Cherriese's Arc

Chapter 11 of 13

Cherriese walked to the shelter where her husband sat. The fairy cat that had come through the calling followed her, wings folded flat against its back. She set a slate before him and told him to draw every trap he had ever seen the adversary set. He stared at her. She said the missing exile would not survive another night on the road, and the valley people would not let him out to lead a party. So he would teach her, and she would carry it herself. He drew through the morning. He drew a road bend with a gold-barred cage hung from a tree, baited with a glamour that mimicked a friend's voice. He drew the chalk lines the patrols laid before the cage. He drew the timing of the patrol passes and the signal lights they used at night. The fairy cat watched the slate as if it understood. Cherriese copied each drawing onto folded cloth and slid the cloth into her belt. She could not teach this in the open. The valley people would call it proof he still ruled her. She walked to the cleared ground past the spring and raised a small pavilion from the spare poles and dyed cloth left over from the healing tent. She fitted a stone floor under it and cut three meeting marks into the slab. She called four guardians she had measured by what they had given up to stay. Inside the pavilion she spread the cloth drawings and taught them the cage, the chalk, the timing, the false voice. She told them where the knowledge came from. One guardian set his jaw and stayed. None walked out. They left at dusk. Cherriese led. They found the gold cage hung exactly where the drawing showed, three bends past the western gully. A child sat under it, drawn in by a voice that was not real. Cherriese cut the glamour with her wand and pulled the child clear before the chalk could close. They walked back through the night and reached the arch by the second watch. The child slept in the healing tent before dawn. At sunrise Cherriese went to the cleared ground where she had first opened the cloth drawings. She set a tall stone there and carved the marks of what she had used into its face. She pressed crystal shards into the cuts until they held. She did this in front of the valley so no one could later say she had hidden it. A woman asked if it was a warning. Cherriese said it was a record. She had used her husband's knowledge openly, and a child was alive because of it. The valley people did not cheer. They did not turn away either. One of them picked up a stone and set it at the base. Then another did. By midmorning the pile reached her knee, and the next exile's name was already moving on the wind.