The farm was, indeed, abandoned, and had been for some time. Years, if the signs of general disrepair were to be believed. The barn door lying on the ground was among the signs the family no longer lived here.

Airne thought back to just before she’d left. Mikiel had run the farm since Pa died, and he’d had several younglings when she’d left. Surely he had more by now. And Keelie had a new wife with a little on the way.

“Where is everyone?” asked Evie, echoing Airne’s thoughts.

“I don’t know. Let’s look for clues.”

Airne led Evie into the barn. The smell of straw dust, moldering hay, and rodent assaulted their senses. The floorboards squelched with rot as they stepped gingerly through the door. No scent of domestic beasts remained in the air. They moved back out into the yard. Airne took a deep breath of fresh air. It smelled sweet after the musty stench of the barn.

As they walked toward the house, a fetid odor caught Airne’s attention. She followed her nose to the well. The stench of decay wafted up from the depths. She peered into the depths, but only blackness peered back. She could see nothing but the stone of the well beyond the first several man-lengths.

“This could certainly cause a person to want to relocate.” Evie put a hand over her nose and mouth in a vain attempt to block the odor.

“Indeed.” Airne led the way to the house.

The door hung on a single leather hinge; the rest having rotted away. She pushed the door out of the way and the leather creaked with rot. Dust, dead insects, and rodent droppings lay thick on the floor and on flat surfaces. Their footsteps alerted the new denizens. The sound of tiny claws on bare floorboards echoed through the house.

The house had lain empty for months, if not years. Airne suspected the well held some answers to what happened to her family. Thirty people didn’t just vanish. Someone had to know what had happened. Hadn’t the butcher’s son in Ardimon been courting Lyanda when she’d run away?

“Let’s go back to Ardimon,” Airne said. “I should learn something there.”

(To be continued)