Orin Wanderwood's Arc

Chapter 22 of 26

Orin fed Lily broth one careful spoon at a time. Her mouth took it. Her eyes did not open. Kate tore a piece of bread and chewed slow. The lantern hissed. Above them, the cellar boards creaked as Marrow moved somewhere in the yard. Footsteps came down the stair. Not Marrow's boots. Softer. Orin set the spoon down and reached for the knife on his belt. Elara Rootwhisper ducked under the low beam. Her basket was gone. She carried only a small clay cup and her satchel. "Marrow said below," she said. "I came below." Kate stood halfway. Orin did not answer. The old woman looked past him at the tent, at Lily's face inside it, and her mouth thinned. "She's cold in a way food won't fix," Elara said. She knelt at the tent flap without asking. She laid two fingers on Lily's wrist. She lifted an eyelid. She smelled Lily's breath. She drew back like the girl had bitten her. "What did you give her," Elara said. "A potion," Orin said. "To keep her breathing. From the woman who lives down here." "Purple. Cold as well water. Smells like iron." "Yes." Elara sat back on her heels. She looked at the dark passage behind the tent, then at Orin. "That is not a healing potion," she said. "That is a leash. Whatever pale thing gave it to you is tying your sister to her, thread by thread. Two more days and Lily will wake belonging to her. She won't come with you when you leave. She won't be able to." Kate sat down hard on the stone. "You're sure," Orin said. "I've seen it in a dog once. Same smell. The dog followed the woman who fed it and forgot the house it was born in." Elara did not soften her voice. "Your sister is being drunk slow." "Take it out of her," Orin said. "I can't pull the potion. It's already inside. I can weaken the thread. Not cut it." She opened her satchel and set the clay cup down. She poured from a small bottle. The liquid glowed pink and gold, fine as sugar water, with a slow shimmer in it. "Hummingbird nectar," Elara said. "It won't fight her magic. It will feed Lily's own body enough that the thread has less to pull on. Buys you hours, not days." She lifted Lily's head and tipped the cup. Lily swallowed. Color returned to her lips, thin as a rumor. Elara stood. "You have to get her out of this cave before the next dark. Away from the woman who made the potion. Far enough that the leash goes slack." "She said Lily can't be moved for two days," Kate said. "She said that," Elara answered, "because two days is what she needs." Orin looked at Lily. The color in her mouth was already fading again. "Tonight," he said. "We carry her out tonight."