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before, or given one. It felt better than warm bread.
    After a couple of seconds, Moire Ain ran out of the house. Stopping behind a bush, she listened. The Greenfield children chattered around the side of the hut. Down the road nearer her own hut, Hedge-Witch screamed at the villagers to stop lying and tell her where Moire Ain hid. Crouching low, Moire Ain dashed behind the Greenfields’ hut and into the woods. She was headed for the one thing Hedge-Witch hated and feared—running water—the only protection she could think of for herself and the book.

C HAPTER 4
    Before Moire Ain could get far, she heard the Greenfield children coming. She climbed into her favorite tree to hide while they filed into their home. Farther off she saw Hedge-Witch storm up and down the village demanding the peasants allow her to search their huts. But each villager had an excuse for not allowing her entry. As her screaming grew louder, first a haystack, then a chicken coop caught fire.
    Moire Ain wanted to jump down and help the villagers, but Goodwife Greenfield popped around the back of her hut and shook her head at Moire Ain’s tree. “Go!” the goodwife said.
    The goodwife was right, but Moire Ain gripped her branch harder, forcing herself to wait for the chance to run. Below her, as each peasant refused to help, Hedge-Witch screamed that she would burn the entire village.
    Goodie Ash shook her head at Hedge-Witch and said, “I do not believe the girl be evil. The child was nowhere around when my mam died. But you were.”
    Goodie Bram yelled from her hut, “It wasn’t the girl who gave me that black potion that killed my ailing pigs. Leave the girl alone.”
    Never before had the villagers protected Moire Ain. Butterflies brushed soft wings across her heart as she realized Goodwife Greenfield wasn’t the only one who didn’t believe Hedge-Witch’s awful lies.
    As the villagers marched out of their huts and banded together to put out the fires, Hedge-Witch’s face flushed redder and redder. Moire Ain felt guilty. If the old crone did something even more horrible to the villagers, it would be Moire Ain’s fault. She had run from Hedge-Witch to avoid murdering a king, but if she didn’t step forward, she’d be the reason a whole village burned to the ground or got the sinking sickness and died.
    Hedge-Witch was only yards from the Greenfields’ hut when the crone’s fingers began the tracings in the air to bring the illness miasma from the rotted place.
    Moire Ain had to surrender. She’d stay and find another way to stop Hedge-Witch from using her to murder that king. Maybe her new book had an easy spell she could cast to send Hedge-Witch into a deep sleep. That would give Moire Ain time to find a way to stop Hedge-Witch for good.
    Her hands making the final bigger circles to call the sickness, Hedge-Witch stomped up to the Greenfields’hut. The old crone stood screaming that she would see to it that all the Greenfield children died horrible deaths if her slave was not returned. Before Moire Ain could drop down out of the tree to surrender, Goodwife Greenfield sailed out her front door. Carrying a huge cauldron of water, she stumbled on the threshold and lost control of the pot.
    The crystalline water Moire Ain had seen the two oldest Greenfield children tote home splashed over Hedge-Witch. The old hag howled in pain.
    Goodwife Greenfield yelled, “Hedge-Witch is possessed! Look how a demon has taken her. Hear how the clear spring water burns her skin.”
    The villagers ringed around the old witch as she whirled, screaming for someone to bring her rags to soak up the water. While the murmuring circle surrounded Hedge-Witch, the smallest of the Greenfield children slipped behind their home and scampered beneath Moire Ain’s tree.
    â€œMomma says run. Run through the river. Go fast. Go now. Old witch won’t hurt us. Old witch too afraid of