Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 43 of 66

Rebecka knelt behind the low stone wall with an arrow on the string. The ditch ran along the road for thirty paces, then ended at a stand of alders. Nine minutes. She looked at the ditch again and knew it wouldn't hold three of them. It was a shallow scrape, knee-deep at best. One archer could crouch there. Not three. Not without a head showing over the lip. Lark crouched beside her, wings folded tight against his back. Aiyana stood at the seam she had opened between here and the cave, arrow already nocked. Her ghost-quiet had a weight to it. She was Rebecka's ancestor, and she did not waste breath. Rebecka had learned to read her by the set of her jaw. "The ditch is too shallow," Rebecka said. "He'll see us before he's in range." "Then we split," Aiyana said. "You in the ditch. Me in the alders. Lark on the road behind him." "He hears wings, he runs." "He doesn't hear them." Lark flexed one hand. "I can walk. I'm tired, not broken." Rebecka looked north toward the bend. "Seven minutes now." The eye drifted over her shoulder and turned its pale iris on her. "He carries the doll in his left saddlebag. He rides a bay with a white sock." "Can he scry?" "No. He reads the doll, not the road." Rebecka pointed Aiyana to the alders and Lark to a hedge fifty paces past the bend. "He passes you. You close the road behind him. I take the shot. If I miss, Aiyana takes the second. Lark keeps him from turning back." "You will not miss," Aiyana said. They moved. Rebecka slid into the ditch and pressed her shoulder to the dirt wall. She set three arrows in the grass beside her knee. The bow warmed under her hand and stayed quiet. Not yet in range. Hoofbeats came around the bend. The bay walked, then trotted. The rider was hooded, one hand on the reins, one on the saddlebag. He was reading it the way Lark had said. His head was down. The bow hummed. Kill shot. Rebecka rose to one knee and loosed. The arrow took him under the collarbone and drove him sideways off the horse. He hit the road and did not move. The bay skittered and stopped ten paces on. Aiyana was already at the body. She cut the saddlebag free and pulled out the doll. It had Ninka's hair braided into its chest. Aiyana broke its neck with her thumbs and threw the pieces into the ditch. "Ride," she said. Lark caught the bay's reins. Rebecka took the paper from her belt and the reins from Lark and swung up. The road behind them stayed empty. The red gate stayed shut. She turned the horse south toward the cave and kicked hard.