Lilith Thornveil's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Morning light seeped through the arch. Lilith knelt by the empty satchel and turned a single red fruit in her hand. It was the last one. She had stripped the far slope bare to save Lyra, and now every tree in the ravine hung empty. The next bead-follower would arrive to nothing. She could not keep flying farther each night while the hungry starved waiting. Lyra woke and found her staring at the fruit. The girl uncurled her cracked compass and spread her maps across the stone. "You keep gathering wild fruit," she said. Her voice was steady now that she had eaten. "That's the problem. Wild runs out." She tapped a hollow marked on the parchment, deep past the second chamber. "There's a cavern back here. I mapped it before I ever came inside. Water runs through it. Light comes down from a crack above." Lilith frowned. "Light underground." "Enough to grow things." Lyra's ink-stained finger traced the spring. "Plant the seeds from your fruit there. You stop chasing food. You make it." A new voice cut in from the passage. "Seeds need someone to dig." A girl with black cat ears leaned against the wall, arms crossed. She had a book tucked under one arm and dirt already under her nails. This was Raven, who had followed the bead marker two days back and stayed longer than most, saying little and stealing crusts from the shared basket. She looked at Lilith. "I'm not sleeping. Might as well." Lilith studied her. Raven never offered anything. She waited for the catch. There was none. "Then we start now," Lilith said. They went back through the second chamber and squeezed through the air passage Shade had opened. The hollow was as Lyra's map promised. A thin shaft of daylight fell on wet stone. A spring pooled clear at its center. The soil along the bank was dark and soft. Lilith split the last fruits and pressed the seeds into the ground near the water. Raven dug rows with her bare hands, quick and silent. Lyra marked each planting on her map so nothing would be lost. Selene carried water from the pool in cupped palms and poured it over the earth. "They'll take weeks," Selene said. "Maybe months." "Then the beacon waits," Lilith said. She stood and looked at the wet rows. "No more strangers until there's food to give them. I pull the token from the market tomorrow." Raven wiped her hands on her jeans. "You're locking the door." "For now." Lilith knelt and firmed the soil over one buried seed. She had traded the open door for a full larder later. Every hunted soul who reached the market this week would find no bead, no guide, no way in. She could feed the four here. She could not feed the crowd she had promised herself. Not yet. She pressed the last seed down and covered it.