Will bush's Arc

Chapter 3 of 26

Will walked until the slope leveled and the trees thinned. His left arm hung wrong. The edge of it blurred where the pale woman had held him, like a smear on a wet window. He followed the low water back toward ground he knew. By the time he saw the cherry tree with its pink canopy, the sun was low and the Fen had gone quiet. Kate stood under the tree. She was not alone. A small hooded girl stood beside her, hood up, a pack on one hip. The collie sat at Kate's feet. Will stopped at the edge of the clearing. If he stepped out, Kate would see him. So would the other girl. The pale woman had punished him for being seen once. She would punish Kate too if he did it again in front of a witness. He needed a signal only his sister could read, and no one else. He watched the hooded girl. She scanned the trees like she was reading them. She would notice anything that moved wrong. Above her, a raccoon crouched on a low branch, small hands on the bark, the white mask sharp against the dark fur. It stared straight at Will. Its ears twitched. It saw him. Then it looked away, bored, and started grooming its tail. Animals could see him and did not care. That was the door. Will crept along the tree line. He came up behind the collie and put his good hand on its ruff. The dog's ears lifted but it did not bark. He pointed at a fallen branch near Kate's boot. He pushed the thought at the dog the way he had pushed it at the pass. The collie stood, walked three steps, picked up the branch, and dropped it across the toe of Kate's red shoe. Then it nosed a shape into the dirt beside the shoe. A rough W. It sat down on top of it. Kate looked down. Her mouth opened. She closed it. She did not say his name. She crouched, pretending to tie her lace, and covered the letter with her palm. The hooded girl glanced over. Kate held up the stick like she had found it. "Marker," she said. The girl nodded once and went back to watching the trees. Will let out a breath he had not known he was holding. Kate had the signal. No one else had seen. He stepped back into the shade of the cherry tree, ready to fade. A pale shape drifted out from behind the trunk beside him. Small. Round-eyed. Not the woman. A child ghost, hands at its sides, staring at him with a face full of fear. Behind it, deeper in the trees, a tall dark silhouette watched them both. Long ears. Human shoulders. It raised one long finger to where its mouth should be. Will's signal had worked. But he was not the only dead thing in this part of the Fen, and now something else knew his sister was close.