Ninka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 27 of 29

By morning the sick children were sleeping easy, but Ninka stood on the porch and counted her guards. Storm Bravesoul held the tree line. Ezra watched the road. Lavender stayed with Luna. Sylvara and Prismella worked the garden. Garrick fed the children. No one was left for the spot at the edge of the meadow where Luna's portal had opened and closed. Her father had watched it happen from the trees. He would come back to that spot. He would try to slip through where he saw the wonder go. Ninka walked to the portal ground herself. The grass was still bent in a ring. Teacups and mushroom shapes had been pressed flat by the last opening. She stood there and felt how exposed it was. One person. One gap. She had no gift strong enough to hold it and no body to spare. A woman stepped out of the pines at the north edge. She wore a green dress. Her hair moved when there was no wind, long dark ropes lifting and settling like they were listening. She carried a small knife at her belt and nothing else. "I'm Lilith," she said. "I've been walking here four days." Ninka did not step back. She had seen stranger arrivals this month. "Why here." "I felt it. My mother is Medusa. I turn men to stone when I look at them. I have never done it by accident." Lilith's eyes stayed on Ninka's collarbone, not her face. "I left home because she wanted me to hurt people who did not deserve it. I want to teach children. I heard there were children here." Ninka looked at the bent grass ring. She looked at Lilith. "There's a man coming back to this spot. My father. He poisoned the garden. He's been hunting us for weeks. If he crosses here he gets to the cabins." "Show me where he'll stand." Ninka pointed to the flat place inside the ring. "Then I'll wait there," Lilith said. "If he comes through the trees, I'll look at him. He'll be a statue. Birds will sit on him. He won't touch any child here." "You've only just walked in." "I know what I am for." The tendrils on her head settled. "Go feed your children." Ninka stayed one more minute. Then she went back to the hall and told Garrick to set a plate aside. By dusk Lilith was seated on a stone at the portal ground, hands folded, eyes on the pines. At full dark Ninka heard one sound from the tree line. A short, dry gasp. Then nothing. She did not go out. She sat with the children until the fire burned low. In the morning there was a tall stone figure at the edge of the meadow, arms half-raised. A sparrow was already on its shoulder. Lilith was drinking broth in the kitchen. The portal ground was quiet.