Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery

Back in the pit, the being reawakens to terrible memories of blood and smoke. The being discovers that he’s being attended by several animals—a possum, a floating fish with the faces of children, and a raven—that call him Father. These animals, the wildfolk, tell their Father that he is a slayer who protects them and a tree called Pawpaw from the incursion of humans. They say that he’s defended them once before, but now it’s time to reawaken and kill the new humans—starting with Abitha.

Abitha goes to the barn to saddle a mule and hears odd voices. She’s attacked by the wildfolk and approached by Father, whom she takes to be the devil. As he nears, she is overcome with visions of burning huts and screaming people; the visions give way to a tumult of spiders and eventually blackness. Abitha wakes, alone, and returns to the house. She gets a small bag of hair that she stole from her mother before leaving England. Her father believed that her mother cursed their family through her witchcraft, but Abitha believes in her mother’s goodness. The hair reminds her of a warding charm of mixing ash and blood. As she’s spreading ash mixed with some of her own blood around the perimeter of the property, Wallace approaches her and tells her that she still has a way out of trying to farm alone—by marrying his 16-year-old son.