Ninka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 3 of 29

Ninka woke on the lower hammock at first light. Luna was still asleep. The cabin smelled like new wood and crushed sunflowers. Ninka's mouth was dry. She had drunk the last of yesterday's water before bed. The spring at the edge of the meadow ran brown and thin. She had tasted it. It tasted like rust and dirt. If she and Luna stayed here another two days without clean water, they would get sick or leave. That was the problem she had to fix before the sun was high. She stepped outside with her canteen and sat cross-legged in the grass. Her mother had a floating eye that saw farther than any map. Ninka had watched it hover over the kitchen table once, blue and gold, lashes twitching. Her mother had told her to ask it only when she was truly stuck. Ninka set out her phone timer, cracked the cabin window behind her, and put a cup of water on a flat stone. Then she closed her eyes and pushed. The meadow fell away. She found the eye above her mother's hearth, watching a pot. "I need clean water," Ninka said. "On my land. Please." The eye turned to her. "Northwest corner. Twenty paces from the crooked birch. Old fae well. Buried under six inches of sod." "Is it safe?" "Yes." "Thank you." "One more thing." Ninka waited. "Your father asked a woman about your grandmother's land yesterday. He does not know the address. He is looking." The eye said nothing else. The subject was closed. Ninka snapped back into her body. The timer had not gone off. Her hands were shaking. She drank the cup of water and went inside. "Luna. Get up. Northwest corner." Luna sat up in the hammock, hair flat on one side. "How far northwest?" "Twenty paces from the crooked birch." They found the birch. Luna counted the paces out loud, boots pressing the grass. At twenty she stopped and knelt. "Something's humming down there. Feels like my gran's kitchen." They dug with their hands. Six inches down, Ninka's fingers hit stone. Cold, smooth, carved. They pulled back the sod in strips. A ring of white-gold rose out of the dirt as they cleared it, crystals set deep in the sides, green and pink and blue. Water sprang up inside, bright as a night sky, small sparks moving through it like stars. It did not smell like rust. It smelled like rain. Luna cupped a handful and drank. "Oh. Oh, that's good. That's so good." Ninka drank too. It was cold and clean and tasted faintly sweet. She sat back on her heels. They had water. They could stay. They could invite people. Her father was looking for the land. She wiped her mouth and stood up. She had to get to her grandmother before sundown.