Wren Kovar's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

Wren led the creature down the porch steps by the hand. Its long fingers bent around hers in too many places. The gravedigger stood at the bottom of the steps with the ice lantern held low. She looked at the thing beside Wren once, then away, and did not speak. The raven landed on the porch rail behind them. Above the pines, the sky had gone the color of watered milk. Dawn was close. "I cannot stand the sun," the creature said. Its voice was slow. "Take me somewhere the light does not reach." Wren did not know where. The house behind her was empty of its secret now. The village would not take a thing like this. She looked at the gravedigger. The gravedigger looked at the trees. "There's a root cellar under the hut where the elder holds her meetings," the gravedigger said. "Stone walls. No windows. It's the only dark room I'd trust to hold him." She did not sound glad about saying it. Wren nodded. She stepped down into the pine needles. The creature followed, folding itself smaller than it should have been able to. Its bare feet made no sound. They moved between the trees. The gravedigger walked ahead with the lantern low. Wren kept the creature's hand. Its skin did not warm. Once it stumbled and caught itself on a trunk, and the bark split under its fingers like wet paper. The village edge came up faster than Wren expected. Smoke rose from two chimneys. A dog barked and stopped. The gravedigger took them the back way, along a fence line, to the low building at the meeting ground. She lifted a slanted door in the earth beside the wall. Elsa Crane was waiting at the top of the cellar steps. She wore her flower crown and her heavy brown robes, and her round face was set in the same wide smile she wore at every gathering. She did not look surprised at the creature. She did not look surprised at Wren. She held the door open with one hand and gestured them down with the other, the way she waved strangers into her meetings. "Quickly, dear," Elsa said. "Before the bakers open their shutters." Wren stopped on the top step. The creature stopped with her. Something in the old woman's smile did not match the situation. "You knew he would come up," Wren said. "I knew someone would need to bring him somewhere," Elsa said. "Down you go." The gravedigger would not meet Wren's eyes. The lantern in her hand had already begun to dim in the growing light. Wren looked at the creature. It looked back at her from under its wet hair and squeezed her hand once. Wren went down the steps. The creature followed. Elsa closed the cellar door above them, and Wren heard a bolt slide across the wood.