Nell Larkspur's Arc

Chapter 3 of 23

They left the library with the linen map folded in Nell's coat. Lena said she needed to stop at her shop before they climbed to the ridge. Nell followed her through the cobbled lanes. Folk on the street pulled their children close when he passed. A baker crossed to the other side. An old man spat near his boot. Lena walked steady, blue hair loose down her back, and pretended not to see. Her shop stood at the end of a narrow row, its stone walls green with moss and climbing vine. Inside, banners hung half-stitched from the rafters. A kettle sat cold on the stove. She led him up a plain wooden stair to a back room, where a thin man lay under three quilts. His breath rattled. His hands were bones in cloth. "Papa," Lena said. She knelt and lifted a cup to his mouth. He drank two swallows and coughed. She wiped his chin with her sleeve. "I'll be gone a while. The neighbor will come at dark." Her father's eyes found Nell in the doorway. They did not flinch. Nell had expected them to. Lena packed dried apples, a wool blanket, and warm socks into her basket. She kissed her father's forehead. On the stair her hand shook once on the rail. Then it stopped. They climbed out of the village and up the switchbacks. The fox met them at the treeline, emerald tail low, and trotted ahead. The path narrowed toward the ridge. Wind cut down off the rocks. The fox stopped ten paces short of the cut in the stone. She flattened her ears and turned in a tight circle. She would not step onto the ridge. Nell knelt in the grass. "Come here." She did not move. He set the axe down. He held out his hand, palm open, and waited. Lena stood back. The fox came at last, slow, and pressed her head against his knee. He felt her heart going fast under the fur. "I know," he said. He ran his thumb behind her ear the way he did by the fire. "Something up there. I know." The fox whined once. "I need you," Nell said. His voice went low. "She'll go without us. She'll go alone. I can't track past the birches. You can." The fox lifted her head. She looked at Lena a long moment. Then she looked at the ridge. Nell stood. He picked up the axe. He did not push her. He waited. The fox stepped onto the stone. She waited for them there, tail twitching, ears still flat. Lena let out a breath she had been holding. "Thank you." "Don't thank me yet." Nell watched the pines above the cut. Something up there had spooked a creature that feared almost nothing. He shifted his grip on the axe and started to climb.