Sable's Arc

Chapter 12 of 18

The festival trick had bought Sable one day, maybe two. Hunters would come back. The cave they knew, and a hundred villagers could point the way. She could not hide the hatchling on the cliff anymore. She had to move it somewhere no map showed. But it was growing fast, and it needed water for fish. Where do you hide a dragon? She went to the one villager who moved things unseen. Rosemary Thornwood washed magic clothes for a living. She hung wet enchanted cloth on a line and timed it just right so the magic stayed put. If anyone knew how to carry something without leaving a trail, it was her. Sable found her pinning shirts under a rainbow umbrella that floated over her yard on its own. Rosemary did not look up. "You're the dragon girl. Whole village knows." "I need to move the hatchling. Somewhere hunters can't reach." Rosemary clipped another shirt. "Can't. Too big now." She paused. "There's the treehouse. In the willow, up the far slope. My grandmother's. Draping branches hide it. Water pool at the roots." "Would you show me?" "I mistimed a wash once. Wore dead shirts to work." She shrugged. "I fail things. But I know that willow." She led Sable up the slope. A weeping willow stood alone, its long branches falling like a green curtain. A wooden treehouse nestled in the fork, stairs winding up through the leaves. At the base, roots ringed a small pool. Fish could live there. From the air, from the road, from anywhere, the branches hid it all. But the hatchling would not come. It knew Sable, not this place. It hissed and dug its claws into the cave floor. That was when the black cat appeared. Puffy, with white ears and a white tail, a red bow at his neck and red slippers on his feet. He padded past Sable into the cave. The hatchling stopped hissing and watched him. "Marvin Whiskers," Rosemary said. "He calms things. Don't ask how." "How?" Sable asked. "The bow." Marvin sat by the hatchling. "Not mine. Someone gave it to me." He said nothing more. The hatchling nosed at his fur and settled. When Marvin walked out, it followed him, step by clumsy step, all the way up the slope and into the willow's shade. By dusk the hatchling lay curled in the treehouse. Sable set golden cornbread near the pool, sweet enough to keep it happy, and dropped a net of fish in the water. A bush of red roses grew wild at the willow's foot, butterflies drifting through it. "Nobody knows this place," Rosemary said. "For now." Sable breathed out. The cave stood empty. The hunters would find a bare hole and no dragon. But moving it meant the whole village no longer knew where it slept. The fishing rotation fed an empty cave. Tomorrow twenty fishers would climb and find their charge gone, and start asking who took it.