The night watch guard's Arc

Chapter 7 of 10

The guard led his cats down the rise into the woods. The trees closed over them and the sky went black between the branches. Then the rain came. It fell in one sheet, cold as well water, and the kittens broke formation before he could turn his head. Two bolted sideways. One flattened against a root and hissed at the drops. The smallest sat down in the mud and shook so hard his lantern rattled at his hip. The guard whistled the recall twice. He crouched low and put out both arms. The kittens came back one by one, ears flat, coats already soaked to the skin. He counted them in the lantern light. Six. He pointed off the path toward a shape he knew in the dark — a mound of piled stone carved into the face of a cat, its mouth a low cave. He had marked it on his first patrol. He drove the kittens through the stone mouth ahead of him and ducked in after. Inside was dry. He shrugged off the black supply pack he carried for weather nights and set it on the floor. He unbuckled the flap. He pulled out six small dry uniforms rolled tight, and a bundle of kindling wrapped in oilcloth. He stripped each kitten out of its wet coat and buttoned a dry one on. He built the kindling in the old fire ring at the back of the cave, where blackened stones still held the shape of a hundred past fires. He struck a flame. The wood caught. He waited until every kitten was pressed against a warm stone. Then he stood. He told them to hold the cave. He told them not to follow. The smallest one lifted his head. The guard did not look back. He stepped out into the rain and started for the lake alone. The water was flat and black when he reached the edge. He cupped his hand and called Selune Depthsong by name. He called her three times. She rose slow, unhurried, as if she had heard him the first time and chosen the third. Her crown dripped. She rested her arms on a wet rock and looked at him without warmth. "You again," she said. He asked her which way the missing guard had gone. She was quiet a long moment. "He darted," she said. "That way." She lifted one clawed finger toward the far bank, into the deeper trees. "Before I could come close." He asked if the man had been running from her. She tilted her head. "I keep the ones who come to me. He didn't come." She paused. "Something moved on his side of the water. I don't know what. I don't go there." She sank without another word. The guard stood in the rain and looked at the far bank. His cats were warm and behind him. The missing man was across the lake, and something over there had spooked a creature who spooked nothing.