

  I watched in baffled horror as the innkeeper picked a careful path forwards. Renner sucked in heavy breaths, lying beside me as the old woman reached in and gingerly began to gather up the burnt birds. She lay each on the ground in a neat pile.

  Baltha watched, peeking out from behind her fingers with great, watery eyes.

  When the last bird had been removed, Agnes straightened. “There. All better. I’ll bury them in the morning, if you like.”

  The huge hands dropped. The monster stooped low and whispered to the little bodies, “Baltha didn’t mean to.”

  Ward rolled his eyes. Agnes reached out and patted the enormous, bent figure on the back. “There, there, dear. They, ah, knew. But, look. This should cheer you up. Two, and fresh.”

  Sickly green eyes swiveled back towards me and Renner. The grin crawled back into place. “Heh. Better.” She grew very still. Her eyes glinted. “Baltha was angry. Agnes failed.”

  The old woman’s hand withdrew immediately. She took a quick step back and inclined her head, eyes widening ever so slightly. “F-failed? No, Baltha, I… perhaps there’s been a misunderstanding-?”

  “The sweetest blood. Honey and wine. Smelled it. Tasted in the wind. Baltha waited. Paced and prowled and howled and clawed and foamed.” She rose to her full height and loomed over Agnes, who suddenly looked very tiny and frail. The Fae was nearly twice her height. “But from Agnes? Nothing. Cages only of the fallen friends. Baltha took it herself.”

  Agnes seemed to be trying to compose herself. “The… the young woman from town? Is that who you mean?”

  The hag hissed. Josiah and Ward exchanged frightened glances. Terrence looked like he was about to faint.

  “Baltha was careful. Took only the sweet one. Why did you fail?”

  Agnes smoothed her apron. Her hands were trembling. “Th-that’s… oh, Baltha, we were going to get her for you. We had it all planned out. You were just too quick. Too clever!”

  The great, leathery head tilted to one side. Oily black hair slid down, nearly brushing the rotted grass. “Oh? Clever?”

  “Y-yes. Baltha, it’s… ten years. After all you’ve done for me, I would never fail you. Please. You know that.”

  Silence hung like a noose in between them. Then the hag cackled. “Hah. Agnes’s tongue tricks.” She stooped down and peered into the old woman’s pale, stoic face. “Never again. Blood of wine and honey and silver and black… never fail again, Agnes.”

  “Never,” she swore. Sweat was trickling down her temples. “Never.”

  “Heh. Good.” The huge, bent frame rose and she crept towards the three men. “Mm. A child. Is this one for Baltha?”

  Terrence moaned. His eyes rolled like those of a panicked horse. I caught a whiff of something pungent and sweet, and saw a dark stain spreading down his trousers.

  Agnes cleared her throat. “Baltha, this is Terrence. He’s very trustworthy. He’s… well, he’s got to be a part of this, now. We were going to ask you to… to… bind him.”

  Her flat teeth clicked together. “Mm.”

  There was a short silence. Then Agnes added, “Y-yes. The herbs… something might be off. I don’t know if making him forget will work. And… ah, Josiah’s been hurt, as you can see, and poor Thom as well. We’ll need some of your poultices. Please.”

  The hag slouched forwards. I could see her long fingers tapping together.

  “Mm. So many favors. But all Baltha smells is fear.”

  Ward shook the tawny-haired young man and hissed something in his ear.

  Baltha stooped down, eye-level with Terrence. “Little child. Fresh like dew. Baltha remembers dew. The smell of dawn. Will you swear?”

  She grasped the shaking man’s hand and wrist with her own.

  His breath was coming in choppy gasps. “Swear? Swear, s-swear what… why swear…” he swayed.

  “Terrence,” Agnes said softly from a few paces away. “Breathe. Just say yes, and it’ll be over. That’s it.”

  Baltha hissed. “Swear to feed Baltha.”

  Terrence tried to tear himself free. There were tears and snot streaming down his face. I felt like I was going to throw up. Beside me, Renner started to move. Trying to get back onto his knees.

  The young man began to babble. “I don’t want to, I don’t, I want to go home, I want my mom, please-”

  Agnes laid a hand on the hag’s ridged forearm. “He just needs time, Baltha. We’ll bring him back-”

  The hag snarled. It sounded like stones colliding. “Time? Time for Agnes, when Agnes failed?”

  Renner got back to his knees. He groaned with the strain and shifted. Moving with intention.

  He has a plan, he’s thought of something! He hid a knife away and he’s going to get free, or he’s got the key somehow or-

  He did have a plan.

  He pushed himself up.

  Renner was not a large man. He was only a bit taller than me, and not too much broader. But, slumped as I was against the wood with hardly the strength to move and hands that had gone fully numb, he didn’t need to be much bigger for what he was trying to do.

  He didn’t break free. He didn’t save us.

  But he got upright. Turned and faced me. Squared his shoulders between me and nightmare and held my eyes with a fierceness that didn’t let me look away.

  And when the sounds of a scream that curdled blood and tearing flesh and a wicked laugh all came, all I saw was him.