Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 54 of 66

Rebecka stepped past Marcus into the cave. The air inside was sour with sweat and old smoke. Someone was shouting near the back. A woman answered, higher, sharper. The refugees had been sealed under stone for days. She could feel it now, the way a stretched rope feels before it snaps. Katia met her at the inner arch. Her mother's gray hair was pinned up in a loose knot. She held the healer kitten against her chest. The kitten's eyes were half shut. Katia looked at Rebecka's face and did not smile. "They will break before noon," Katia said. "The man in the blue coat has a knife hidden in his boot. The woman with the baby wants to run for the trees. If one goes, they all go." "How long do I have?" "An hour. Maybe less." Rebecka walked into the main chamber. Twenty-two faces turned toward her. The bound traitors sat against the wall. A man in a blue coat was on his feet, arguing with a thin woman who clutched a child. Two others stood behind him. The rest watched, ready to pick a side. "Sit down," Rebecka said. The man in the blue coat did not sit. "We're dying in here. My daughter hasn't seen sun in six days." "You'll see sun," Rebecka said. "Not today." "You said three days. It's been six." She felt the room lean toward him. She could shoot him. The bow would tell her when the shot would kill. She did not want the warning. She set the bow down on the stone. "The riders who wanted your children are dead," she said. "I killed the woman on the coast road. I killed her scrier. I killed the men she sent. There is no one left to signal. No one left to come." The man's mouth opened. He did not speak. "I have a way out," Rebecka said. "Not on foot. Not tonight. A crawler is coming up the pass. Crystal-plated. Cloaked. It carries food, beds, and a stove that cooks. It fits all of you. Two days and you sleep in your own homes." Katia stepped up beside her. "She is telling you the truth. I have seen it." The room settled a notch. The thin woman sat down. The child pushed her face into her mother's shoulder. The man in the blue coat looked at the knife in his boot, then at Rebecka's bow on the stone, and lowered himself to the ground. Marcus came in from the arch. "Crawler at the slot. Lark's with it." Rebecka picked up her bow. "Load the children first. Then the wounded. The bound three ride with me." Katia touched her wrist as she passed. "You did not need me to say it." "I did," Rebecka said. "They needed to hear you." She walked out to meet the crawler. The quiver hummed against her back. The riot did not come.