Gigglewick Featherfingers's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Gigglewick Featherfingers crouched behind a mossy fence at the edge of Toadhollow, the glowing ropes coiled tight against her chest. Three names sat heavy in her memory. She would not let Briar Windwhisper become the fourth. The girl's tickle-spirit was fading, and the village elders watching from their high windows would not stop her tonight. She slipped through the garden gate. Briar knelt among her herbs, humming flat. Gigglewick uncoiled the ropes. They shimmered awake, eager. "Hold still," Gigglewick whispered, and flicked her wrist. The ropes darted forward and looped Briar's wrists before she could rise. Briar looked down at her bound hands. She looked up. "You broke the rule," she said, plain as bread. Then the ropes brushed her ribs, and a startled, real laugh cracked out of her — sharp, bright, unfaked. A bell rang somewhere uphill. The elders had heard.