Lena Marsh's Arc

Chapter 24 of 24

The morning after the healing line, Lena walked to the tree line in a dress Linny had painted overnight. Pale green vines curled along the hem. Linny had not slept. Forge carried the flowers. Moss ran ahead barefoot, then ran back, then ahead again. Glen walked on his own feet, one hand on Linny's arm. Nell waited in a clearing just past the ridge. The fox sat at his boot. He had washed his face and combed his hair and it still stuck up in the back. When he saw Lena, his hands went still at his sides. There was no priest. There was no book. Fern had sent word she would not cross the ridge, but she sent a page torn from an old register with two lines on it. Linny read them aloud. Lena and Nell said the words back. The forest did something then. A ring of pale light lifted from the moss around their feet, low and steady. Nell's mother, or the memory of her, or the woods themselves. Lena did not ask. She spun a thin gold thread from the air and tied it around Nell's wrist. He took her hand and did not let go. Moss laughed. Glen cried without hiding it. Forge clapped once, loud, and Linny elbowed him and then leaned into his shoulder for one breath before pulling back. They ate on a blanket at the clearing's edge. Bread from the baker's wife. Honey. Eggs boiled hard. Lena kept her hand in Nell's between bites. A boy from the village came up the path near dusk with a folded paper. He would not step past the tree line. He held the paper out at arm's length. "From the governor," he said, and ran. Lena opened it. The hand was neat. Two lines. By order of the office of Governor Calloway Hild, the Mossweave shop was to be inspected for unlicensed practice at first light. A second writ named Nell as a person of interest in the disappearance of a village girl four winters back. Nell read it over her shoulder. His jaw set. The fox stood up. "Today," Nell said. His voice was flat. "He sent it today." "I know." "He waited." "I know." Lena folded the paper small and pressed it into her palm. Her hands wanted to go still. She made them move. She stepped in close and put both hands on his face. "Tomorrow," she said. "Give me tomorrow." "Lena." "One day. That's all I'm asking. Then we fight him." He breathed out. She kissed him. He stayed angry under her mouth for a moment, then he wasn't. His hand came up to her hair. Behind them Linny took the paper from Lena's fingers without a word and put it in her coat pocket. Forge saw and said nothing. Glen watched the sky. Lena had one day. She meant to keep it.