Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 64 of 66

The crawler cleared the between-road at dusk and rolled up to the homestead gate. The fae dome held the yard in a soft, steady light. Two days until the buyer came. Rebecka carried Ninka inside and stood a long moment in the kitchen, looking at her daughter's shoulder where the spider rode. The dome would stop arrows. It would not stop a dragon. "If Ninka is under the dome when it falls, we lose her," Rebecka said. "The buyer put her name on his list. He'll come through the roof for her." Katia set a cup down hard. "Then she isn't under it." "There's nowhere safe within a day's ride," Marcus said. "He hired the dragon. Anywhere on the ground, the dragon finds her." Rebecka looked at her hand. The heart-cut stone in her ring caught the lantern light. She had worn it four years and used it once. She turned it on her finger. "Not on the ground," she said. She went out into the yard alone and lifted the ring to the sky. The stone warmed. A wind pushed down through the garden beds. Pastel Emberwing settled on the packed dirt with her wings folded, smoke curling pale from her nostrils. The dragon lowered her head to Rebecka's hand. "I need you to carry my daughter," Rebecka said. "Not to a place. Just up. Stay in the clouds until I signal. If the fight goes wrong, you take her north and you do not come back." Emberwing's eye held hers. The smoke drifted between them and Rebecka's chest loosened a notch. She brought Ninka out with a pack of food from the garden shelves, the spider tight on the girl's collar. Katia followed with a blanket and would not let go of Ninka's wrist until Rebecka said her name twice. "You ride high," Rebecka told Ninka. "Above the dome. Above the dragon he hired. The spider goes with you into the astral if anything reaches for you up there. You do not come down for any voice but mine." "Not even Gran's?" Ninka asked. "Not even hers." Marcus came out of the shed in the crystal battle armor, sigils lit along the plates. He lifted Ninka onto Emberwing's back and cinched the blanket under her knees. The spider's legs braced on the girl's shoulder, eyes bright. Emberwing rose. The wingbeats flattened the flowers in the beds. In four seconds the dragon was a pale mark against the cloud, then nothing. Rebecka lowered her hand. The dome hummed above the roof, empty of the child it had been built to hold. "He'll come and find the house," Marcus said. "Not her." "Good." Rebecka slung the quiver across her back. "Then the fight is only ours." She walked the perimeter once and began marking her shooting lines while there was still light.