Craft (7 page)

Ellie knew one thing. It was foolish
to think any of her family would take her. They all saw her in the
same way Neveah saw her: as a nonentity. She did not exist. Most of
the family was not aware of her, unless she was in their way. They
were all scared of Neveah’s craft and were afraid to live without
her guiding them. Her skilled craft kept the Coopers at bay.
Ellie’s family respected Neveah as much as they feared her. If
Ellie confided in anyone her dream of seeing town, Neveah would
know about in minutes. If Ellie told her family she was going to
sneak out, it would be a beating for sure. There was no way to find
the truth through her family.

The boy was different. It was possible
she had just found the only person in the world who would tell her
how to get there. He would never talk to Neveah, would never even
get the chance if the two did meet. There would be a fight, not a
conversation. They would do what Coopers and Bumbalows did best.
Ellie’s secret would stay with him. He was her only chance. The boy
was her way, and she could go without Neveah ever knowing the
truth.

Ellie’s jealousy of the boy turned to
excitement at the opportunity he presented. It might take a little
effort to make him tell her the directions, but she held the upper
hand. She had him tied up, and he did not know what she was capable
of. Her escape from his attack would make him fear her more. Ellie
could use his freedom as a bargaining chip. He did not have to know
that she would never hurt him. He just had to think she was capable
of it. With a little luck, she could see town before the night was
through.

The boy woke up a couple of times
during the day. Ellie kept a book handy to knock him out whenever
that happened. She ignored her chores around the house to watch
over him, knowing she would pay for it later. With the circling
drama of the fight on everyone’s mind, and the business of crafting
the wards, she was all but invisible for the time being. It would
only be later when Neveah would realize the chores had not been
completed. By then, Ellie’s adventure to town would be over. She
would take her punishment without complaint. The risk was worth
it.

Finally, the sun set on her house. She
peeked outside to make sure she was alone. Careen and Neveah had
left to have Sunday dinner at Cousin’s house. The rest of the
family was gone. Everything was quiet. The crickets and bullfrogs
were the loudest sounds in the night. Their songs were a strange
counter-harmony to Ellie’s racing heart. The only people for miles
were Ellie and her prisoner. There would never be another perfect
moment. It was now or never.

Ellie turned back to the sleeping boy.
With a wave of her hand, she pulled the boy after her. His head
slumped to the side as he ghosted on invisible strings behind her.
She kept a constant eye out for any surprise visitors, not that she
really thought anyone would come back when Neveah and Careen were
gone. No one ever came just to see her.

Ellie did not have far to go. The ward
surrounding the property began at the woods directly behind her
shack. She could feel them shimmering in the air, though it was an
invisible line to most. It hummed with energy as breathtaking as
the craft it had taken to form it. It would work well to keep out
the Coopers. They would not be able to break the craft easily. She
also knew it would keep a Cooper inside the property. Hopefully,
the boy would feel the power of the ward as well. If not, Ellie
hoped he would trust her threat.

Ellie took a deep breath at the
boldness of the leap she was about to make. It was the first
overtly rebellious thing she had ever done. Did she really want to
cross Neveah? Would the grandparents be brought in if her adventure
was found out? She shut her eyes and focused on the adventure she
had waiting in front of her. She imagined a town that sparkled and
shone in the sunlight. She imagined a place that held the mysteries
of the unknown, instead of a house that never changed. The
adventure of town was worth the risk of her family’s retribution,
if the boy did not kill her first.

Ellie took off the boy’s blindfold and
gag with a wave of her hand. He did not move with the craft. Her
last hit with the book had put him out for a couple of hours. She
crafted water out of the air above his head and let it drop down on
his face. He gasped awake and immediately started struggling
against the ropes. His eyes moved to Ellie’s face as he
struggled.

“Untie me!” he commanded.

“You better lower your voice,” Ellie
warned. “If you don’t, someone from my family might come to
investigate. They're not as nice as I am.”

“You don’t scare me!” he said, though
he said it in a much quieter voice.

Ellie ignored him. She crossed her
arms menacingly and looked down at him with an expression borrowed
from Neveah. It was a look of steel.

“I gotta deal I wanna make with you,”
Ellie said. “I know I can’t really trust a Cooper, but I think you
can be reasonable. You can, right?”

His eyes widened when she mentioned a
‘deal’ then narrowed suspiciously at her question. “What is it?” he
asked.

“We got wards around the property,”
Ellie said.

“I know. We broke them last night,”
the boy said smugly. “They were easy to break.”

“Those were just general wards to keep
out the curious…crafting from a long time ago. We put up new ones.
These ones boil your blood in your body, unless you’re a Bumbalow.
Or if a Bumbalow lets you pass through. Do you feel them?” she
asked.

“No…” he said, looking
confused.

All he felt were the ropes around his
body and the hard earth pressing against his back. The craft Ellie
could not ignore was not as obvious to him.

“Well, the wards are there, and
they’re gonna stay there, unless I let you through,” she
said.

“What are you suggesting?” he
asked.

Ellie put her hands on her hips and
tried to act confident about what she was asking. She knew what she
wanted would sound weird to someone as worldly as the boy was, but
she was determined.

“I wanna know how to get to town. Tell
me how to get there and I’ll let you pass through the wards like
you own them. Once done, neither of us gotta look back, nor even
remember any of this happened.”

“That’s all? You want to know how to
get to town?” the boy asked incredulously. “Why in the world would
you trade my life for that?”

“You don't have to make a big deal
about it. Either tell me how to get there, or rot in this spot
until my family finds you,” Ellie said.

“You’ll be killed for sure if you try
to walk to town,” the boy said.

“That’s my problem,” Ellie
said.

The boy did not trust her. Her bargain
sounded too ridiculous to be true. She would free him for
directions? He was smarter than that.

“What’s the catch?” he
asked.

“No catch. It seems to me, considering
the state you’re in, like you got a reason to be hoping for some
kindness from me,” Ellie said. “How’s about you listen to that
hope?”

The boy thought about that for a
moment. “You’ll really let me go as easy as that?” he asked. “You
didn’t capture me to torture me and take out my tongue?”

“Why on earth would I want your
tongue?!” Ellie demanded.

“Bumbalows are known for taking out
the tongue,” he said.

“We do no such thing!” Ellie
exclaimed.

He was relieved to hear those words.
He could not hide the relief from his face. “Not saying I believe
you, but you do know that town is close to a two day walk, don’t
you? Unless you have a car somewhere in that dress,” he
said.

“Two days?!” Elli May
exclaimed.

Her hands fell from her hips in
defeat. She had not been expecting such a hefty walk in front of
her. When the others went to town, they were only gone for a couple
of hours at most. But they had always taken Cousin’s truck. They
did not have to depend on their own legs to take them.

Ellie had a moment of indecision,
where she considered abandoning her plan and spending the evening
reading alone in her shack, like always. It was a plan that would
not include a beating for running away from her chores. A feeling
of rebellion moved through her body at the thought.

She could not let her moment pass her
by. If she did not go now, she never would. She could not deny her
wants any longer, not when they pulled against her mind so
forcefully. The attack on her house had been the beginning of
something she could not fully understand. It was the need to face
her fear, mingled with an overwhelming sense of adventure. Ellie
squared her shoulders and put her hands back on her
hips.

“Two days is just gonna be what it
takes,” she said. “Now, tell me how to get there, and I’ll let you
go. A deal’s a deal.”

The boy’s eyes narrowed again. He
could not trust her, no matter how sincere her words seemed. “How
would you know I’m not lying? How do I know you’re not lying now?”
he asked.

“People usually wanna do right, if you
give them chance enough, even a Cooper,” Ellie said.

The boy considered her words. He could
not deny the excited look in her eyes or the determination to
follow through on her plan. She really did just want to visit town.
She would release him from something so simple. He gestured with
his chin to the forest behind the shack.

“Fine…Go that way,” he said. “Walk
straight, until you run out of forest. Town is just beyond the
woods.”

“That’s all? Just walk straight?”
Ellie asked.

“Yeah, it’s not hard,” the boy said.
He looked at her skeptically. “That is, if you can walk in a
straight line…”

Ellie raised her hand at his words.
The boy flinched automatically, and his eyes filled with fear. He
expected the worst from the gesture. She flicked her wrist, and the
ropes disappeared with a soft ‘poof!’. She waved her hand again and
said the words Eugenia had told her to say. She felt a ripple of
craft float across the air as the ward shifted slightly to allow
the boy to pass. Ellie pointed at a spot directly in front of
her.

“Go on, get! I got a walk to start,”
Ellie said.

The boy stood up slowly, not taking
his eyes off her for a second. He backed away just as slowly, each
step meticulous and careful to prevent tripping. He was convinced
that the moment he showed weakness in front of her was the same
moment he would die. Ellie thought his caution was a bit overdone.
It was the act of someone not as used to fighting as she had
thought. She stayed as still as possible, to prevent
misunderstandings between them.

When he was nothing more than another
shadow in the night, Ellie took a deep breath to soothe her nerves.
Again, she thought about what she was doing and about the likely
consequences of that act. She considered the punishment she was
going to get for her rebellion. She knew nothing would ever be the
same. She could feel it in her heart. Town would change everything
or nothing at all. She would no longer have to wonder about what
was waiting for her. She was scared at the idea, scared to put
action to her dreams. That fear was exactly what Neveah and the
others expected of her. Her resolve hardened. She would not let
fear make up her mind. She was tired of fear. She was ready to
prove to the world, and to herself, that she could handle
anything.

Her determination guiding her steps,
she followed the boy’s path into the woods.

Chapter 3: Caw

Ellie had explored the woods around
her house many times during her life. She had spent long hours
running around the thick foliage as she played with characters from
her imagination. The trees around her shack were as familiar as her
house, only they held more fond memories. The forest was where she
was most free. She had never tried to navigate the woods in the
dark, however. She had never gone farther than a mile in the woods
during the day. Going farther at night was impossible.

It did not take her long to feel
disoriented. She was only thirty minutes into the woods before she
could not remember which way was home and which way was town. To
her, both ways looked very similar. The thick canopy of limbs above
her head obscured the night sky and the pine trees closed her in.
There was no sense of space, nothing beyond trees and the hard
earth. She kept walking until she realized she had passed the same
fallen tree twice.

She was going in circles.

Feeling slightly disenchanted with her
adventure, she sat down next to the tree and gave herself up for
lost. Neveah’s long-held opinion on Ellie’s capabilities was right.
Ellie was not equipped enough to go on any sort of adventure. She
could not even get thirty minutes away from her house without
failing miserably. She was barely any closer to town and, now, she
did not know how to get back home. She was useless. All she was
good for was cleaning up after the others and taking Neveah’s
bullying. It was her place in life.

How could she have thought it was
possible to go on an adventure when she did not even know which way
town was to begin with? How could she have been so stupid not to
ask for directions that were more complete? The characters in her
books would have known to ask detailed questions. They would not
have gotten lost so quickly. Hoping for something like seeing town
was a lot different from having the ability to make it happen. The
difference was in the application.