Eternity: Immortal Witches Book 1 (The Immortal Witches) by Maggie Shayne Page A

you”?
    Perhaps a gift. Kneeling, I opened my pack, searching my mind for something to give the man to show my gratitude and friendship, and finally found the small piece of glittering amethyst that I’d salvaged from my plundered home. But when I glanced up again, the man was gone.
    I went to the spot where he’d been, but saw nothing, and the woods were so utterly undisturbed, I might have imagined him.
    But I hadn’t, had I?
    I didn’t think so.
    Kneeling, I placed the stone on the ground, then returned to the grassy bank where my pack awaited.
    I had a single biscuit in my pack, saved from my last dinner aboard the Sea Witch. I ate half of it, washed it down with water from the stream, and then lay down upon my pack, beneath my cloak, and slept. I dreamed that another man watched me from the shelter of the woods. A beautiful man whose face, it seemed, would haunt me until I died.
    My nose woke before the rest of me. It twitched and sniffed and smelled something that made my stomach rumble. Then warm sunlight brushed my eyelids open, and the first thing I saw was food. Something golden colored and fragrant, resting on a slab of bark very close to my face.
    Blinking and wondering vaguely if this was a dream, I sat up, grabbed the bark, and looked more closely. It was a fish! Coated in something and cooked...still warm, in fact.
    “Who in the...?” I turned my head, scanning the woods around me, but saw no one. But it had to have been the Indian man I’d seen the night before.
    I ate the fish eagerly, closing my eyes at the heavenly taste. And when I finished, and licked every crumb from my fingers, I leaned back, sighed in contentment, and muttered, “Savages, indeed. That man is kinder than many a white man I’ve known. Don’t you agree, Ebony?”
    The mare only looked at me. Getting to my feet, I gathered up all my belongings once more, making ready for the second leg of my journey. But before I left that place, I crept into the trees where I’d seen the man the night before and looked for the stone I’d left him.
    The amethyst was gone.
    Nodding in approval, I mounted the mare, and we meandered out of the woods, to the trail, and began our long trek again.
    And again, we traveled all the day through. I hadn’t expected it to take so long and, in fact, hoped to arrive at Sanctuary well before dark. I ate my remaining half biscuit, stale and crumbling now, at midday, and thought fondly of my delicious breakfast. But the trail seemed endless. Nightfall came, and still hours went by.
    I was quite weary, and terribly hungry, when I finally rode into a small settlement with muddy paths running between a handful of small log structures more roughly built than any I’d ever seen before.
    “Hello, mistress,” a deep voice called.
    I turned in the saddle to see a heavy man with whiskered jowls and curious eyes.
    “Elias Stanton is my name,” he said. “I be the town elder. What business have you in Sanctuary?”
    “This is Sanctuary?” I asked, my heart sinking. I should have been glad, I suppose, that my journey was finally at its end. But this place was hardly what I’d expected.
    The man’s eyes narrowed on me, and I realized my tone might have offended him. “I hadn’t realized I had come so far,” I amended. “My name is Raven St. James.” I saw no reason now to use a false name. My aunt would wonder why, if I did. “I am looking for my aunt, Eleanor Belisle. Do you know her?”
    His bushy dark brows drew close. “I know her well,” he said, and I sensed a grimness settling about him. “Have you traveled far, then?”
    “All the way from England. My ship only arrived at Boston two days past, and I rode from there.”
    At that his frown changed to one of disapproval. “You traveled alone? Spent a night on the road? Unchaperoned?”
    I’m afraid my chin lifted a little, when I likely should have assumed a humble and apologetic posture. “I had little choice, sir.”
    “Well now, such