Raindrop's Arc

Chapter 19 of 20

The stage was empty, but the sky above it was not. A new wave of drops was gathering over the cracked boards, thicker than the last. They hung and waited. Raindrop stood with the two ribbon bundles slack in his hands, and he had nothing to give them. The finale had used every idea he had. He could feel the drops starting to drift at the edges, losing their line. Thundar Stormstrider was still sitting on the back edge, breathing slow. His lightning was almost dark under his skin. "They're going to scatter," Raindrop said. "Yes." "I don't have another arc. I used it." Thundar looked up at the waiting drops. "Then step off the stage. You can't see a new shape from inside the old one." "There's nowhere to step." Thundar lifted one hand. A dark shape pulled together off the front lip of the stage, small and dense, storm-colored. It rolled itself hollow as it formed. A shelter the size of a room, with an opening on one side and empty space inside. It cost him. His arm dropped when it was done. "Go inside," Thundar said. "Sit. The drops will hold a minute without you." Raindrop stepped off the boards into the hollow. The walls muffled the wind. Inside was dim and quiet. He could still feel the drops above, but from here they were a shape, not a pressure. He sat. He closed his eyes and tried to see what came next. Nothing came. He opened them. Nigel Rainweaver was at the opening, arms folded into his sleeves. Raindrop had not heard him arrive. Nigel did not step inside. "You're looking for the next move," Nigel said. "I don't have one." "You keep trying to invent the shape." Nigel's voice was flat, tired. "You never did before. You watched." Raindrop looked up. "The first time it worked," Nigel said, "you didn't design three drops crossing. You noticed them crossing. Then you copied it." "That was three drops." "It's the same rule." Nigel stepped back from the opening and was gone. Raindrop turned to face out. From inside the hollow he could see the whole waiting wave at once, without leading it. He watched. Two drops drifted past each other and their paths bent. A third slid under them. For a beat, the three made a curve he had not called. There. The shape was already in them. He only had to name it. He felt the ripple start before he moved — a small one, at the edge of the wave, where the three drops had crossed. It was spreading on its own. He stepped out of the shelter and back onto the boards. He lifted the long ribbons and matched the curve the drops had already made. The wave settled into it. Thundar watched from the edge. "Found it." "They found it," Raindrop said. "I just followed."