Adrian Silvercrest's Arc

Chapter 10 of 23

The baby came in early spring, and by the next spring he was walking. Adrian called him Eric. The cradle in the corner stood empty now most days, because Eric preferred the floor, and the floor preferred him back. He toddled after the cat. He pulled at Aldric's robe hem. He sat on Elara's foot while she kneaded bread and refused to be moved. His hair was the trouble. It came in black, thick and standing up in every direction, with a single streak of white above his left ear. His eyes were Elara's green. Adrian saw it every morning and felt the arithmetic of it in his chest. A white-haired father. A brown-haired mother. A black-haired child with one white stripe, as if someone had signed the work. The village began to count. It started at the well. Two women stopped talking when Elara came near. It moved to the market. Dan came by the fence on a Tuesday, leaned his forearms on the top rail, and did not lead with weather. "People are asking," Dan said. "About the boy's hair." Adrian set down the post he was carrying. "Asking what." "Asking whose he is." Dan looked at him plain. "I told them to mind their own field. But they'll keep at it. I thought you should know." "Thank you," Adrian said. Dan nodded once and went. Adrian brought it to the kitchen. Aldric was at the table with Eric on his knee, feeding him bits of apple. Elara stood at the basin. "Dan says the village is talking," Adrian said. "About Eric's hair." Elara did not turn. "Let them come to me." They came Sunday, after service, three of them, smiling the way people smile before a knife. Elara met them at the gate with Eric on her hip. Adrian stood back by the door. Aldric stood further back, in the shadow of the frame. The oldest woman touched Eric's white streak. "Such a curious color, dear. Where did the black come from, do you think?" "My grandfather," Elara said. Her voice was easy. "And his father before him. Black as a crow's wing, both of them. My mother said it skips." She smiled. "I hoped it would. I always liked the look of it." The woman's hand stayed on Eric's head a moment. Then it dropped. "Skips," the second woman said, testing it. "Skips," Elara said. They looked at Eric. Eric looked back and put his fist in his mouth. Something in the three women eased. The oldest laughed and pinched his cheek and said he had his mother's eyes at least, and then they were gone down the lane, already carrying the story to the next porch. Elara shut the gate. She came inside and set Eric on the floor. He crawled straight to Adrian and pulled on his trouser leg. "They bought it," Elara said. Adrian lifted his son. The house was quiet. The lie had held.