Aster Alloway's Arc

Chapter 9 of 26

The newt trotted ahead, its dewdrop tail marking gold points on the trail. Aster followed close, three arms free, one hand on the strap of her pack. Then the newt turned. It left the marked trail and slipped between two mossy trunks into a grove Aster did not know. She stopped. The path she trusted ended here. The newt's tail was her only guide now, and it was already twenty steps into the trees. She went after it. Branches closed behind her. The grove was thick and dim, and the gold points bobbed low near the ground, easy to lose. Twice the newt vanished behind a root and she froze, breath tight, until the glow blinked back. Her boots snagged on vines. She was falling behind. Aster dug into Bella's sister's pack. Her hand found a pair of shoes shaped like flies, with crystal wings along the sides. She had passed them over for days. Now she yanked off her boots and pulled them on. She stood, took a step, and the shoes shot her forward. She stumbled, caught a trunk, then found the rhythm. She kept pace with the newt at last. The grove opened into a small clearing. A cottage sat at the center, round and pink, shaped like a candy cup. Bright stones dotted its walls like windows. The newt scrambled up onto its low step and stopped. It sat by the door and lifted its tiny cup, calm, as if it had brought her exactly where it meant to. A woman stood in the doorway. She wore a neat cardigan and round glasses, and she watched Aster with steady brown eyes. Aster had never seen her out here. "You followed the newt," the woman said. Not a question. "Good. The trail you left is a dead end. It bends into a ravine." Aster caught her breath. "Who are you?" "Fiona Ballard. I keep records." She held up a small folder, its pages soft from handling. "People who came this way. What they carried. Where they stopped." She turned a page. "A hundred years back, a woman passed here. She didn't come back. I have her marked." Aster's chest tightened. Bella's sister. "I found her," Aster said. "I have proof." Fiona looked at her a long moment. "Then you're the first to make it this far and return the favor." She stepped aside. "The bloom is close. Half a day, no more. But the grove past me changes. Follow the newt, not the ground." Aster looked at the pale newt on the step. It set down its cup. Then it rose, tail glowing, and pointed itself at a gap in the far trees. The gold points marked a path she never could have found alone. She was off the map for good now. But she had a guide, faster feet, and half a day between her and the bloom. Aster tightened her pack and followed the newt into the trees.