Kiersten's Arc

Chapter 23 of 33

Kiersten sat with the dry rose in her palm and watched the sun climb over the tree line. One night bought. One night left. The teachers had planted a false trail about a traveler heading south, but she had no way to know if it had taken root in the village. If Foodie Gwen's story held, the scout would ride south at dusk. If it did not, he would climb the path again and find the door. She needed to hear it from Gwen herself. She could not walk into the village. She could send Witness. She pressed her thumb to the tattoo above her heart and closed her eyes. "Go to the feast hall," she said. "Listen. Come back." Witness pulsed once and thinned out of her chest. Kiersten sat on the boards and counted three, six, nine. Her hands stayed steady this time. The gray space opened at the edge of her sight. She was not in it. She was watching through it. Witness stood in the vined doorway of the Blessing Feast Hall. Foodie Gwen was at the long table, pressing dough with the heel of her hand. A boy sat on a stool at the far end, swinging his feet. Gwen looked up. Her eyes fixed on the shimmer in the doorway and did not blink. "You are hers," Gwen said. Short. Flat. Witness did not answer. It could not. Kiersten felt the block in her own throat. Gwen wiped her hands on her apron and walked to the doorway. "Tell her the story took. Two farmers repeated it back to me by noon. A tanner told it to the scout at the well. He asked which road south. I said the stream road. He rode out an hour ago." Witness pulsed once. Gwen's mouth thinned. "He will come back when he finds nothing. Two days, maybe three. Tell her." Witness pulsed again and withdrew. Kiersten opened her eyes on the porch. The rose was still in her palm. Her chest was warm where Witness had returned. She reached again, this time for the three she needed. The gray space held them fast. Quantum in his round glasses. Mother Angel with her folded wings. Ananda with the purple sash. "The story took," Kiersten said. "He rode south an hour ago." Mother Angel exhaled. "Then we have two clean nights. Maybe three." "Enough to reach the wood behind the porch," Quantum said. "We come tonight, not the third. We move you before he circles back." "A whole night early," Ananda said. "My crystals love a schedule change." Kiersten nodded. The gray space closed. She stood and dropped the pressed rose into the cold hearth. The trap was empty. The road south was long. She had bought herself a walk out, and Witness had carried her voice where her body could not go.