Elsa Crane's Arc

Chapter 19 of 66

The whispering had stopped, but Elsa's second debt had not. She woke before dawn with the horned creature's price pressing on her chest. One adult life owed, and the creature would not wait forever. If she delayed, it would reach past her and take Bodhi. She dressed, tied the jeweled stake into her sash, and walked through the snow to the small stone prison at the edge of the village. The warden left her alone in the front room with its arched windows and porch swing creaking outside. Brynn sat in the holding cell in her cardigan, hands folded, silver hair neat. The elders had put her there two nights ago for stirring the village against Jasper. She smiled when she saw Elsa. Elsa did not smile back. She turned the key, locked the outer door, and sat down on the bench opposite the bars. "You will be moved to the county court in three days," Elsa said. "You will not be there when they come." Brynn's smile did not move. "You will do it yourself?" "No," Elsa said. "I owe a debt. You are how I pay it." She left before Brynn could answer and walked to the fortress ruins where she had summoned him before. She held up the sapphire-studded stake and spoke the name she had been given. He came out of the trees without sound, tall, horns wet at the tips, eyes the color of a poisoned lamp. His armor was black and dark red, torn at the hem. He waited. "The librarian. In the small prison at the edge of the village. Tonight." Elsa lifted a bundle from under her arm and held it out. A long green cloak, silver lace at the collar, hood deep enough to swallow a face. "Wear this through the lanes. No one will look twice at a tall figure in an elder's cloak. Take her from the cell. Leave the door locked behind you. Leave no blood on the floor, no marks on the walls, no scrap of cloth. She walked out on her own, as far as the village will know." He took the cloak in one clawed hand. "And the boy?" "Paid," Elsa said. "This closes it." He tilted his head. "This closes what you owe for the baker. It does not close what you will owe next." He turned and walked back into the trees with the green cloth over his arm. At dawn the warden found the cell empty, the outer door locked, the key still on its hook. No blood. No footprints inside. The elders questioned the warden, not Elsa. By noon the village had settled on the story that Brynn had slipped her own lock and run. Elsa sat in the meeting hut and untied the stake from her sash. Her second debt was paid. Bodhi was safe. The creature's last words sat in her chest like a stone she had not yet named.