Raindrop's Arc

Chapter 20 of 20

The wave held its new curve for a few beats, then began to slip. Raindrop watched the line at the edge blur. The three drops that had shown him the shape were already gone, fallen through. The drops behind them had copied the curve for a moment, but without the first three to follow, the copy softened. By the time the next wave arrived, the curve was only in his head. "They can't see it," Raindrop said. He kept his ribbons moving, but he was tracing air. "The shape dissolves before it spreads." Thundar Stormstrider sat on the back edge of the stage where he had been resting. His lightning was low in his arms. "You need to mark it." "With what? The drops fall through. Anything I draw falls with them." "Then draw with something that doesn't fall." Raindrop looked at the ribbons in his hands. Bright color. The drops followed them because they could see them. But he only had two hands, and the curve needed to hold in the air after he moved on. Nigel Rainweaver came around the front of the stage. He was carrying nothing this time, which was unusual. His sleeves were empty at the cuffs. "I heard you," Nigel said. "I don't have more ribbon." "I know." Nigel looked up at the drops. "What did you see, when it worked for three seconds?" "A curve. Two drops crossing, a third under them." "And what held it?" "Nothing. It fell apart." "Then it didn't hold. You did." Nigel unwound a thin cord from his wrist. It was plain — no color, no charm. He handed it over. "Tie the ribbons to the tower and the spire. Stretch them across the stage in the shape you saw. Leave them there." Raindrop looked at the two bundles. If he tied them off, he lost his conductor's tools. He would have no way to lead the next wave. "I need these," he said. "You need the pattern more," Nigel said. "The drops will follow a line whether your hand is on it or not." Raindrop stood a moment. Then he walked to the metal tower and knotted one ribbon high. He carried the other to the cloud-post spire and tied it off at the top. Between them the ribbons crossed once and hung in a long sweeping arc — the curve the three drops had drawn. He stepped back. His hands were empty. The next drops fell. They hit the ribbon lines and slid along them. The curve held in the air after they passed. The drops behind copied it, and the drops behind those. The ripple spread outward without him. "Found it," Thundar said. Raindrop watched the pattern grow across the whole sky. He had no way to change it now. Whatever came next, the drops would follow the ribbons, not him.