Elder Bright's Arc

Chapter 10 of 10

While every eye was on the box, a thin witch in a green shawl slipped from the back bench and out the door. Elder Bright saw the bench shift. He counted heads. One short. He turned to Granny Mossroot. "She's running to the technologists. If she gets there first, both sides arm before we speak." He left the box on the table and went out after her. The trail was easy at first. Bent grass led past the stone slab where the cursed drives had been buried, the safe-like marker still tipped on its side. Then the trail forked at the river. He followed the bank. Each bend of the water meant she was closer to the workshop, and he was not. She stopped, just once, at a small thatched shop crowded with hanging herbs. She ducked inside for a charm. That pause was all he needed. Elder Bright stepped through the low door and stood between her and the road. He did not raise his voice. He held out the pocket watch and her own coven's letter, copied in his hand. "Walk with me, or run and be the next mistake on the next page. I have written both endings already." She stared a long moment. Then she lowered her hood and walked beside him back toward the clearing. They returned together before the technologists ever heard her name. The coven saw her come in at his shoulder, not in chains, not in triumph. The leak was sealed. But every witch now knew he could catch them, and Granny Mossroot's eyes told him the next runner would be harder.