Orin Wanderwood's Arc

Chapter 20 of 26

Orin uncorked the purple vial and tipped it to Lily's mouth. The liquid slid past her lips. Small lights moved down her throat like slow sparks. Kate kept her hand on Lily's forehead and counted under her breath. Lily's chest lifted. Then it lifted again, steadier. Her fingers twitched against the blanket. Her eyes opened halfway. She looked at Orin the way she used to look at him across a table, tired and unsurprised. "Cold," she said. "I know," Orin said. He pulled the blanket up to her chin. Kate sat back on her heels. "She's breathing. She's really breathing." "Good," Lady Moon said from the rack. She had not moved. "Now carry her out." Orin slid his arms under Lily. She weighed almost nothing. Her head rolled against his shoulder. He took two steps toward the passage and she made a small sound in her throat. Not a word. A wet click. He stopped. He looked down. A thin line of purple ran from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were closed again. Her breath was there, but shallow, and her skin under his hand felt loose, like cloth soaked and wrung out. "Put her down," Lady Moon said. He knelt and laid Lily on the blanket. Kate's hands went back to Lily's face at once. "What's wrong with her," Orin said. "The vial holds her," Lady Moon said. "It does not carry her. Move her now and it spills." "For how long." "Until the potion sets. A day. Maybe two." "We don't have a day. The creature will come back." "It went north," Lady Moon said. "It will stay north until dawn. After that I cannot say." Orin looked at the low room. The child's tent stood against the wall, its bright cloth strange in the stone. He looked at Kate. Kate's jaw was set. "We stay," Kate said. "We stay and she lives. We move her and she dies in your arms. That's the choice." Orin took a breath. He had carried Lily through a field, through a door, down a hole in the ground. He had spent years walking to reach her. Now the walking was the thing that would kill her. "We stay," he said. He lifted Lily again, only enough to shift her onto the tent floor where the cloth was softer than stone. He set her inside the little bright shape. Kate crawled in after her and took her hand. "Two nights," Orin said to Lady Moon. "Then we go." "Two nights," Lady Moon said. "And the name I asked for is still owed." "I know." She stepped back into the wall and was gone. Orin sat down at the tent's mouth. Above them, somewhere on the peak, the tapping climbed. Beside him, inside the bright cloth, his sister breathed. He watched the cave passage and did not sleep.