Raven bones's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

Raven stepped closer to the tree and stopped. A thing stood at the base of the trunk. It had been a deer, or a dog, or worse. Now it was mostly bone, two legs, with flowers and fungus pushing out between its ribs. It swayed and watched them. Behind it, in the trunk, Raven saw a hole. Deep in the hole beat a dark red heart. She knew what she had to do. She had nothing to do it with. The skeletal thing turned its ruined skull toward Asher. The sweet rot poured off his arm. It smelled him. It wanted him. Raven pulled Asher back a step. She couldn't rush the heart without the creature tearing into him first. The little mushroom people huddled in the moss nearby. They had carried her this far without a word. Raven crouched and leaned down to them. "I need something sharp," she whispered. "A blade. Anything." They looked at each other with bright, strange eyes. Then they scurried off into the fungus. Moments later they came back. The smallest one held up a dagger. It was carved from bone, pale and clean, and golden spores drifted around the blade. Raven took it. It fit her hand like it had grown for her. "Thank you," she said. They didn't answer. They never did. She turned to Asher. He stood with his jaw tight, watching the creature. She hated what she had to ask him. "I need you to pull it off the tree," she said. "It wants your arm. Give it your arm. Just long enough for me to reach the heart." Asher looked at the dagger, then at her. "You'll be fast." "I'll be fast." "Then go." He didn't argue. He didn't explain. He just stepped sideways, out into the open, and whistled low. The creature's skull snapped toward him. It lurched off the trunk and went for him, dripping, snapping its jaws. Asher ran. The thing chased, fast on its ruined legs. It cleared the base of the tree. The path to the heart opened. Raven moved. Her bone legs carried her faster than she knew she could go. She reached the trunk and shoved her arm into the hole. The red heart beat under her fingers, warm and wet. She drove the dagger in. The tree screamed. Not with sound, with a pulse that knocked the air from her chest. The golden light flared, then went gray. The heart split open and spilled dark rot over her wrist. Behind her the skeletal creature dropped mid-stride and crumbled into loose bone and dead flowers. Raven pulled her arm free. The spores stopped drifting. The whole tree sagged, its glow dying branch by branch. Asher walked back, breathing hard. He pushed up his sleeve. The bone on his forearm hadn't spread. But it hadn't shrunk either. "It's not curing me," he said. Raven looked at the dead tree. "No," she said. "It just stopped feeding."