Page 6 of The Arrow and the Alder

S eph glanced at the pines, hackles raised.

Their home abutted another, made private by a few large pines and overgrowth. No one stood in the brush, and yet the pine’s lower branches swayed as if someone had been standing there, watching her.

Seph’s gaze narrowed, and she scanned the split-rail fence that ran their perimeter.

Nothing.

And it could have been nothing, but Seph’s skin still prickled with unease. The sensation followed her all the way back into the house, where she stacked the split logs by the door.

Linnea was nowhere in sight, and Seph could just hear Mama in the next room, singing softly to Nora.

The depraved have evolved, somehow. They can talk, and their master—whoever it is—has been leading them in organized attacks at the Rift, making things very difficult for our fighters.

Linnea’s news was disconcerting indeed, namely the idea that those winged demons could be developing any form of intelligence. Was it true? Or was this just another lie pitched by their leaders to persuade the people to sacrifice even more of their dwindling resources?

Seph finished stacking the logs and glanced over at her grandfather, who was still unconscious and slumped in the chair. Seph wished they could give him the bed, but Nora needed it, and he was too heavy to carry to the loft. They’d tried a pallet on the floor, but with spiders and drafts and trampling feet, they’d decided he was safest in the chair.

Seph wiped her hands on her pants, crossed the room, and knelt before him. There were no traces of that black hair now, only silver, and the years had carved deep lines into his skin. His bright personality had always made him seem so much younger than he was, but without it, he just looked…old.

Seph grabbed his hand. It was all bones and loose flesh now, lifeless and cold. Saints, she missed him. His wit and enduring strength. He was the only one who’d ever truly understood Seph’s fire—not even Elias could have claimed that—because her grandfather had married the one she’d inherited it from.

Seph trailed her thumb over his knuckles, over each bony knob. “A kith high lord arrived in Harran today.”

He gave no response, though Seph wasn’t expecting one. Still, she wished he could answer her. He’d always held strong opinions where kith were concerned and would usually frame them with, “Never trust a kith.”

Seph wondered what he would say about Linnea’s “news.”

“I miss you,” Seph whispered with a sigh. She sat with him a moment longer before releasing his hand and kissing the top of his head.

Which was when Mama slipped through the door. Her mother looked at Grandpa Jake, and when she didn’t stop staring at him, Seph asked, “Is everything all right?”

Mama’s brow furrowed.

“What’s wrong with Nora?” Seph asked with growing concern.

“Nora’s fine,” Mama said, shaking her head. “I…There’s something I’d like to speak to you about. Concerning Grandpa.”

Seph frowned. “What about him?”

Mama fidgeted with the folds of her apron.

“ Mama .”

“I’m sure he would agree,” Mama said, not really talking to Seph anymore, but more defending her case to the saints. “Especially if he could see Nora now…It might not have been Nani’s interpretation, but then Nani always said?—”

“Mama, what in Ava’s name are you talking about?”

Mama stopped, her hair coiled wildly around her face as her features set with determination. “Come.” She waved at a bewildered Seph, then slipped through the door and into the bedchamber.

Curious and more than a little concerned, Seph followed.

Mama grabbed the candle from Nora’s nightstand while Seph closed the door behind them.

“What is this about?” Seph whispered as her mother set the candle upon the floor and slid the nightstand aside. Wood groaned and scraped, and a creeping wariness settled into Seph’s marrow. “Mama…?”

Mama crouched, trailing her fingers along the cracks between boards. “It has to be here somewhere…” she mumbled, and then, “Ah.” She lifted the end of a floorboard.

Seph stepped forward as her mother pulled the board away, setting it aside as she reached into the hole and pulled out a bundle of burlap.

Mama glanced at Seph before laying the bundle on the floor and unwrapping it. The burlap came free, revealing a beautiful blanket folded within. The fabric was the color of damp earth, of roasted chestnuts and stained mahogany, embroidered with whorls of shimmering golden thread?—

Mama stood and let the folds fall open.

It wasn’t a blanket at all; it was a coat. A beautiful velvety coat that glimmered gold despite its earthy undertones, and what Seph had first mistaken for whorls were actually symbols.

Kith symbols.

Enchantments .

Seph did not have any experience with kith enchantments, just enough to know what they looked like. According to her grandpa, language—enchantments, specifically—was the means by which the kith used and directed Demas’s power, but––

What in the world was an enchanted kith object doing here , hidden beneath the floorboards of their home?

A sense of foreboding tickled the back of Seph’s neck as she eyed her mother. “What is this doing here, Mama?”

“It belonged to your grandfather,” she whispered. Her gaze trailed the length of the fabric, an unsettling hunger in her eyes.

“But it’s kith.”

“Yes…it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Beautiful wasn’t enough. The coat was exquisite. Otherworldly , and Seph couldn’t think of a single good reason why it was in their possession. “But what are we doing with it?”

“Your nani believed this coat would save us,” Mama said, breathless. “And I think…well, now that a kith high lord is here, it seems obvious, doesn’t it?”

Seph’s eyes narrowed as the foreboding intensified. “You mean to give this to High Lord Massie?”

Mama stood straighter, her features drawn in a posture of defense. “Sephie, that rabbit will not feed us through winter, and you’ve seen our stores, just as I have. It’s no coincidence that High Lord Massie is here.”

“No, Mama.” Seph shook her head. She felt a protectiveness over this coat that she could not explain, and she also kept thinking on the high lord’s horned mask of bone. She didn’t care who this kith lord was; what manner of kith hid his face behind death? “You cannot give this to him.”

Mama looked perplexed and annoyed, her brows tight.

“Have you forgotten everything Grandpa Jake said?” Seph continued, more certain than ever that they could not hand this coat over to those bone-faced kith and their high lord. “All of his stories about their evil and trickery?—”

“Oh, shush, Sephie! Don’t be foolish! You know as well as I do how Grandpa sensationalized everything…”

“Not about them !” Seph threw up her hands in frustration. “He never trusted the kith!”

“Yes, but Nani saw this. In one of her visions!”

This drew Seph up short.

Nani had been gifted with prophetic dreams—a rare talent for a mortal. The people called it “saints-touched.” It was something bestowed by the mortal goddess, Ava, believed to be a way she communicated with her children. While no mortal was equal to her saints, few were granted access to their wisdom. However, this ability so closely resembled the kith’s power, how one felt about Ava’s “gift” typically reflected one’s feelings about the kith themselves. Hence the reason Nani rarely disclosed her ability to others, including her own family. In fact, Grandpa was the only one who’d known about Nani’s gift until Seph began exhibiting the unique ability to interpret dreams too.

It was then that Nani shared some of her visions, though rarely, so Seph doubted she would’ve shared this one with Mama. Fate was too dangerous a thing to trifle with, Grandpa Jake had always said, for oftentimes in avoiding a certain fate, one ended up causing it.

Seph eyed her mother. “Nani specifically saw you handing this coat to High Lord Massie?” She needed to sift through exactly what was shared, otherwise an accurate interpretation was impossible.

“I don’t know the specifics, Sephie!” Mama said, exasperated.

“Then we can’t know for certain what it means?—”

“I heard your father arguing with Grandpa over it, all right? Your father was reminding Grandpa that this coat was supposed to bring about our salvation—he meant to sell it, I believe—but Grandpa said no. Not yet. That the time wasn’t right, and something else to do with Nani’s vision…I can’t remember everything, but that will have to be enough for you, Josephine, because neither of them are around to clarify further.” Bitterness coated Mama’s last words.

“ Mama .” Seph grabbed her mother’s shoulders. She didn’t know what any of this meant, especially through the filter of her mother’s desperation, but Seph was certain of one thing: no form of salvation would come at the hands of that kith high lord. “That could mean any number of things, Mama; you know that as well as I. You can’t just throw caution to the wind because we’re desperate! We have no idea what High Lord Massie really wants, or?—”

“He wants to help us stop this war, Sephie!”

“It is their war! Why will none of you see how the kith are using us?—”

A throat cleared, and both Mama and Seph glanced over to where Linnea now stood on the threshold. By the expression on her sister’s face, Seph suspected she’d been standing there a while.

Linnea looked between them, then at the coat, and her amber eyes gleamed gold. “Everyone is to meet in the square within the next hour,” Linnea said softly. She wouldn’t quite meet Seph’s gaze. “High Lord Massie has news on the war.”