Adrian Silvercrest's Arc

Chapter 16 of 23

Morning came thin and gray through the cottage shutters. Hope had cried through the last two hours of the night, and Adrian had not slept. The trunk still sat open by the door. Eric was awake on the rug, banging the colored rattle against the floor. Each shake sent the beads clattering inside the glass window of the toy. The noise scraped at the inside of Adrian's skull. Hope glowed again. A pulse of blue leaked from her fist where Elara held her by the hearth. "Cover her hand," Adrian said. It came out sharp. "I am," Elara said. "You aren't. I can see it from here." Aldric looked up from the table where he was sorting what little they had carried out. He did not speak. Hope opened her palm wider. The light climbed the stones of the hearth. "She won't stop," Adrian said. "She hasn't stopped since we got here. She's the reason we ran. She's the reason Dan is lying to his neighbors right now." The words were out before he knew he had chosen them. Elara turned. She pulled Hope tight against her chest and stepped back one pace, as if Adrian were the window and the lane and the torches. Her eyes filled. She did not wipe them. "She is a baby," Elara said. Adrian felt the floor drop out from under his ribs. "Elara—" "No." She looked past him. The green of her eyes went hard first, then wet again. "Aldric. Talk to him. Look after Eric. I'll take Hope outside until he cools off. He clearly needs it." She crossed the room. She did not look at Adrian on the way past. The door opened, closed, and she was gone into the trees behind the cottage with the baby against her collarbone. Aldric stood. He walked to the rug. He picked up Eric and set one broad hand over the boy's eyes. Then he smacked Adrian across the back of the head. It was not gentle. "Sit down," Aldric said. Adrian sat on the bench by the trunk. His hand went to the back of his skull. "She bled for eight days," Aldric said. "I carried that child's magic for four months so it wouldn't kill her. You built the cradle she's sleeping in. And you just told your wife our daughter is the reason a man is out there lying for us." "I know." "Do you." "I know." Adrian's voice cracked. "I'll go after her." "You won't. Not yet." Aldric lifted his hand from Eric's face. Eric shook the rattle at Adrian, cheerful, unaware. "You sit. You think about what you said. Then you go find her and you say the true thing, not the sorry thing." Adrian nodded. Aldric set Eric on his knee. Outside, through the shutter slats, a small blue light moved slowly between the trees, and did not go out.