Elder Bright's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

Inside, the clubhouse smelled of smoke and old cedar. Granny Mossroot moved to the long table and began to lay out her letters. Elder Bright unfolded his own table beside hers. The witches watched from their benches. He nodded at them, ready to speak. He did not yet see the woman in the corner. She stood half-hidden behind a tall oak-framed painting of an old witch in a pointed hat. The painted eyes stared out, but her own eyes were sharper. On the small shelf at her elbow sat a roll of soft white gauze, a thread of black hair, and a locked metal box packed tight with colored thumb drives. He knew that box. Cursed sticks. The coven's worst secret. She was unwinding the gauze in silence, mouthing a binding for his tongue. Elder Bright saw the gauze move. He understood at once. He did not shout. He walked straight to her, lifted the locked box in both hands, and set it on his table in front of every witch in the room. "This is what you fear I will carry," he said. "So I carry it here, in front of you, and nowhere else." The gauze went slack in her fingers. The binding had needed a hidden target. He had made himself seen. Granny Mossroot did not smile, but she gave a small nod. The witch in the corner stepped out from behind the portrait and sat down among the others. The coven's secret now sat on his table, claimed and exposed. He had kept his voice. But the box was open business now, and every witch in the room was waiting to hear what he meant to do with it.