Craft (34 page)

“Guess you don’t know me like you
thought,” Ellie said. “Just give up Neveah. Let me leave. You won’t
ever see me again.”

“Are you begging for mercy?” Neveah
asked.

“I’m trying to give you a chance to do
the right thing,” Ellie said.

“Believe me, little girl, I’m doing
the right thing. I’m protecting my family. I’m getting rid of a
traitor.”

Neveah raised her hand. Ellie felt the
drawing in of craft. It was the strongest craft she had ever felt.
Neveah flicked her wrist and released the power.

Waves of dark craft lashed against
Ellie’s body. Ellie had trouble keeping the continuous craft at
bay. She fended off the darkness with flicks of her wrist, but it
kept coming. Neveah was relentless; her craft was
limitless.

Ellie moved backward against the
deluge. She was losing ground. She stepped back again and a log
caught her hurt ankle. Her ankle gave out on her. She fell to the
earth. The pain was overwhelming. It distracted her from the fight.
Neveah stepped forward to finish the fight. Her eyes were dark and
full of hate.

There was a short pause in which Ellie
saw nothing familiar about Neveah’s expression. They were enemies.
Neveah raised her wrist. The look on her face suggested she was
about to kill Ellie. There would be no forgiveness.

Before Neveah could release her craft,
she pitched forward. Neveah grabbed the back of her head and looked
for an enemy, not understanding what had attacked her. Ellie
understood.

Caw had followed her through the
woods. He had come to help her.

He swooped away from Neveah and
circled the trees to attack again. He flew low to the ground as he
came back to attack for a second time. Neveah finally noticed him
as he flew toward her. She raised her hand to kill the bird. Ellie
raised her hand to stop Neveah. Before either of them could craft,
a knife suddenly appeared in Neveah’s heart. It came out of
nowhere, but its aim was perfect.

Ellie was startled at the sight. Who
had crafted? Neveah looked at Ellie. Her eyes were wide with sock.
She blamed her sister for killing her. She tried to form words of
accusation, but she couldn’t find the air. She collapsed to the
earth, her hands moving to the knife. Her hands were too weak to
pull it out. Its magic went beyond anything she could craft. Neveah
hit the ground with a solid ‘thump.’ She did not get up
again.

Ellie crawled over to her sister and
turned her over. Neveah’s eyes were blank. Her face was locked in
an expression of surprise. She was dead.

Tears formed in Ellie’s eyes. Neveah
was her enemy, but she had never wished her dead. She was still her
sister. Ellie loved her, even if it was not logical to do so. Their
past could not undo the fact that they were family.

Caw landed next to Ellie. He made a
low sound of comfort when he saw her tears. Ellie put her hand on
his sleek body. The feel of him brought her out her grief. Someone
had attacked Neveah. There was another crafter out there. Her eyes
narrowed as she searched for her enemy.

Ellie was not swift enough to avoid
the attack when it came. She had been too distracted by Neveah’s
death.

A hand moved over her mouth and she
was pulled away from Neveah’s body. Ellie struggled, but her captor
was stronger and more determined. They moved behind a tree, out of
sight of Neveah’s body. Ellie’s breathing was loud around her fear,
but she could feel her captor’s breathing was just as fierce. Her
captor was afraid. It was the only thing that kept Ellie from
crafting her way free.

Another sound overrode their mutual
fear. Heavy footfalls through the forest shook the summer air. Caw
took flight against the sound. Even though he was afraid, he sensed
the need for silence. He landed in the tree above them and stayed
as still as possible. Ellie felt the person holding her craft in a
circle of protection around them. They would be invisible to anyone
curious enough to look behind their tree. Ellie heard a vaguely
familiar voice in the trees. It was Connor, Thane’s
brother.

“I got the woman. She’s dead,” Connor
said.

“That’s good crafting,” another
unfamiliar voice approved.

“I thought I saw two others with her,”
Connor said. “They were fighting.”

“We’ll find them,” the voice reassured
Connor.

“It was lucky Rachel knew to follow
Thane,” Connor said. “We wouldn’t have been able to sneak up this
way otherwise.”

“Boy is finally useful for something,”
the second voice said. “Come on. There are Bumbalows to
kill.”

The heavy sound of feet moved away
from Ellie and toward her house. When the sounds had disappeared,
her captor let her go. Ellie spun and saw someone she had not
expected. Rachel looked back at her.

“Why’d you do that?” Ellie
asked.

“For saving my mom from your sister
and for saving Thane,” Rachel said. “I owed you.”

“I don’t think you did,” Ellie said.
“But thank you.”

“It won’t happen again,” Rachel
said.

Ellie nodded in understanding. Rachel
felt as if she had paid her debt. She would attack her if they ever
saw each other again. They were still on opposite ends of a
feud.

“I won’t be around for it to,” Ellie
said.

Rachel was not surprised. “You’re
leaving.”

“Yeah, I no longer have a reason to
stay,” Ellie said.

Ellie looked at Neveah. It was
difficult to look at her. She focused on another truth. It was a
truth that put Rachel in danger.

“Careen, I know you’re there,” Ellie
said.

There was a moment of hesitation, then
Careen stepped out from behind a tree. She looked frightened. There
was also anger. She was angry Neveah had died in such an
undignified way. She blamed Ellie more than she blamed Connor.
Rachel tensed when she saw Careen and raised her hand. Careen
mirrored Rachel’s movement. Ellie caught Rachel’s wrist and eyed
Careen.

“That’s enough. Rachel, you go on. Go
find your family,” Ellie commanded.

Rachel hesitated. She wanted to fight
Careen. It was what she was hardwired to do. She did not want to
start a fight with Ellie, however. She was not as eager to fight
Ellie as she had pretended; she liked her more than she would have
admitted to anyone. Ellie saw her make her choice. Rachel backed
away from Ellie and Careen, her eyes cautious and alert.

When she was nothing more than a
memory, Ellie turned to Careen.

“Make sure Neveah’s taken care of,”
Ellie said. “Make sure she’s with Papa.”

“I will,” Careen said.

“I’m going now,” Ellie said. “It’s
best if you don’t try to stop me.”

“I ain’t gonna stop you,” Careen said.
“But if you come back, the family’ll have your head.”

“I don’t plan on ever coming back,”
Ellie said.

“Good,” Careen said.

Ellie looked at Careen for a moment.
She knew the task of fighting had just fallen on Careen’s head. It
was a heavy burden. Ellie was not certain Careen could handle the
weight, but she knew her sister would find a way. Like all
Bumbalows, Careen was a survivor. It was what she did
best.

Ellie hesitated for another reason.
She tried to find the forgiveness in her heart to make the last
words to her sister words of kindness. The forgiveness would not
come. All she could think about were the times that Careen looked
on and laughed, had accepted Neveah’s bullying of Ellie as
par-for-the-course. Careen had always had the power to do
something. She had done nothing. Forgiveness was for another day, a
day when the pain was not so close.

Ellie turned and walked away from both
her sisters. In that moment, the world she had always known
crumbled. She was not the same person. She was freer and somehow
impossibly weighted down.

Behind her, she felt Careen start to
cry. Her tears were bitter and full of guilt. Ellie knew the
Coopers would pay for Neveah’s death. Ellie was glad she would not
have to witness that particular fight.

Caw flew onto Ellie’s shoulder as she
walked away. Ellie touched him briefly on the wing, and together
they left their home to whatever lay beyond.

Chapter 12: Beginning in
the End

Sounds of fighting in the woods
followed Ellie as she walked toward town. She did her best to
ignore the sounds, but it was impossible. Cries of pain and the
explosion of craft followed her as much as the smoke from her
ruined house. The smoke from her house blackened the sky over the
forest. The smell of burned wood and plastic ghosted around with
the dull heat circling her body. It was a reminder of what she had
done and what was still going on beyond her.

It took all of Ellie’s strength not to
turn back and make it stop. She knew it would not really stop. She
might be able to prevent the fighting for one day, but that would
not stop the feud. They did not know how to stop. They were victims
of their own inability to let things go. She understood why her
momma had left. She understood how hard it had been. It was easy to
think she could make a difference. It was harder to know that she
could not.

Ellie did not stop to heal her wounds.
Her body moved mechanically as she searched for a way out of town.
She didn’t know where she was going but she didn’t stop. She was
afraid if she stopped, she would turn back. She feared turning back
more than she feared the unknown of where she was going. She did
not think beyond the occasional moment of pain when her injured
ankle caught on the uneven ground. The blood from her wounds slowly
dried on her face and neck. It was a grim reminder of what she had
just lived through.

Caw did not fly away. He stayed on
Ellie’s shoulder, a constant source of comfort. Ellie fought
against the past. She did not want to face the emotions of what had
happened. She was proud she had done the right thing but the cost
was extreme. She had wanted to leave her house and be free from the
bullying and pain. She did not want it at the cost of a
life.

Ellie’s thoughts finally turned to
Thane. She regretted leaving him more than she regretted leaving
her family. Her relationship with him was something more than
obligation. It was friendship. Or it had been before her birthday.
She would never see him again. She was certain of that much. He was
the only friend beyond Caw she had ever had and she had to leave
him without saying goodbye. The unsaid things between them would
continue to go unsaid. She could not have her friendship with Thane
and her freedom from her family. The world did not work that
way.

The darkness had fully taken over the
forest when Ellie stopped walking. The moon was bright against the
backdrop of limbs. The smell of smoke and the sound of fighting had
died down. There was nothing beyond the feel of Caw on her shoulder
and the muted, wet heat of the night.

Ellie leaned against a large tree and
took a deep breath. Feeling impossibly worn out, she let gravity
take over. She dropped down and landed on the ground with a soft
‘thump.’ The pain of the fall added to the pain in her head and
back. Caw flew off Ellie’s shoulder as Ellie hit the ground. He
landed in front of her and looked at her questioningly. He was
worried she had given up. Ellie waved a hand to reassure her
feathered friend.

“I’m fine,” Ellie said. “Just
tired.”

Caw made a low sound of understanding.
Ellie yawned and her eyes slid shut. The sleep pulled her under.
She could not resist it any longer. She opened her eyes long enough
to look at Caw one last time.

“Keep an eye out for me, okay?” Ellie
asked.

Caw’s black eyes were fierce and
protective. He would warn her if the Coopers doubled back or tried
to attack her. He would be her alarm. The thought comforted Ellie.
The second Ellie’s eyes closed, she was asleep. There was no
fighting the pull of sleep. Her dreams were dark and full of the
fight she had just lived through.

Ellie awoke to the feeling of Caw
tugging at her dress. The world had changed to light. It was
dazzling after the darkness of her dreams. The light of the forest
was masked in a hazy glow. The fire from her house had ghosted
toward her in the night. It took Ellie a second to remember what
had happened and why she hurt so much.

Caw did not make a sound but the tug
grew more urgent. It suggested something scary was nearby. Ellie’s
whole body ached with the uncomfortable position she had slept in
and the fight she had lived through. She was sluggish after waking
from a dead sleep, but after what had happened with Neveah, her
body moved without thought. A survivor’s instinct took over. She
did not want another deadly fight. She did not want to face the
Coopers or her family.

Ellie jumped to her feet and hid
behind the tree. Caw flew up to her shoulder and watched with her.
He clicked his beak in alarm, but he kept silent.

Ellie finally heard what had alerted
the bird. It was the sound of feet running through the forest. The
crunch of leaves was loud around the stillness of the forest. The
person was in a hurry. They did not care about their footsteps
being heard. Either the person did not think anyone would be so far
in the forest or they were running away from an enemy. Ellie knew
the only people who would run toward town were the Coopers. She
flicked her wrist and she and Caw turned invisible. She waited as
quietly as she could for the person to pass. She held her breath.
The feet moved closer.