Kate Bush's Arc

Chapter 19 of 21

They cleared the last row of pale trees and stopped at the edge of the orchard. Will leaned on Kate's shoulder. His breath came short. His legs shook under him like a colt's. Marrow watched the treeline behind them. Mr. Echo held the brass box closed. The collie stood at Will's heel, ears turned back toward Creakfall House. Kate could still feel the pull of the spirit lure thinning across the field, but it would not hold much longer. "He can't walk to the village," Marrow said. "Not tonight." Kate knew it before Marrow said it. Will's color was back and his voice was bound, but the ritual had taken the strength out of him. He had been dead. His body remembered that. She lowered him onto a flat stone and knelt in front of him. "How far can you go?" "Not far," Will said. His hand closed on her sleeve. "Kate. I'm sorry." She shook her head and did not answer. There was no time for sorry. She looked at Mr. Echo. "How long before the lure fails?" Mr. Echo tilted the box. A needle inside ticked. "An hour. Maybe less. When it fails, the hunter comes back on his voice." A small light moved between the trees. Kate reached for a salt pouch. The light steadied and became a girl in a pale dress, barefoot on the cold ground. The lost ghost girl she had seen once before on the hill path. The girl did not speak. She lifted one hand and pointed south, past the orchard, to a shape Kate had not noticed. A low roof under ivy. A cottage garden gone to seed. Elara Rootwhisper stepped out from behind the ivy with a lantern. "I came the short way," Elara said. "Bring him inside before he drops." They carried Will between them. Marrow took one arm, Kate the other. His feet dragged over the sill. Elara pointed to a cot by the hearth and Kate lowered him onto it. Elara set a small green bottle in Kate's palm. The liquid inside caught the firelight and threw stars across the wall. "Two drops under his tongue," Elara said. "Not more. It will hold his body through the night. It will not fix what the ritual took. That comes back slow, or it does not come back." Kate uncorked the bottle and tipped it. Will swallowed. His shaking eased. His eyes closed. Elara latched the door and pulled a woven mat across the threshold. "The hunter cannot smell him here while the lure runs," she said. "After that, we will see." Kate sat on the floor beside the cot and kept her hand on Will's wrist. His pulse was thin, but it was there. The ghost girl stood at the window a moment longer, then turned and walked back into the dark. Outside, somewhere across the orchard, the pull thinned to a thread.