The Timber-Witch of the Mountain Forest

Well, technically, this is a coming-of-age story of the future medical apothecary and frontier scout. Readers of The Witch of Death Swamp might remember mention of when he was a youth finding himself "apprenticed" to a Puritan witch-finder. This is that story..

Asher Mourne, formerly one of the witch-finders tasked by the special court in Salem in 1692 to apprehend suspected witches is recalled from retirement for one final hunt. But unlike the innocent victims in Salem, it is a genuine witch this time.

In the White Mountains of His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, an isolated Abenaki village has reached out to him for help. Something is prowling the mountain forest, murdering the villagers one by one.

Something that bites out their hearts and leaves the wounds filled with splinters...as if by a mouth filled with sharp wooden teeth.

On an unrelated mission, a French Colonial Marine officer has been sent to reconnoiter the area. Accompanying him are a young replacement priest, Joseph Lacouer and an even younger Sacha Athenois (long before he changed that to Seth Athenor). They soon find themselves caught up in the terror gripping the mountain village.

Mourne has vowed to kill the witch and grudgingly agrees to take Sacha along with him. But what possible help could a stripling be?