Akira Stone's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

The door shut behind the sister and left the cabin quiet. Akira stayed at the table. The bloodroot lay where she'd left it, one dose short of what her elder needed. She wrapped the shavings in cloth and slid them into her leather satchel. Then she folded her hands and waited. The bargain called for an escort. Until one arrived, she could not leave for the patch. Until she cut more root, her elder kept bleeding out on the other side of the boundary. Jasper had not moved from the wall. He watched her the way he watched the door earlier, without blinking often. "Who does she send?" Akira asked. "Depends who's close." "How long?" "Could be an hour. Could be dark." Akira nodded. She kept her hands still on the table. Her elder had maybe four days left. She could spend one waiting. She could not spend two. "I'll take whoever she sends," she said. "I won't argue the choice." "I know you won't." An hour passed. Akira did not pace. She counted her breaths and listened to the timbers settle. Jasper made tea and set a cup in front of her. She drank it. He refilled it. Outside, boots crossed the porch twice and did not stop. Near midday the door opened without a knock. The sister stood there alone. Her sleeve was rolled down over the healed arm. "No one will go," she said. Akira set the cup down. "None of them." "I asked six. The second put the word out before I could. They won't walk an elf to a root patch. Not for me. Not yet." Akira felt the shape of it settle. The bargain held. The escort did not. Her elder was still dying and the clock had not stopped for pack politics. "Then I go alone," Akira said. "No," the sister said. "You go with him." She tipped her chin at Jasper. Jasper straightened off the wall. "I'm not an escort." "You are today." He looked at his sister a long moment. He did not argue. He pulled a coat off the peg and a knife off the shelf. "At first light," the sister said. "The patch, and back. You teach us the cut on the way home." She looked at Akira. "This is the last favor I spend on you this week." "Understood," Akira said. The sister left. Jasper set the knife on the table beside Akira's satchel and sat across from her. Close enough that she could see the yellow in his eyes. "You wanted to trade your life for the old man's," he said. "Now you've traded mine into it too." "I didn't ask for you." "No. She did." He turned the knife once on the wood. "Sleep. We leave before the lake goes gold." Akira lay down on the pallet by the hearth. The escort had come. It was not the one either of them wanted.