Ninka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 7 of 29

By midmorning the rainbow signal had thinned to a shimmer high in the sky. The dragon dozed by the cabin door, smoke curling from its nostrils in slow ribbons that kept the roof under a soft dome. Ninka stood on the porch and watched the tree line. The bottle had been open for hours. No one had come. Luna joined her, holding two mugs. "They're out there. I can feel it in my teeth." "Then why aren't they walking in?" Luna pointed at the meadow. The grass looked normal to Ninka. Then she squinted. At the edge of the trees, a small figure crouched behind a trunk. Farther left, a boy stood frozen with a backpack. A girl with a shaved head kept stepping forward and stepping back. They had heard the call. They had come this far. Now fear was pinning them at the border. "They think it's a trap," Luna said. "Or they think they're the only one, and if they cross open ground someone will see." Ninka's stomach dropped. If the gifted kids bolted back into the woods, they would scatter for good. And her father already knew she had gone dark. Whatever hours she had, she was burning them on this porch. She couldn't project. The dragon's smoke shielded her, but sending a mind out would tear the dome. She needed a body to walk out there. Two bodies weren't enough for a meadow this wide. She looked at her hand. Her mother had pressed a ring into her palm at dawn, white gold shaped like a dragon's claw around a swirled crystal. "If she needs you, tap it," her mother had said. Ninka had thought she meant later. She tapped it now. The crystal warmed. The dragon lifted its head and looked at her. Ninka understood. She walked down the steps and pressed her palm to its neck. "Take me around them," she said. "Slow. Show them you're mine." The dragon rose. It did not fly. It walked, huge and calm, smoke trailing behind Ninka like a soft banner. Luna followed on foot with the mugs still in her hands. At the first tree, Ninka stopped in front of the crouching child. A girl, maybe ten, eyes wet. "You called us," the girl whispered. "I did. The cabin's warm. There's water. Come on." The girl took her hand. Ninka led her to the next tree, and the next. The boy with the backpack fell in behind. The girl with the shaved head walked out of the trees on her own once she saw the others. By the time Ninka circled back to the porch, eleven of them trailed her, quiet and blinking under the dome. Luna counted heads and shut the door behind the last one. Inside, the cabin smelled like bread and warm stone. Ninka set the girl on a bench and looked at Luna. "He knows the direction now," she said. "He just doesn't know how far."