The Broken Forest by Megan Derr Page A

civilization for a bit, even if that meant more work instead of taking a sorely-needed break. "Thank you."
    "You're welcome, my lady. We are grateful to have you here."
    Adamina was fairly certain grateful was not the word. Desperate was far more like it. But she appreciated the effort to be polite, rather than greeting her with superstitious hostility that was far more common in such remote villages. "Thank you. I hope I am swiftly come and swiftly gone. What is the soup?"
    "Beans, carrots, onion, pickled cabbage, some herbs. A splash of milk for additional heartiness, but that's still within the bounds of the Huntresses, yes, my lady?"
    "Yes, thank you," Adamina replied. "You seem experienced in our ways."
    "My grandmother was a Huntress, Goddess rest her soul. She was slain by a manticore when I was a girl."
    Adamina mentally ran through the list of Huntresses. "Lady Wynn. She is still greatly missed, a Huntress as strong as the Duchess Redd. I am surprised you did not follow in her steps."
    "I tried, but I showed no affinity for it." She shrugged. "I gladly leave the guarding of the forests to women better suited than me. My strengths lie in the kitchen and ordering people about." Gesturing to the room around them, she added, "This inn wasn't much when I married and decided to move here to Edge to live with my husband, but I've made it something now. Everyone who comes to Edge Village enjoys their stay here."
    "I believe it. Thank you again for the meal."
    "Let me know if you need anything else." Victoria bustled off toward the table of whispering boys, said something that sent them scattering, then vanished into the kitchens once more.
    Adamina ate her soup, ignoring the stares she could feel like cold fingers. Beyond the warm walls of the inn, past the dark and foggy streets, the forest beckoned with cracked and broken whispers.
    She had heard of the Broken Forest, but had never heard that it was literally broken. She only knew it was called thus because it had long ago been separated from the Laughing Forest to which it had once belonged. What had done the deed and why, no one knew. Perhaps Adamina would be the one to solve the mystery at last.
    If that was supposed to be an honor, it was one she would gladly pass on to another. She had been working nonstop for months, had missed two allotted breaks and desperately wanted one. She wanted an easy assignment so she could return home all the more quickly, not wade through a complicated, possibly dangerous assignment that could last weeks or even months.
    She loved being a Huntress, more than anything in the world, but even the Great Queens needed a few days off here and there.
    Heavy footsteps drew her attention, and Adamina looked up to see three men draw close. So much for politeness. Hopefully she could contain them before anything got out of hand. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"
    "Shouldn't you be out there, killing that monster before it takes more women and children?"
    "Only a fool would venture into a dangerous forest when it is dark and foggy. A hunter who cannot see soon becomes hunted. If you want the monster dead then trust me to know my business."
    "My wife is dead!" One of the men said, smaller than the other two, ragged around the edges. "That thing—I never saw it, she was just gone , and you're eating soup—" He stopped as Adamina stood.
    Moving around her table, Adamina stepped in and pressed a hand to his chest, looked down into his eyes. "I traveled three days and three nights without rest to answer your call. Even now I listen to the woods whisper, and I shall know if the monster lurking in them slinks out. When the sun is up I shall find it and kill it. I know you're in pain, good sir, and I'm sorry for it. Trust me to know my work, or more people will die." She slowly withdrew her hand, squeezed his shoulder. "Let your friends take you home with them now."
    He opened his mouth, closed it, then seemed to wither and did not protest when his friends drew