A dark tale from Timandra Whitecastle, whose Living Blade world includes A Touch of Iron and On the Wheel. “I know what you want,” I hear my husband tell the three magpies standing in front of our door, the hags all dressed in black. “But my wife has no voice. She’s mute. She cannot talk to you. Please, leave us now, kindly ones, and never come back.” As they leave—walking down the lane with its trim gardens and white-washed fences, utterly out of place—they see me in our gar