Moon's Arc

Chapter 6 of 5

The gap between the crystals opened onto broken ground. The tiger led Moon past the last bright shards, and the trail split. Three paths ran off between the rocks. A fourth climbed. Moon stopped. She had a thief's name and no nest to find. She knelt by the tiger. "Which way?" she asked. He sniffed each path, then sat down. He did not know either. The owl could roost anywhere, and a wrong guess would cost her days. Moon pressed her hand to the heavy necklace in her sash. Its gold was warm. She remembered the twins' warning. The owl would miss this necklace soon. If the owl hunted her own stolen gold, Moon did not have to find the nest. She had only to wait where the owl could see the bait. She climbed the fourth path. It rose to a flat ledge under a huge cherry tree. Pink blossoms hung low over the stone. Moon pulled the necklace free and laid it on an open rock, in full light. Then she drew back under the branches with the tiger and waited. The wait was short. A white shape dropped from the sky and landed on the rock. It was a small owl, white, its wing-tips brushed with gold. It bent over the necklace and clicked its beak, searching. It was not the thief. It was too small, too soft. But it wore the thief's colors. Then a shadow swallowed the ledge. The second owl came down slow, and the small white one shrank aside. This one was black, with gold burning along both wings. She was twice the size. Her eyes fixed on Moon in the shadows at once, as if she had known all along. "That is mine," the black owl said. Her voice was low and even. "You took it from the stones." Moon stepped out from under the blossoms. Her thin magic warmed her wrist, barely there. "You took something first," she said. "A bracelet. Years ago. From the market." Her heart slammed, but she held the gold up so the owl could not look away. "I know your mark now. I know your name." The black owl stilled. The white one watched them both. "You followed a trail you could not read," the owl said. "And still you found me." "I let you find me," Moon said. The owl's talons closed on the edge of the rock. "Then you want to trade," she said. "My necklace for your bracelet. But your bracelet is not here. It is in my nest, past the far cliffs, where I keep what I take." She spread her gold wings. "Bring the necklace. Come alone, fairy. Or never fly again." She rose into the sky. The small white owl lifted after her and was gone. Moon stood holding the gold, the tiger at her feet. She had drawn the thief out. Now she knew where her bracelet waited, and the price of reaching it.