Lena Marsh's Arc

Chapter 5 of 24

Inside, the cottage was warmer than any winter house had a right to be. A green flame burned low in a stone hearth. Dried herbs hung from the beams. Runes cut into the door frame caught the firelight and held it. Polona shut the door behind them. The sound was small and final. Linny stayed near the wall, one hand near her coat where the iron blade sat. Polona sat at a table that had not been there a moment ago. "Sit." Lena sat. Linny did not. "The trinket you want is simple," Polona said. "A needle.You thread it, you draw one breath of your father through the eye, and the shirt takes the essence without taking him. Obtaining the needle is a journey. And I will show you where to start.” She tilted her head. "If you pay the price." "Name it," Lena said. Her hands were flat on the wood and would not move. "Your mother's gift. The spinning. I take it when the shirt is finished. Not before." Lena's mouth opened. Nothing came. "You would still have the shirt," Polona said. "Your father would still be well. You would sew like any other seamstress after. Needle and thread. No more cloth from air." "That's our mother," Linny said from the wall. "That's the only piece of her we have left." "I know what it is." Polona did not look at Linny. "That is why it is worth the magic." Lena thought of her father's chest rising slow under the quilt. Two days now. Maybe less. She thought of the tiny jacket her hands had made for the chipmunk without asking her. She thought of the shirt half-finished on her table, still hungry for the living thing it needed. "Pay it in pieces," Lena said. "Part now. Part later." "No." "Something else. Years. Service. I'll owe like he owes." "You have nothing else I want." Polona's bright eyes held on her. "Lost things find me. Your mother's gift is lost inside you. You barely use it. You’re afraid of it. It came to me before you walked in." Linny stepped off the wall. "Lena. We leave. We find another way." "There is no other way! We have two days," Lena said. "Then he dies knowing you." Linny's voice cracked once and set. "Loving you and knowing you carry a piece of the love of his life." Lena looked at her own hands, pricked and blue at the tips. She thought of her mother teaching her to pull thread from nothing, laughing when it came out crooked. “You’re sure there is nothing else,” she whispered. Polona’s hand clasped hers. It was supposed to be comforting. It was not. “No, my dear.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “Lena. We find something else,” Linny warned. She shook her head. There was nothing else. “I’ll pay once my father is well.” She met the witch’s unshaking gaze. “If it is truly worth the price, then it is worth your patience.” Polona nodded once, as if she had already known. “Go to my sister,” she said. “I don’t know what she does now. We’ve never been friends. But she’ll know how to get the needle.” Lena shook her head. She had nothing more to give. “It won’t cost,” the witch said as if she knew. “Fern Nattle.”