Liliana Blossom's Arc

Chapter 4 of 7

Liliana stood over the white petal at her foot. She did not pick it up. The king had heard her once. That meant she could speak again, and this time she wanted to say more than a single line. She drew breath to begin. Then she heard the noise behind her. The animals had come back. A fox sat in the path with its tail curled around its paws. Two rabbits pressed against a root. A squirrel chittered from a low branch. Farther off, brush cracked under something larger. They had followed her scent past every pendant and stone she had left for them, and now they gathered at the edge of the shadow like a small, loud crowd. If she spoke now, the king would hear their fussing over her voice. He would hear a parade, not a woman. She turned and walked back down the path until the noise thinned. She found a small shed she had not noticed before, its walls set with river stones and its roof laid in shells. The door stood open. Inside, on a low bench, lay a bundle of yellow and orange yarn, a bent willow hoop, and a hand-carved oak bear holding a cluster of blueberries, a silver bell at its throat. A sprite sat on the doorframe with her feet swinging. Her hair was the color of lilac. "You can't outrun them," Petal Willowbloom said. "Give them something to hold." Liliana asked what would be enough. Petal nodded at the yarn and the hoop. "Make it yourself. Then set the bear at the path with the bell. They'll stay with the sound." Liliana sat on the floor of the shed and wound the yarn around the willow hoop in the shape of a crescent moon. She worked until her fingers ached and the charm hung heavy and bright in her hand. She carried the moon charm and the bear back up the path. She set the bear at the last bend before the shadow, blueberries in its paws, bell at its neck. She hung the woven moon from a low branch above it. The fox came first. It sniffed the bear and lay down. The rabbits crept up and pressed against its wooden side. The squirrel dropped from the branch and batted the bell once. The bell rang, small and clear, and the animals settled around the sound as if it were a fire. Liliana walked back to the shadow alone. No paws followed. No brush cracked. She set her hands on the painted sign and spoke into the dark, longer this time. She told the king she had learned to quiet what trailed her. She told him she could come without a crowd. She waited. From inside the shadow, deep and slow, something answered — a single low breath, close enough that she felt it move the hair on her arm.