Roxanne DeMarco's Arc

Chapter 7 of 7

The freed name would not leave. Roxanne had untied it three nights ago, sure it would go home like the last. Instead it stayed. Each night it stirred her spools, tipped her pins, and fluttered the dress on its hook. She lost sleep. Her hands shook over the next knot. She could not free another name while this one raged in her shop. So she wrapped the hexed dress and carried it back to the dark house with the carved moons. Selene met her at the salt line, black eyes flat. "You came fast. Something spilled." "Nothing spilled," Roxanne said. "One went free. But it stayed. It won't move on. It wrecks my work every night." Selene did not step back to let her in. "A freed name goes home. Unless something holds it here." "Then tell me what holds it." "You," Selene said. "You untied the knot. You never told the name it was released. It waits for the one who freed it to send it on." Roxanne felt cold. "How do I send it?" "Speak it. Name it aloud, then tell it to go. But you don't know its name." Selene tilted her head. "Do you?" Roxanne did not. The diagram gave only knots, not names. But Lady Moon pulled things out of the dead world. She might pull one loose name back into reach. Outside the salt, Lady Moon waited, gray and still, as she always did when Roxanne bargained here. Roxanne turned to her. "You reach into the dead world. Can you find one name? The one I freed?" Lady Moon's face did not change. "Names are heavy things. You want mine found. Now you want a stranger's too." "I can't free yours if this one keeps my hands shaking," Roxanne said. "Help me clear it. Then we get to yours." Lady Moon was quiet. Then she closed her eyes. Her thin arms rose. The air near the dress grew colder. A whisper came off the cloth, faint, a single word. "Corin," Lady Moon said. "The name is Corin." Roxanne held the collar where the first knot had come loose. She spoke the name into the empty thread. "Corin. You're free. Go home now." The cold lifted at once. The dress hung slack. The pin sat quiet. Somewhere far off, a small pressure eased, like a held breath let go. The restless thing was gone. Selene watched from behind her salt. "Now you know. Every name you free must be named and sent. Or they stay and gnaw at you." Roxanne's stomach dropped. There were more knots. Many. And she could name none of them without Lady Moon. "I'll help you find each one," Lady Moon said, low. "But every name I pull, you owe me. When we reach mine, you free it first. That's my price." Roxanne looked at the dress, then at the ghost who now held the only door forward. "Agreed," she said. And the bargain closed around her.