Jade Bones's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

The net spun slow above the moss. Jade saw the small girl in yellow break away and sprint down a path lined with pale stone lanterns. Each lantern flickered as the child passed. The girl was fast. If she reached the mansion door, the red-haired woman would bring more hands than Jade could cut through. Jade twisted in the rope. Her knife was still in her fist. She sawed at the cord above her boot, and the vines on her arms pulled the strands tight against the blade. The cloak fell open. Gold light spilled across the clearing and lit the small watch-house nearby, its stone walls crawling with centipedes around a quiet statue. The rope snapped. Jade dropped hard onto her shoulder and rolled. She came up running, not toward the mansion, but along the lantern path. The girl glanced back once. Her small face went wide. She pushed harder, blonde hair streaming, sneakers slapping stone. Jade was faster. She caught the child at the third lantern and swept an arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground. The girl kicked and shouted, but Jade clamped a gloved hand over her mouth and dragged her sideways into the brush. The shout was already out. From the mansion steps, the red-haired woman froze, then started walking. The woman crossed the moss without hurry. "Put her down," she said. Her voice was even. "I should have stopped her running. That's on me. But she's six. You're not going to use her, and we both know it." She stopped ten paces off, hands open at her sides. Jade's grip loosened. The girl slid free and bolted, not toward the mansion now, but behind the red-haired woman's legs. A scaled blue shape uncurled from the lantern's shadow then — a cat-bodied thing with folded dragon wings, yellow eyes fixed on Jade. Its claws dimpled the moss. Jade had stopped the alarm. She had not stopped what the alarm would have brought. The thing took one slow step forward, and the mansion door swung wide behind it.