Shadows of Sherwood (42 page)

Moon Child

Eveline was sitting on the low bench in front of the braid shop when Robyn and Laurel arrived. Almost as though she was waiting for them. The old woman leaned her back against the glass window, eyes closed, tail of her braid clutched in one fist, tapping the palm of the other.

She opened her eyes as the girls approached. “Miss Robyn,” she said. “What questions have you come with today?”

Robyn started, “I read the moon lore book, and then a bunch of things happened—”

“Feels like rain,” Eveline commented, interrupting her.

The sky was only barely overcast, though the air had a humid feel about it. If it rained now, what good would it do? Why could the sky not have opened an hour ago, to put out the fire?

“Let us go indoors, shall we?” Eveline led the way to her room. She sat in the same chair, with Robyn across from her. Like before, except Laurel perched on the arm of Robyn's chair, quiet and holding herself unusually still.

Eveline softened with satisfaction as Robyn related the story of the moon shrine and the curtain. “I hope you will take me to this moon shrine someday,” Eveline said. “I should like to kneel there for a while and pray.”

Robyn and Laurel recited the curtain's message for her.

“The old spinners of the moon lore wove their verses into the moon cloth,” Eveline said, adding wistfully, “So many of the verses have been lost.”

“But what does it mean?” Robyn asked, feeling impatient.

“You don't need me to tell you,” Eveline said. “Listen to your heart.”

Robyn's heart was stubbornly silent on the subject. Dad's message was still incomplete. The Elements were only one part of the puzzle.

“For such a smart girl, you are slow to put pieces together,” Eveline said, when Robyn remained quiet.

Robyn was offended. “I'm not a detective,” she blurted. “Or a minister, or . . . or . . . a hairstylist. How am supposed to know?”

“The moon lore is not a mystery. It is truth, unfolding.”

Ancient, cryptic verses woven into cloth in a secret courtyard? Hidden power pendants? It sounded like the stuff of mystery to Robyn.

“The verses are about you, my dear,” Eveline informed her. “They have been waiting in that courtyard, for you.”

“If the verses are so old,” Robyn puzzled, “How can they be about me?”

“You are not the first moon child nor will you be the last,” Eveline said. “The verses have come true before, and they will come true again.”

“It's a prophecy?” Robyn asked.

“I don't know that it is,” Eveline mused. “The moon lore does not seek to predict, but to explain.”

Explain what?
Robyn wondered.

“Our world turns in circles. The earth itself is a circle. The moon. The sun. All things are woven, like the braid. They recur. Each strand at times, on the surface; at times woven deep.” She moved her hands gracefully as if to braid the air.

Robyn fought the urge to pound her foot. The old woman's slow rhythmic words did not answer her questions. “But it mentions my parents,” she said. “And what about the power of the moon pendant?”

“It is not the pendant that has power,” Eveline said. “It is the one who carries it.”

“That doesn't make any sense,” Robyn said. “I don't have any power.”

Eveline looked at the skylight. “You are wrong.” A strange light began to glow in the old woman's eyes. A trick of shadows, maybe, or something mystical. Robyn shifted in her seat.

“On the contrary, my dear. You are the blessed child. The first in many decades.”

“Blessed how?” Robyn asked.

“You are a child of Shadows and Light.”

Robyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She needed a fortune teller for this? Anyone who saw her skin color could
see that she fell somewhere between dark skinned and light skinned. How hard was it to guess she came from one dark parent and one light? “Well, duh,” she said.

The old woman gripped Robyn's hand, gazing at her like a treasure. “Do you realize what this means?”

Robyn pulled her hand free. “Uh—I'm not exactly the first kid of this color to come along. There are plenty of us.”

“Those who trust the moon lore believe that the first humans who walked the earth were blessed by either Shadows, or Light. Their lineages continue,” she said. The old woman reached into a drawer and brought out a stack of fine parchment pages. “Occasionally they meet. Occasionally, they fall in love, as Shadows and Light were always supposed to.”

“What are these symbols?”

“The arrow represents the unity of the Elements,” Eveline explained. “We are all human, but we are also of the earth. The Elements drive us each. Our character. Our skills. The passions of our hearts.”

“This one,” Eveline commented, indicating Laurel. “My dear, you are driven by air and blessed by Light.”

Laurel beamed.

“The Elements are not things, they are people,” Robyn confirmed.

Eveline nodded. “Separately, we flounder. Together, we strike.” She folded one wrinkled hand into a fist.

Robyn stared at the parchment until she found her own name. The two large family trees came together at her parents,
creating her. Robyn touched the place where her mother's and father's names were written.

“A man like Crown fights for power,” Eveline said. “A man like your father fights for justice.”

“You know my father?” Robyn whispered.

But Eveline continued, heedless of the question. “There have always been men like these. They always clash, and the whole world clashes with them.”

“Your existence quakes these tensions,” the old woman said. “But it can also heal them.”

 

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

Bricks in the Bell Tower

Robyn and Laurel returned to Nottingham Cathedral to join the others. They found Tucker exuberantly regaling Key and Merryan with the history of the old church.

Key appeared pleased with the new digs. “Like I said, I could stand to give up the risk of walking through the woods every night.”

“We all could,” Robyn agreed. “Come here, I want to show you what else we found.”

Tucker and Laurel followed as Robyn led Key and Merryan into the moon courtyard for the first time. They stared at the shrine in awe. “Tonight, when the moon is up, it'll start to glow,” she told them. She explained about the braided verse.

“There's another door,” Robyn said. She pointed at the second staircase. “Up there. I think the sun pendant from my mom will open it.”

“That's amazing!” Tucker exclaimed, jotting down notes. He chattered at Laurel and Merryan, explaining about his paper.

Key stared at the curtain, like he was trying to read the lines without the moonlight. The distant expression on his face was familiar and unpleasant. He looked as frustrated and annoyed as he had when he left a few nights ago.

“You don't have to stay,” Robyn whispered. “I thought you were done with us.”

“You don't need me,” Key answered. “You would manage on your own.” He smiled sadly. “You always do, right?”

So far
, Robyn thought.
I've gotten lucky.
Today she'd needed a lot of help.

“I get it, okay? Why you only care about doing what your parents wanted.”

“I care about other people, too,” she said. “And they would want me to.”

Key fingered the curtain. “My mother swore by the moon lore,” he said softly. “She would have been overwhelmed to see something like this.”

“Your mother?” Robyn was confused. “I thought you were an orphan.” They—and Laurel—had bonded over the mutual lack of parents.

“I wasn't raised by wolves,” Key said. “I have a family. They're just not my blood.”

“Why are you living like a fugitive, then?” Robyn asked him.

Key glared at her. “You expect me to tell you my life story? You won't even tell me your last name.”

Robyn could have pointed out that she didn't know his real name, either, but she recognized the anger and the
sadness burning in his gaze. Something terrible had happened to his family, she imagined. They were still alike, after all.

Robyn turned away from Key, back to the curtain. “I'm sorry,” she said. The silver strands seemed to speak the truth better than she could, even though their truth was currently hidden. “I guess we all have secrets.”

Key nodded.

Robyn breathed deeply. “I think we can help each other anyway,” she said.

“Yeah,” Key agreed. “I think so.”

Laurel bounced around the chamber, retelling the story, from her perspective, of Robyn's crazy escape. “And then she dove across the crowd!
Swoosh!
” Laurel pantomimed. “For Sherwood, unite. For Sherwood, we fight!” Clearly, she was feeling much better.

Robyn turned to Key and stuck out her hand. “Unite?” she said.

“Fight,” he said. They shook hands, as Laurel's antics continued. Tucker and Merryan laughed at her tale.

Robyn's TexTer vibrated. Here. Where are you?

NW corner, Robyn answered. She raced up to the sanctuary and let Scarlet in through the plywood.

“Cool,” Scarlet said, as she entered. She held the modem and the TexTer in her outstretched hand.

“Keep them,” Robyn surprised herself by saying. “You know how to use the modem. I don't. Maybe it was meant for you.”

“Wow. Thanks.” Scarlet smiled and clipped the TexTer to her belt. “I guess we should keep in touch.”

“You're looking for the prisoners, too, aren't you?” Robyn said. “Maybe we can help each other.”

“Maybe,” Scarlet murmured as they entered the moon shrine to rejoin the others. “But I'm used to working alone.”

“Me, too,” Robyn said. “But things are changing.”

Robyn made proper introductions between Scarlet and the others. The six new friends stood in a loose half circle staring at the shrine. The curtain was blank, but Robyn recited its verse out loud.

“I think we are the Elements,” Robyn told her friends. “I think we're supposed to work together.”

“But there are six of us,” Laurel said. “And only three Elements.”

“Chazz told me I was looking for six,” Robyn said. “And then Eveline said that you are driven by air, blessed by Light.”

“That would fit with the moon lore,” Tucker chimed in. “Maybe there are two sides of each Element, one from Shadows and one from Light.”

“I think so,” Robyn agreed. “It's easy enough to tell Shadows from Light, but how do you know your Element?”

“You just do,” said Merryan quietly. “Once you know to ask yourself. I'm Earth.”

“Water,” Key said softly.

“Water,” Scarlet echoed.

“Earth,” said Tucker.

“Air,” Laurel confirmed. “I felt it as soon as she told me.”

They all looked at Robyn. But she could only shake her head. She searched her heart, for the answer she knew must be there. “I must be air, too,” she said. “That's the only one that's missing.” But it didn't feel right.

“No, it isn't,” said Tucker. “What if you are more than just an Element? What if you are the one who is meant to lead us?”

“You brought us together,” Merryan said. “You made us all want to help.”

“You're both Shadows and Light,” Key said. “Like the verse says.”

“You are the fire they can't put out,” Scarlet added. “It's obvious.”

It wasn't obvious to Robyn, though the thought did make her chest glow warm.
How do you put out a flame?
Eveline had asked her. Everyone else's answer rose immediately from their element. Instead, Robyn had wondered:
Why would you want to put it out? Fire is useful in so many ways.

Could it be?

Robyn lifted her pendant. Her parents had known it, long before she did. It must be why Dad had left her the moon pendant, and why Mom had risked trusting Merryan to pass her the sun pendant, too.