THE WITCHWOOD CROWN 01

PART ONE
Widows

Locusts laid their eggs in the corpse
Of a soldier. When the worms were
Mature, they took wing. Their drone Was ominous, their shells hard.
Anyone could tell they had hatched From an unsatisfied anger.
They flew swiftly toward the North. They hid the sky like a curtain.
When the wife of the soldier
Saw them, she turned pale, her breath Failed her. She knew he was dead
In battle, his corpse lost in the desert.
That night she dreamed
She rode a white horse, so swift It left no footprints, and came To where he lay in the sand.
She looked at his face, eaten
By the locusts, and tears of
Blood filled her eyes. Ever after
She would not let her children
Injure any insect that
Might have fed on the dead. She
Would lift her face to the sky
And say, “O locusts, if you
Are seeking a place to winter,
You can find shelter in my heart.”

—HSU CHAO
“The Locust Swarm”

THE WITCHWOOD CROWN 00

Capítulo 00

“Magic.” The woman in the hat sounded disgusted, but even from such a distance Tanahaya’s sharp eyes could see the smile that played across her face. “I’ll give you fairy magic, mu’ harcha! You wanted to search for early flowers, and I brought you. We have been out for hours—and by Deanagha’s spotless skirts, look at me. I am filthy and bepricked with nettles!”