Ichathys's Arc

Chapter 5 of 1

The shape climbed toward the glass. Ichathys watched claws test the surface from the other side. The mirror groaned. She had one thing the creature wanted, and one man who might know how to use it. But Mr. Harrow kept his eyes hidden under his hat, and he had already lied about the paper in his coat. She could not tell if he meant to help her or feed her to the dark. "You knew Sable," she said. "You crossed his mirror. Tell me true. Do I feed the band to it or move it?" Mr. Harrow turned. His hat still hid his eyes. "Feeding it is faster." "That is not an answer." "No," he agreed. He did not offer more. Ridley stepped between them. He had washed ashore three nights past, hunted, searching for a friend who vanished. She had hidden him and taken the circlet that marked him for death. Now he faced her nephew without fear. "The band is mine," he said. "I decide." Mr. Harrow tilted his head toward the boy. "Then decide." Ridley looked at Ichathys. His voice dropped, plain and quiet. "If it takes the band, it stops hunting me. It stops clawing your glass. Give it." Ichathys did not want to. The circlet was the only proof of who Ridley was. Once the creature ate it, that proof was gone forever. But the glass was cracking. Narcissus shook in her shadow. She had run out of choices. She reached through the mirror. The water was cold as winter stone. Her fingers found the golden band where it rested on the Cottage floor. Leaf shapes and gems pressed her palm. She drew it out into the room. "Give it to me," Mr. Harrow said. He held out one gloved hand. "I will pass it back to the deep, away from the barrier. It won't break through to reach what it can already smell." Ichathys hesitated. She did not trust his hidden eyes. But she trusted the boy at her side, and the boy trusted this man. She pressed the circlet into Mr. Harrow's palm. He crossed to the mirror. He plunged the band deep into the water and let it fall. Far down, the climbing shape turned. It sank after the gold, away from the glass. The clawing stopped. The mirror stilled. Ridley let out his breath. Ichathys felt Narcissus settle in her shadow. Then Mr. Harrow spoke, low. "The prayer strip. You should know now." He drew the yellowed paper from his coat. "Sable wrote that the creature is no beast. It is the thing that cursed the cat. And it does not only want gold." He set the paper in her hand. "It wants Narcissus back." Ichathys stared at the still water. She had fed the hunter tonight. But she had only bought it time, and now she knew the truth. The thing that took the boy was waiting, and it was patient.