Orin Wanderwood's Arc

Chapter 11 of 26

The rain kept up on the tin roof. Kate sat against the wall with her knife across her knees. Marrow watched the door. Mr. Echo folded his coat and set his cone aside. Orin knelt by Lily on the floor. The painted panel lay in her lap. Her fingers traced the dark bird on it, over and over. "Lily," Orin said. "When the rain stops, we run. But I need to know where we're running to." She did not look up. "Where did we live. Before the trees. Before the Fen." Her hand stopped on the panel. Her mouth closed. She shook her head once, small. "I don't remember," she said. It came out flat. He had heard her say her own name in that same voice. It was the voice she used when she did not want to be pulled any further. Orin sat back on his heels. He thought about pushing. He thought about the pale woman in the field, waiting for the rain to thin. Then a cold spot moved through the shed. A boy with white hair stood at Lily's shoulder. Ollie. His hands were in his pockets. "She does remember," Ollie said. "She won't say. Mom grabbed her arm at the trees. Told her to wait for morning. Lily pulled away. That's the last thing before the cold." Lily's shoulders went tight. She did not turn to look at him. "Ollie," she said. "Stop." "No," he said. "He needs it." Orin looked at his sister. "The house," he said. "Just the house. Not the trees." Lily pressed her thumb into the panel until the wood creaked. "Pinewood," she said. "Two floors. A chalet. The road came up from the south. There was an orange tree in a pot by the door. Mom brought it in every winter." Her voice stayed level. "That's all you get." She set the panel down and folded her hands in her lap and would not say another word. Orin looked at Marrow. Marrow was already thinking. "South road, pine chalet, orange in a pot," she said. "That's the old holdings past the south fork. Two days walking. I've been through there." Mr. Echo nodded slowly. "I can find it from that." Orin's chest felt loose for the first time in days. He had a direction. He had a place with a door. The rain thinned on the roof. Ollie was already looking at the wall, toward the field. "She's standing up," he said. Kate got to her feet. Marrow drew the bolt back a finger's width and listened. Orin picked up the painted panel and put it in Lily's hands and closed her fingers around it. They knew where home was now. They only had to live long enough to reach it.