Lena Marsh's Arc

Chapter 4 of 24

They left the village before full dark. The blade in Lena's coat knocked her hip with every step. Linny walked ahead through the snow, hat low, purple hair catching lamplight from the last house. Past the last fence, the trees closed over them. The ridge waited beyond a slope of frost-laden pines, their branches shining like glass in the moon. "He won't forgive you," Linny said. "For going to her." Lena kept walking. "Nell doesn't get a say in this." "He does. You just don't want to give it." Linny stopped at a downed log and swung her leg over. "You don't know what her help costs." "Do you?" "I know what it cost him." Linny's voice went flat. "He took her hand. That's a debt. She'll name the price when she wants to, and he'll pay it. For me." Lena's hands went still inside her sleeves. She had not known that. She had not asked. They crossed into a stand of frost-white pines. Something small moved at the base of a trunk. A chipmunk, pale-furred, pink at the ears, watching them with round wet eyes. It did not run. Lena thought of the tiny jacket her hands had made without her permission. She kept walking. "Are you scared?" Linny asked. "Yes." "Good." The ground sloped. Ahead, between two leaning trunks, pale wisps drifted low over a ring of mushrooms. Blue and violet caps glowed under the moss. The Whispering Glen. Lena stopped at its edge. Her breath shook. "Do you like him," Linny said. “Nell?” "He's a friend." "Lena." "He's a friend." She said it again to make it true. The kiss sat behind her teeth. She swallowed it. "If I lose Nell’s trust doing this, I can live with it. If I lose Father, I can't." Linny watched her a long moment. "You won't say it. Even out here." "Say what." "That you want something." Linny shook her head. "A fae boy. You. It'd be the bravest thing you ever did. That's why you won't." Lena stepped past her, into the ring. Nothing struck her. The mushrooms held. She turned and put her hand out. Linny took it and crossed. They’d be safe in here. Safe enough to summon the witch. Inside the ring, the wisps thickened. The air went warm. Lena spoke the name into it. "Polona. Polona. Polona." The trees behind them creaked and leaned. A door opened where no door had been, cut into a trunk wide as a house, lit from inside by a low green flame. A woman stood in it. Silver hair. Eyes too bright for her face. Neither young nor old. "Marsh girls," the witch said. "Both of you.” She grinned with a tilt of her head. “Oh, how he'll be angry." "I need a magical trinket," Lena said. "Something that’ll pull the essence from my father without weakening him." Polona smiled, and it was not kind. "Come in then, and we’ll talk about what you'll owe." The sisters hesitated before looking at each other. They stepped out of the circle and through the threshold