Ninka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 25 of 29

Luna did not wake when Ninka called her name. She lay on the porch boards where the portal had dropped her, breathing in short pulls. Her legs were cold under Ninka's hand. Sylvara knelt on the other side and pressed two fingers to Luna's neck. "Her pulse is slow," Sylvara said. "Too slow. This is not just sleep." Ninka thought of the box of drawings under Luna's bed. Forty-three doors. None of them the right one. She thought of Luna crawling through the eighth bucket and falling. "What do we do?" "I grow herbs. I do not mend a spark that is going out." Sylvara sat back on her heels. "Someone came up the north path an hour ago. A woman. She said her hands hurt when she crossed the tree line." "Where is she?" "In the garden. She would not come inside without permission." Ninka ran. She found the woman standing between the sunflowers and the crystal steps of the school, small, with hair to her waist and a satchel on her hip. Her robe was stitched with gold thread. She was holding her own wrists like she was trying to keep them still. "Are you a healer?" "Yes." "My friend is dying on the porch." "Show me." They walked back fast. The woman knelt beside Luna without asking and put both palms on Luna's chest. Her hands began to shake. Then they steadied. Heat rose off them in a way Ninka could see, a small warp in the air above Luna's ribs. "She spent her gift," the woman said. "All the way down. It is trying to close." "Can you stop it?" "I do not know. I have not held one this low." "Try." The woman nodded. She did not answer again. Her hands stayed on Luna's chest for a long time. Sylvara brought a jar of something green and set it by her knee. The woman did not look at it. Sweat ran down her jaw. Luna's breathing changed first. It went deeper. Then her fingers moved. Then her eyes opened halfway. "Don't drink the foam," Luna said. The healer laughed once, short. She lifted her hands and sat back. Her palms were red. "She needs three days of broth," she said. "Not water. Broth. And she does not open another door for a month." "Done." Ninka's throat hurt. "What is your name?" "Lavender." "Will you stay?" Lavender looked at the school, at the crystal roof, at the children watching from the doorway. Her hands were still shaking. "My hands went cold at home," she said. "They are warm here." "Then stay." Lavender nodded. She picked up Sylvara's jar and opened it and began to work. At the tree line, Ninka felt her father watching them still. He had seen the portal. Now he had seen someone new walk in.