Chapter ONE - Weebly

walking past the pastureland at the southern edge of the
city. They followed a lonely stretch of road past
Rowe’s Field, with its long, thick grass and old dried
piles of cow dung.
“Where are we going?” Ethan asked.
The girl didn’t answer. She didn’t slow or glance
back, but instead led him down Orange Street toward
the Neck. Ethan wiped a sweaty palm on his breeches,
wondering how he had been so foolish as to let her lure
him out this far.
What truly amazed him, though, was that here in the
open, where it would have been much more difficult for
the conjurer to keep himself hidden, Ethan still saw no
sign of anyone save the little girl. Her movements
weren’t as fluid or as natural; she looked less like a
child and more like a puppet. It seemed this other
speller found it harder to maintain control of the illusion
from a distance. But Ethan took the fact that he could
maintain it at all as further proof of just how deep his
powers ran.
Anna didn’t stop until they neared the town gate, at
the end of the Neck. There were few houses or