Craft

by Lynnie Purcell

  Thane gave her a tour of the downtown area, bringing new light to the buildings and sights she had seen the previous day. He was careful to explain the things he thought Ellie would not know about and things he thought were interesting about the town. He knew a lot of history, though most of it had the slant of his family’s way of looking at things attached to it. Ellie thought he did a fine job of acting as tour guide and decided that, when he wasn’t being arrogant about being a Cooper, he was actually a lot of fun to be around.

  The fun of the tour, and Thane’s mood, made her brave enough to ask a question that had been on her mind since before she had left her house. They were walking past a small park, which had bright pink, yellow, orange and red flowers highlighting the brown trees and green grass.

  “Thane…” Ellie said.

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  Ellie stopped walking. She was nervous and worried she was asking the wrong person. She was worried to face the truth. “Do you know if there is a stone bear in town?” she asked.

  “A stone bear?” Thane repeated.

  “Yeah…” Ellie agreed.

  “No,” Thane replied.

  Ellie sighed. Her family had lied to her. The story of her father’s death had always gone that he had died at a stone bear in town. It was the most she ever knew about his death. It had been a lie.

  “Well, not anymore,” Thane corrected. “My father got the mayor to take that ugly thing down years ago.”

  Ellie perked back up. It was not a lie after all. “Do you know where it was?” Ellie asked.

  “Of course,” Thane said.

  Ellie grabbed his arm without thinking about it. Her eyes were full of steely determination and hope. “Can you take me?”

  “Sure…” Thane said dubiously. “Why?”

  “I just need to see it,” Ellie said. “It’s important.”

  Thane did not press for details. He took them around the park and away from the water. They moved toward the houses that surrounded town. It did not take them long to reach the spot. A large gate marked an area of new construction. There was no sign of a bear, only the building that was about to be constructed. The landmark that had marked her father’s death was gone. All she had left were her memories. Those were not as strong as the stories that had spread through her family with his death. She thought seeing where he had died would provide truth. All it did was make her sad.

  Ignoring Thane’s warning to not craft in town, Ellie lifted her wrist. A single red rose appeared in her hand. She put it at the gate. It was perfect and lonely, the only reminder of the fact that a person had died.

  Ellie’s sadness transforming her body, she walked away. Thane followed after her without speaking. He sensed the change, knew the spot held more meaning than she was willing to talk about with him. He did not seek out the truth. He knew she would not have answered, not with the sadness still so fresh in her body. Thane let her have her moment of sadness, then he pointed out another building. Ellie listened to his explanation, allowing his words to erase her sadness. He was different with the knowledge of Ellie’s pain. His new excitement for their tour cheered her considerably. His kindness helped her through a moment she was not certain she could have faced alone.

  It was well after lunch – they had eaten at the boardwalk so that Ellie could watch the dolphin again – when Ellie and Thane got wind of trouble. They were sitting on a bench inside an old graveyard, next to the church she had admired from a distance. They were talking about town and things that were not so personal. As they talked, a tall man appeared on the road. His body language was aggressive as he stopped on the corner of the road to survey the street. His brown hair and bone structure was familiar, as familiar as Thane was to Ellie. The man spotted them on the bench and immediately started marching toward them. He looked agitated and relieved at the same time. His stride was long and powerful. Thane tensed when he saw the man.

  “Don’t say a word, not even hi,” Thane warned Ellie as the man approached them.

  “Who’s that?” Ellie asked.

  “My brother, Connor,” Thane said.

  Connor stopped in front of the pair. He barely glanced at Ellie, though Ellie could not take her eyes off him. She was fascinated by the similarities between the brothers. They could have been twins if it weren’t for their age difference. Ellie had no doubt what Thane would look like in three or four years. When Connor spoke, Ellie thought their appearance was the only similarity they shared. His voice was full of pretension and arrogance – her expectation of how a Cooper should sound. His eyes crinkled with the same arrogance at his words. It made him look like a completely different person. Even Thane could not pretend to look so nasty.

  “We have a situation at the house,” Connor said.

  “I’m talking to someone,” Thane said pointedly.

  Thane ignored the threat in his brother’s voice. He was not afraid to backtalk, not nearly as afraid as Ellie would have been had she found herself in his situation. She admired Thane’s bravery.

  “Your girlfriend is not a priority,” Connor said, finally glancing at Ellie. “We have bigger issues, family issues you need to be part of.”

  “Since when do I get a say in that?” Thane argued back.

  “Since our father said so,” Connor said quietly, a warning in his voice.

  “Oh…well, that changes everything,” Thane retorted.

  “Watch your tone,” Connor said. “Or I’ll fix it for you.”

  Connor’s expression brooked no argument and fierce retribution if Thane insisted on refusing to join him. Ellie recognized the look. It was one Neveah had used on her more times than she could count. It promised action beyond the threats. She was suddenly afraid for Thane, afraid he would get the same beatings she had gotten after receiving such a look.

  Thane glared back at Conner. His expression was proof that he did not appreciate the bullying, but he did not argue anymore. He was not afraid of his brother, but he was afraid of his father. Thane did not dare cross his father over so serious an issue.

  “Give me a minute,” Thane told Connor.

  “There’s no time for goodbye,” Connor said. “We’re leaving…now!”

  Thane rolled his eyes at his brother’s tone. He obviously thought Connor was overreacting. “Fine,” Thane said.

  Thane looked at Ellie, feeling awkward that his brother was standing over them. The secret of Ellie’s identity bound his tongue and the warnings he wanted to give her for her journey home. Instead of words, he gave her a small half smile and an awkward goodbye wave. Then, with Connor urging them on, he and his brother walked out of the graveyard.

  Ellie watched the pair walk out of sight. They moved in the opposite direction of the downtown, back toward the stone bear. From their body language, and the brief conversation she had witnessed, it was obvious Thane and his brother did not get along.

  Alone again, Ellie looked around the graveyard and decided from the tone of Connor’s summoning, and Thane’s goodbye wave, that it was likely Thane was not coming back. Her tour guide was gone. His descriptions of the buildings and the background information he had provided had been the only thing to keep her in town for as long as she had stayed.

  She had accomplished everything she had set out to do. She could not assume it would remain safe in town, especially after dark, and she knew staying with Rachel a second night was risky. She had pushed her luck as far as she was willing to push it; pushing it further just felt like tempting fate. It was time to go home. It was time to put her adventure to rest.

  Ellie was sad that she could not spend more time seeing town, seeing a world so different from her own, but all things eventually ended. The ending was part of any good adventure. She only wished that her ending could be happier. What punishment would Neveah dream up for her actions? Would her story survive the scolding? What would she do next now that she had actually see town?

  There was nothing left but to go and see.

  Chapter 6: Conseq
uences

  Prepared for the journey home, Ellie stood from her peaceful place in the graveyard. She headed back to the bridge that spanned over the sparkling water. Her pace was slow. She was ready to put the adventure behind her, but she felt as if more had changed with her journey than just placing an image with town. She had found her father’s last place of life. She had met a Cooper and had befriended him. Life was infinitely more complicated than she had thought.

  She had just reached the bridge when she realized her goodbye with Thane was not as permanent as she had thought. She heard her name called across the space and turned at the sound. She saw Thane running toward her, to catch up to her before she crossed the bridge. He slowed when he saw her turn to face him, but his walk was still brisk. His whole body radiated with his tension and fear. His face was somber as he approached her. Ellie could tell that something had happened. His expression gave him away. She knew as well that he would not seek her out lightly. His purpose went beyond her.

  “What’s the matter?” Ellie asked.

  “Your family sent my family a message. They’re saying we kidnapped you. They’ve kidnapped my aunt, Rachel’s mom, and say they’re going to kill her if we don’t hand you over,” he replied.

  “Oh no!”

  Ellie was guilty in an instant. She had not thought her family would assume she had been kidnapped. She thought they would assume she had run away or was lost in the woods because she was too stupid to find the way back. She did not assume they would think she had been taken by the Coopers. She had underestimated her family’s ability to make leaps in ill-formed logic. She had underestimated their ability to blame the Coopers for everything that went wrong. She should have known better than to think they would blame her. There was always a Cooper to blame.

  Thane took a deep breath. He looked nervous about sharing the information with her, but he ignored the feeling. Not sharing was deadly. He wanted to help his aunt as best he could. He wanted to save his family from a fight.

  “But, the thing is…my dad thinks they’re going to kill my aunt anyway and that your sister is making up the kidnapping to try and justify their act. He thinks they’ve already taken her tongue.”

  “What’s that mean for you and your family?” Ellie asked. “What’s he gonna do about it?”

  “My family is getting ready to attack your house as we speak,” Thane said.

  Ellie’s eyes narrowed at his admission. Were they enemies again? Was it foolish to ever think otherwise? “And you’re okay with that, I suppose?” she asked.

  “I don’t want my aunt to die,” Thane said.

  “Well, it’s gonna be a bloodbath if they attack again,” Ellie said. “My family’ll be expecting an attack. Believe that.”

  “You don’t have to rub it in,” Thane said.

  “I'm not rubbing it in! My family is gonna be part of the dying crowd, too,” she said. “They have your kin…your auntie. People fight hard for that sort of thing. I don’t want any of my family to die either.”

  “So where does that leave us? We just let them fight it out?” he asked.

  “You could take me prisoner and use me as leverage with your family,” Ellie suggested. “Tell them that’s where you were. Let them trade me for her.”

  Thane looked shocked at her suggestion. He was surprised Ellie would so willingly step into danger for his aunt. He was also skeptical. He had more experience with the inner-workings of the war. His family had not kept the violence and the plotting from him. He knew it would never work.

  “They’ll just kill you,” he said. “And blame me for escalating things. It won’t stop the attack they have planned.”

  “Then it looks as if you’ll just have get your auntie back before the fighting starts,” Ellie said.

  “How?” Thane asked.

  Ellie crossed her arms thoughtfully. She could see one way out of the bloodbath. She was the only one who could take care of things and make sure no one else got hurt because of her. For the second time in a week, she would have to disobey Neveah.

  “Can you drive?” Ellie asked Thane.

  “Of course,” he said also crossing his arms.

  Thane was looking at her suspiciously, not following her logic or understanding why she looked so determined all of a sudden. It was as if she had decided to shoulder the weight of the world.

  “And a car?” Ellie asked.

  “Yeah, I have one of those,” he said.

  Ellie nodded at his confirmation, not catching his sarcasm. For the first time in her life, there was no sense of questioning wonder or doubt of her abilities to do something. She knew what they had to do and she was prepared to do it.

  “This is what we’re gonna do. You’re going to drive me to my house and drop me off before we get there. Then, you’re gonna wait and I’m gonna get your auntie for you,” she said as if it was as easy as her words.

  “How do I know…?” Thane started to say.

  Ellie was fed up with Thane’s second-guessing. It just delayed what they had to do. She talked over his words with unaccustomed impatience.

  “You gotta trust me. I don’t want nobody dead, especially on account of me,” she said.

  Thane had a brief moment of doubt. Then he went with his instinct. He decided to trust her. He knew she was not a cold-blooded killer. The fact that she had saved him was proof enough of that truth. She was not the same as her family. Thane had to hope that difference would be enough to save his aunt, to save his whole family from a fight they could not win.

  “Alright. Let me get my car. Wait here,” Thane said.

  He was back with his car before Ellie had time to work up the proper worry over the situation. She jumped into the passenger side of his car without realizing it was a hundred times nicer than Cousin’s truck and waited impatiently for him to get going again. He did not need her impatient taping to feel the urgency of the situation. He peeled away from the corner and sped out of town.

  Nothing stood in their way on the two-lane highway that led to Ellie’s house. It was just the roar of the wind from the open windows and the feel of the deserted highway speeding past them. The same woods Ellie had walked on her way into town sped past in the opposite direction.

  All Ellie could think about as they drove was the situation she had caused. She had not meant to make a mess of her adventure, or drag others in on it. She had just wanted to see something she had never seen before. She had wanted to do one brave thing in her life. She thought the adventure she had found was not worth the mess it had caused. She had been selfish and someone she did not even know was paying the consequences for her actions. She vowed never to be so selfish again.

  Ellie was impressed at how quickly they were able to get to her house driving in Thane’s car. What had taken them almost two days of walking only took them forty minutes.

  When the landscape finally shifted into trees and bushes as familiar as her hands, Ellie forced Thane to pull the car over. They were still a quarter mile from her house. It was the closest she trusted him to be without running the risk of discovery. When he pulled over, Ellie was ready. She set aside her doubt and focused on the task.

  “Give me ten minutes,” Ellie told him.

  “What happens after ten minutes?” Thane asked.

  Ellie shook her head, not wanting to think of the alternatives. There were no alternatives. She would not let there be. “Ten minutes and you’ll have your auntie back,” Ellie promised.

  Ellie hopped out of the car without giving him a chance to reply and ran for her house. The wet heat made running difficult, but she did not slow. She focused on the feel of her feet against the pavement and what she would find at the house. She hoped she was not too late to stop a murder.

  The house appeared around a bend in the road. It had not changed. The old wood and white paint had not shifted any with her adventure. The only difference was that her yard was full of her family. They were stationed at strategic intervals, to watch for any sign that the Coop
ers were coming to claim back their kin. They talked, smoked and drank hooch from their mason jars as they watched the road and forest. Ellie knew they would not miss much. Their calm appearance was an illusion. A Cooper would have underestimated them. The craft of the ward Eugenia had put around the house welcomed Ellie home.

  Ellie ignored the lookouts, who stared at her in shock as she passed. She heard them start talking in excited tones about her sudden reappearance as she let the screen-door slam behind her on her way inside. She took a deep breath to steady her panting as she came to a skidding halt in the kitchen. Then, feeling nervous and worried her plan would not work, she searched out her sister and the woman her sister had kidnapped. Her feet pulled her toward the living room, where she felt Neveah’s craft in the air.

  Neveah, Careen, Cousin and Eugenia were in the living room. A woman Ellie assumed was Thane’s aunt was in the corner. She was tied to a wooden chair Ellie usually used to stand on to clean the tops of the furniture. Neveah was taunting the woman with her craft. She held seven knives in front of the woman. Each time Neveah flicked her wrist, the knives came a little closer to the woman’s face. As she flicked her wrist, Neveah made comments about her uncertainty of maintaining the knives stability. One or all of them would eventually pierce the woman. Ellie thought Neveah was telling the truth. She sensed tenuousness to Neveah’s craft. The feeling of the craft was erratic; Neveah’s meanness was distracting her from true control.

  The woman’s eyes were wide with panic. Ellie could tell that she was thinking about the Bumbalows’ reputation of cutting out tongues. As Ellie stepped into the living room, one of the knives cut into the woman’s face on the chin. The blood trickled down the woman’s face. Her look of horror grew at the feeling of pain. She did not cry out or try to beg for mercy around the gag bounding her mouth. Her hatred of Bumbalows prevented her from voicing her fear.

  Ellie was not so bound to silence. “Stop!” she cried.

  The knives vanished with a startled puff of smoke as Neveah turned to look at Ellie. Neveah’s eyes were full of surprise and something else Ellie could not place easily: relief, disappointment, a combination of the two? It was impossible to tell. Careen smiled slightly at Ellie. Her smile was not warm. She had thought her sister long dead. The smile was more an expression of surprise than welcome. No one hugged her or welcomed her back. It was almost as if they were disappointed that their reason for kidnapping Thane’s aunt was no longer valid. They were disappointed in the Coopers for actually agreeing to their demands. The Coopers were supposed to be more devious than that. They were supposed to kill Ellie and leave the body as proof of the murder. It was the whole basis of the war. Killing the aunt would be harder to justify with Ellie’s return. Not that justification would have been too hard to find for them. They would find a way to reason away the murder.