HEARTHWANE · FERRYWOMAN
old spirit of the water, a ford-wife, 1100
Kept the crossing of the old road when it was new and lit, and took a true word from every traveller.
THEIR STORY
Long before there was a hall above it, a road ran under the hill and crossed a black water, and a ford-wife kept the crossing. The road was buried and the hall built over it, and she stayed, washing other people's clothes at a landing nobody used. Then the Linden sisters came down with a lantern and asked to be taken over. She asks a true word of each of them for each crossing, and she has never once been thanked.
FROM
the crossing of the buried road under Linden Hall
HOW THEY LOOK
A tall woman with green hair to her heels, kneeling at the water's edge with her sleeves rolled. Her hands are always wet and always cold.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“A word for the crossing. A true one.”
“I wash what is left behind. Something always is.”
BEFORE THE TALE
1100 years ago · the buried road
Kept the crossing of the old road when it was new and lit, and took a true word from every traveller.
300 years ago · the black water
Watched the road buried and a hall built over it, and went on washing at a landing nobody used.
24 years ago · the black water
Was called by her old name, once, by a woman with a lamp who came down alone, and let her cross for nothing.
this year · the black water
Has begun to wash with her face turned west, toward something far off she cannot name.