Aldric Thornmoor's Arc

Chapter 5 of 16

They ran until Wanda's breath came in ragged pulls and Aldric's legs gave under him at the edge of a hollow. The trees here grew low and pale. Blue tufts of grass caught the moonlight and dotted the ground with small white berries that looked like frost. Aldric pressed his back to a trunk. His throat still gave him nothing. The councilor's agent was close. Wanda had counted three sets of boots at the well. Only two had followed them into the woods, which meant the third had gone around to cut them off. Wanda knelt and pulled his hand off his ribs. Blood. A branch had opened him below the arm when the trees closed. "You can't outrun her like this," she said. "You need a wall between you and her until that closes." He scratched WHERE on his paper stub. "Somewhere she won't look. Somewhere that isn't on any road." A light bloomed between the trunks ahead. Not the orb. Warmer. Pink and grey stripes over a plank counter, a bulb burning under a tin hood. A stall stood in the hollow where no stall had been a minute before. MIDNIGHT CAFE was painted across the roof board. The order window was empty and black. Wanda stared at it. "That wasn't here." Aldric knew the shape of what stood behind the counter before it moved. The starry body coiled up out of the dark and set two bright eyes on him. The void chef. It had tasted his broach once. It knew his curse by flavor. "You," it said. "Bleeding. On a Tuesday. Untidy." Aldric wrote FAVOR. He underlined it. The void chef already held his last debt. He was asking to spend it now. "Called in early," the void chef said. "Fine. Terms." He wrote HIDE US. ONE NIGHT. The void chef tilted its head. "The one hunting you has a taste I don't have yet. Bitter. Wax. Horse." It leaned closer. "Give her to me when you're done with her. Not her life. Her name. The one her mother used." Aldric stared at the counter. He did not know the woman's name. He would have to learn it and hand it over. He wrote YES. The void chef flicked its tail. The bench under the window slid out. "Sit. Under. Don't speak. You're good at that." Wanda pulled him down. They pressed flat beneath the plank. The bulb above them dimmed. The stall did not vanish. The hollow around it did. The blue grass, the trunks, the moon, all of it went thin and grey, as if seen through smoke. Boots came through the hollow. Stopped. Circled. A woman's voice cursed low and moved on. Wanda's shoulder shook against his. He held still until the boots were gone. They had the night. He had a debt he could not pay yet, and a name he now had to steal.