Stephanie Williams's Arc

Chapter 9 of 9

Stephanie carried the sleeping child toward the village lights. But she had nowhere safe to set her down. The old ground would kill the girl. Her own claimed ground would kill her too, in a slower way. A child's body found in the willows would empty the road. Forty-one drained travelers would count for nothing. She needed to return the girl to hands that owed her nothing, hands the pact could not reach. She stopped at the edge of the trees and thought it through. The girl belonged to the village. But the village had refused to name a child. That refusal was what let the pact seize this one. If Stephanie handed the girl to the same fearful crowd, the cord would only pull her back. Deidra still held the knot. The debt still lived. So she turned around and walked back to the timber house. Deidra sat where she had left her, the braided cord across her palm. Elara still stood at the threshold, black eyes fixed on the woven charm, unblinking. The gaunt woman did not reach for the child. The knot held her like a wall. "You brought her back," Deidra said. Flat. Not a question. "The road empties if she dies. It empties if she vanishes and the mother screams for her." Stephanie shifted the girl higher on her hip. "I need her home and I need the cord dead. Both. Or my ground is worth nothing and yours dries up with it." Deidra looked at the child. Then at Elara. "The cord only calls. It does not choose who answers." She turned the braid once. "Cut the debt and Elara has nowhere to be pulled. She goes back to the lowlands. The girl goes home clean." "Then cut it." "I gave the village its arrangement back. That was paid for." Deidra set the cord on the table. "I will unmake it. For the favor I named to your sire, made mine instead." Stephanie knew the price was steep. She also knew a screaming mother would ruin everything by dawn. She nodded once. Deidra pressed the cord to her palm. She spoke over it and pulled the three knots loose, one by one. The braid went slack. The colors dulled. At the threshold, Elara blinked. The first time in thirty years, maybe. Her shoulders dropped. She looked at the child in Stephanie's arms with no hunger at all. "Go," Deidra told her. Elara turned and walked into the dark toward the lowlands, empty-handed and free. Stephanie carried the girl to the village and left her sleeping on the mother's step. She knocked once and slipped into the trees before the door opened. Behind her she heard the woman's cry, then weeping that meant joy. The road would hold. The child lived. Elara was gone for good. But Deidra now held a favor with no name, and Stephanie owed it.