Sienna Du’for's Arc

Chapter 12 of 19

They held each other another long breath, then let go. Sienna kept one hand on Clementine's sleeve. Clementine kept one hand on Sienna's wrist. Neither of them spoke. The pilgrims at the low wall had gone quiet. A man was still on his knees. An old woman was still crying into her palms. Sienna did not know what to do with her face. Clementine's face did not know either. They stood at the base of the trunk with the bark folded shut behind them and stared at each other like strangers who had met once in a dream. A boot scraped on the path. Elk stood ten steps back, sword half drawn, staring at Clementine. His mouth opened. Nothing came out. Sienna felt her stomach drop. He had seen it. He had a horse. He would ride. The white-haired boy was suddenly on the low wall, sitting with his heels swinging. Sienna had not seen him arrive. Sarec looked at Elk, tilted his head once, and snapped his fingers. Elk was gone. No wind, no flash. Just the empty path and the print his boot had left in the moss. "Lorimar," Sarec said, mild, as if naming a street. "He will wake in a field there and remember a long ride and nothing else worth telling." He hopped down. He walked past Sienna to the old statue at the center of the grove. He stepped up onto the plinth. He turned. The color left his hair and his skin and his robe all at once. Stone took him. The Aegis of Mercy stood where it had always stood, one hand across its chest, eyes lowered. Clementine looked at the statue, then at the pilgrims, then at Sienna. She drew a breath and spoke past Sienna's shoulder in a voice that carried. "Go home. All of you. The grove is closed today." She did not raise it. She did not soften it. The old woman gathered her cup. The kneeling man stood. They went, slowly, looking back, but they went. Within a few minutes the low wall was empty and the path was empty and the only sound was wind in the high leaves of the tree. Sienna sat down on the roots. Her legs would not hold anymore. Clementine sat beside her, close, their shoulders touching. For a long time they said nothing. Clementine picked at a loose thread on her sleeve. Sienna watched her do it and felt something in her chest unlock that had been locked for years. Not a princess. Not a shrine. A girl on the ground next to another girl. "Thank you," Sienna said, to the statue. The statue did not answer. Clementine looked at it, then at her, and said, "He heard." She leaned her head against Sienna's shoulder. Sienna closed her eyes. The tree stood over them, quiet, and for the first time in six months she was not alone in it.