Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 66 of 66

Ninka slid down from the dragon's shoulder into Katia's arms. Rebecka watched the sky where the shape had come from and saw the second shadow still up there, wider, slower, waiting. Aureath had carried the buyer to her fence line and had not been paid. He would want his fee from whoever was left. She walked out past the garden beds. The glowing planters along the homestead wall lit her from below, herbs and strange fruit under humming lamps. She stopped in the open yard so he could see her small and alone. The dragon came down in one long drop and landed hard enough to shake the beds. His head lowered on a neck like a bridge. Smoke curled from his teeth. "The man who hired you is dead on the west track," Rebecka said. "His riders with him. There is no purse." "A contract is a contract," Aureath said. His voice was low and slow. "Someone pays. Or the house burns." She had nothing left to offer. Her mother's talisman was gone to the between-road. The star-forged arrows would not bite a creature that had done her no wrong, and she would not spend them on a debt. She reached into her coat and drew out the thing she had carried since the north slope. Dirk's doll. Stitched cloth, button eyes, pins still in its chest, his name sewn across the belly. She had kept it because burning it felt too easy and throwing it away felt worse. "I have this," she said. She held it up so he could see the pins. "He taught his knot to students. He bound me with it. He is dead and the doll is still warm. Whoever holds it holds a door into that magic. It is worth something to a creature who keeps toll." Aureath lowered his head further. One yellow eye fixed on the doll. He breathed in through his nose and the pins trembled. "Dark work," he said. "Owed work. I know the knot." "Then you know what it costs the one who carries it. Take it as the fee. The contract closes. You leave my roof alone." He was quiet a long moment. Behind her, Marcus stood in the doorway in the crystal armor, one hand on a potion at his belt. Katia had pulled Ninka inside. "Set it down," Aureath said. Rebecka laid the doll on the flat stone by the herb beds and stepped back three paces. The dragon's tongue flicked once and the doll was gone. He lifted his head. "Paid," he said. "Do not call me again without coin." He rose off the yard in two beats and was a shape against the clouds, then nothing. Rebecka stood in the lamp-glow of the planters and felt her hands shake. The house still stood. The child was inside it. The quiver on her back was hers, and the last thread Dirk had left in her pocket was gone with the dragon.