Elsa Crane's Arc

Chapter 42 of 66

Elsa walked home from the cottage and knew she had put off the worst lesson too long. Bodhi could read the ledger. He could rule a shopkeeper. He could crown himself. But he had never been told where the horned thing under the fortress came from, or what it counted. If she died tonight, he would meet it again someday and think a life was a fair price for a small thing. She needed Wren. She found Wren on the step of the driftwood hut, knees together, black-button eyes fixed on the path as if she had known Elsa was coming. Wren was the quiet girl who kept returning no matter where the village left her, and now she carried the ledger's pen. She stood without being told and followed Elsa inside. "Fetch him," Elsa said. "Bring him here, not to the cottage. I need the hut for this. And bring the book." Wren went. She came back with Bodhi and the ledger under her arm. The reindeer waited outside. Bodhi sat at the low bench with his chalk. He looked at Elsa's face and put the chalk down. "I have to tell you a thing," Elsa said. "I should have told you the first time I took you down. Wren is here because she keeps the book now, and the book is the proof." She told him. She said the horned creature was not born under the fortress. Men put it there long ago, in chains, because it would trade. She said every task it did cost a life, and every life it took made the next task cheaper to ask for. She said she had summoned it twice. She named the baker. She named the librarian. She said Fern's month was still counting down because of a bargain Elsa made to keep his name off its page. Bodhi did not cry. He looked at Wren. "Show me." Wren opened the ledger. She turned to the pages Elsa had made her mark and set her small finger on each cross. Baker. Librarian. Wife-beater. Stalker. Fern's name, circled and dated to the next moon. "Five," Bodhi said. "Five," Elsa said. "Because I asked. It will offer you a good price someday. A quick answer to a hard problem. You will want to say yes. Every yes puts another name on that page. Say it back to me." "Every yes puts a name on the page," Bodhi said. "Never summon it alone," Elsa said. "Never summon it without Wren and the book in the room." He nodded. He picked up his chalk and drew a small horned mark on the bench, then rubbed it out with his thumb. Elsa sat back. The last secret was out of her chest and into his. The village had a leader who knew the cost.