Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 46 of 66

Rebecka rode the bay up the ridge trail with the wolf blood still tacky on her sleeves. The crow had not come back. She had sent it to the cave an hour ago with the warning in her own voice, and the sky above the pines held nothing but wind. Without the crow's return, she could not know if Katia had heard her. Her mother might already be leading the refugees out onto open stone, walking straight into whoever had driven the wolves. She reined in below the last switchback. Aiyana climbed up beside her. Lark caught up on foot, still gray from the sigil work. "The crow should be back," Rebecka said. "Katia sends it back. Always." "Then something took it," Aiyana said. Rebecka slid down and pulled the stakes from her pack again. She drove them into the dirt off the trail and let the charmed cloth unfold. The runes woke blue along the seams. She needed one quiet minute out of sight of the ridge. Inside, she opened the small vial she carried against her ribs and tipped a drop onto her thumb. She pressed the thumb to her forehead and shut her eyes. "Ninka." Her daughter answered fast. The girl's voice came behind Rebecka's eyes, not in the air. Mom. "Is Gran with you. Is the cave sealed." Gran is here. The bear is at the mouth. We heard your crow. Gran kept everyone back. Rebecka's knees loosened. She put a hand on the tent pole. "The crow came through." It came at dawn. It's on Gran's shoulder. It won't leave her. "Tell her not to send it. Tell her to hold the seal until I'm at the mouth." She will. Mom. "What." Someone walked past the outer crack an hour ago. A woman. She didn't find the door. She's still on the ridge. Rebecka opened her eyes. "One," she said aloud. "On the ridge. She missed the seal." Lark lifted his head. Aiyana already had her blade out. Rebecka stepped out of the tent and pulled the stakes. She nocked a star-forged arrow and started up on foot. The bay she left tied. The trail bent through scrub and opened onto flat stone above the cave mouth. The woman was crouched at the crack, running a bare hand along the seam. She wore a dark coat. No hood. Rebecka's bow hummed and marked her. The kill-warning ran up Rebecka's wrist. The woman heard the string draw and turned. Rebecka loosed. The arrow took her under the collarbone and put her flat on the stone. Rebecka walked to the body. A small iron seal lay in the woman's palm, the same knot as the paper from Halvery's coat. She closed her hand around it. The cave was still sealed. Ninka was still hidden. But the knot had sent another one, and that one had found the door.