Fenwick Thistleboom's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Inside, the air was thick and green. Algae coated the floor like a wet skin. Lila Fen stood very still, then knelt and pressed her palm flat. "Here," she said. "Something is under here." Fenwick crouched beside her. The boards beneath the slime were warped and splintered, soft with rot. He dug his fingers into a crack and pulled. The wood came up in wet chunks. She helped him, quiet, breathing through her teeth. Beneath the broken planks sat a wooden box bound in iron, its seams packed with dried mud, its lid lashed tight with rope. "They worked at this," she said. "They didn't want it found." Fenwick took out his knife and sawed the rope. The mud cracked off in flakes. She lifted the lid herself. Inside lay a book bound in silver, its cover etched with symbols that caught the dim light and held it. Lila Fen drew a slow breath. "My mother's," she said. "They told me it burned." She lifted the book with both hands. The house seemed to lean in around them. Somewhere far off, faint and thin, the chimes began to ring on their own. Fenwick's head snapped up. "That's not the wind," he whispered. She did not look away from the book. "No," she said. "They know." She closed the box and stood, the silver book held tight against her chest. "We have what they hid," she said. "Now we have to outrun them." Fenwick nodded and reached for her free hand. The night was no longer his to shape. It was hers, and it had teeth.