Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 6 of 66

The white mare broke from the between-roads at the ridge above the homestead, and Rebecka saw smoke. The glowing garden beds along the sleek walls still burned green and pink under the haze. Two ward crystals on the east wall had gone dark. Three still held. Between the wards and the trees, raiders swarmed the yard. She counted twelve on foot and one on a mount. Marcus stood at the door with a blade in one hand and a potion in the other. She slid off the mare and dropped to one knee at the ridge. She pulled an arrow from the star-forged quiver. It hummed against her fingers. Her bow warmed. A pale line traced through her vision and lit each raider in turn, then flickered to Marcus, then to a shape in the doorway behind him she knew was her mother. The bow marked them all. Kill shot. Kill shot. Kill shot. It did not tell her which arrow was meant for which body. She had never loosed one of these. Her father had said the arrows chose. She did not know what that meant with Marcus twenty paces from a raider's back. She drew and did not release. Her hands shook. If the arrow chose wrong, she would put it through him. Through her mother in the doorway. Through the small shape she now saw crouched behind her mother's skirts. Ninka. She lowered the bow. She pulled a single arrow from the quiver and held it flat on her palm. "Show me," she whispered. The arrow turned. Slow at first, then sure. The point swung past Marcus, past the doorway, past her mother, and settled on the mounted raider at the gate. It hummed once, hard. She understood. The arrows knew enemy from kin. The bow only warned. The arrow chose. She nocked it and drew and let go. The arrow crossed the yard in a line of white and took the rider through the chest. He fell without sound. She drew again. The next arrow twisted in the air mid-flight and struck a raider climbing the wall. The third bent around Marcus's shoulder and buried itself in the man behind him. Marcus turned, saw her on the ridge, and shouted something she could not hear. He threw a potion at his feet. A ring of light rose around the door. Her mother pulled Ninka inside. Rebecka emptied half the quiver in under a minute. The yard went quiet. Six raiders broke and ran for the trees. She did not chase them. Her hands were shaking too hard to nock another arrow. She walked the mare down the slope. Marcus met her at the broken gate. He touched her face once, checking her for wounds, then looked past her at the tree line. "They'll come back with more," he said. "And they know the wards are half down."