TREASURE AT THE HEART OF THE TANGLEWOOD

The scent of sorcery is sharp and sweet, like basil, and Hannah knows it well. She hears the voices of the magpie, the badger, and the three foxlets who follow her, but she does not know anything of her past, or why the townsfolk fear her even as they come for her charms and cures, or why the wizard deep in the Tanglewood demands, each month, a draught made from the leaves and flowers that blossom in her hair. When a beauteous young knight comes on a quest, searching for his queen’s greatest treasure, Hannah pins a lily from her hair to his breast and hopes he will survive. She names him Foxkith and later finds him wounded, but the wizard turns him to a fox before her eyes, and robs him of speech. Then Hannah leaves the place she knows, with her companion animals, in search of what will bring her Foxkith back to her. It’s hard for her to notice that once she leaves Tanglewood, lush greenery springs up from what falls from her hair, then the gold of summer, and the russet of harvest, as she travels the land and brings the seasons back. Finely wrought and passionately imagined, it’s a tapestry of words to hold the author’s themes: the awakening of desire; the longing to know one’s origins and one’s place; the cherishing and defense of loved ones. A treasure indeed. (Fantasy. 12-14)