Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 17 of 66

Rebecka opened the compass again. The lone mark had joined the cluster on the ridge road. Both were moving north now, back toward the main war party. Once the mage reached them, the whole band would turn south and walk this ridge until they found the cave. She had until he got there. No longer. "I have to stop him before he reports," she said. "On the road. Alone." Marcus set his hand on her arm. "He's an hour ahead. On horseback. You're on foot with five arrows." "Then I don't need six." Lark shook his head. "The bow hums when you draw. He'll feel a cast from a mile off and ride harder. You lose him." She knew he was right. The bow read the target. The bow warned her. The bow was magic, and the mage was listening for magic. Any shot she took at range would announce her before the arrow flew. She was still turning that over when the cold hit her spine. A voice behind her left ear. Low. Familiar. Not in the cave. "Becka." She turned. No one there. Katia had gone still by the wall. Ninka was staring at the blanket in her lap, both hands flat against it, as if pressing something down. "Mama," Ninka whispered. "He's in the edge of it. He found the quiet." Rebecka knew the voice. She had known it before she heard the name. Dirk. Her ex-husband. Somewhere far from here, holding a doll bound to a doll, using her daughter's stilled mind as a doorway because nothing else was humming for him to ride. "Get out," Rebecka said. "Road north," Dirk said. Flat. Even. "Your rider. I can drop him." "No." "Say yes. He falls. Horse falls. He doesn't reach them." "What do you want." "You. Later. Not today." Katia's hand closed hard on Rebecka's wrist. Katia had heard enough to know who was speaking. Her face said no. Marcus had drawn a knife without deciding to. Lark's wings had opened a hand's width against the stone. Rebecka thought of twenty-two people in the deeper chamber. She thought of Ninka's small hands pressed flat on the blanket. She thought of what Dirk's magic cost, and who usually paid. "No," she said again. "Out of her. Now." The cold went. Ninka let out a breath and slumped against Katia. Rebecka opened the compass. The two marks moved on, steady, north. The mage would reach the war party. The war party would turn. She had refused the only hand offered to stop him, and she had refused it for a reason she would not take back. "They're coming," she said. "By tomorrow. We hold the cave, or we don't." She closed the compass and looked at her daughter, and began to plan for a fight she could not run from.