Ninka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 24 of 29

By first light the buckets in the kitchen were empty. Ninka checked the crocks along the wall and found only a finger of water in the bottom of the last one. The children would wake soon. Eleven of them, plus Kaia in the cellar, plus the teachers. She stood in the stone hall and did the math. They had maybe two cups between them, and the well would not fill again until tomorrow night. She found Luna on the porch of the school, crouched with her hand flat on the boards. Luna's pink hair was pulled back. Her crystal cat ears sat crooked on her headband. She had been Ninka's first ally on this land, the girl who raised the first cabin with her and opened a portal through a dangerous realm when the roads were watched. "Twelve hours," Luna said before Ninka spoke. "Maybe fourteen. Then the little one starts throwing up. I've seen it before, don't ask." "I need water." "I know." Luna stood. "I can get it. But you won't like where." "Say it." "Wonderland. There's a stream past the tea garden. Clean. Cold. My grandmother showed me once." Luna's mouth tightened. "The Red Queen's people walk that road. I'd have to be fast." Ninka thought of Luna's box of forty-three drawings under her bed. None of them, Luna had said, looked like the real door. "Can you open it?" "Yes. Once. Maybe twice. After that my legs stop working for a day." "Then once." Luna nodded and walked to the flat ground between the cabins. She lifted her hand and drew a shape in the air. The air split. A tall oval opened, edged in checkered tile and stacked teacups, purple light turning inside it. A cat's grin floated near the top and faded. "Buckets," Luna said. They stacked eight of them by the portal. Luna stepped through. Ninka stayed on the meadow side and counted. She got to ninety before Luna's arm came back through, pushing a full bucket onto the grass. Then another. Then four more. On the seventh, Luna's hand was shaking. On the eighth, she came through with it and fell to her knees. The portal closed behind her. The grin was the last thing to go. "Don't drink the foam on top," Luna said into the dirt. "Skim it. It makes you honest." Ninka knelt and put her hand on Luna's back. Luna's breathing was fast and shallow. Her legs did not move. "You're staying inside today," Ninka said. "I said you wouldn't like it." Ninka carried the buckets to the kitchen two at a time. Sylvara skimmed each one with a wooden spoon and set the foam aside in a jar. The children woke to full cups. None of them asked where the water came from. At the tree line, her father was still watching. He had seen the portal open. He had seen it close.