Aelindra Silverleaf's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Aelindra sent Andor Silvermoon back to his father's gates before dawn. She kept the yew staff. She kept the wolf. Then she went looking for the keys her parents had buried, because if her uncle found them first, no army in the elven kingdoms would matter. She started in the crypt. Her parents had been laid there the morning before. The stone was still cold from the pyres. Ser Elena Valorheart came with her, sword drawn, a torch in her free hand. The captain had known the queen since Aelindra wore braids too short to pin. "Your mother left you nothing here," Elena said. "I searched this floor the night she died." "She wouldn't hide them under a stone anyone could lift." Aelindra set the staff against her father's tomb. The yew's amber cap warmed under her hand. She thought of the druid's words. You'll need a hand free for the truth. She closed her eyes and pressed her palm flat to the carved name. The staff pulsed once, like a heartbeat under bark. A seam of light opened along the tomb lid. Not a crack. A map. Thin gold lines crawled the stone and pointed down, past the crypt, past the vaults, to a mark under the old stables. Elena swore softly. "He'll have men in the stables by tomorrow." "Then we go now." They ran. The wolf loped ahead through the dark corridors. Aelindra kicked open the tack room door and dropped to her knees on the straw. She pressed the staff to the floor. The gold lines answered again and drew a square around a single flagstone. Elena pried it up with her blade. Underneath sat a small iron box. Inside the box lay three keys, black as burnt bone, and a folded square of vellum in her mother's hand. Aelindra opened the note. Four words. Do not use all. She was still staring at the ink when a horn sounded from the outer wall. Then another. Then Andor's voice in the yard, hoarse, calling her name. He came through the stable door with blood on his cloak. Not his own. His horse was blown. He gripped the frame to stay upright. "He killed the parley," Andor said. "My father is dead. He rides here now. He knows you have them. Someone in your council told him where to look." Aelindra closed her fist around the three keys. The iron bit her palm. She looked at Elena, who already understood. "Find the traitor," Aelindra said. "Before he opens my gates from the inside." She slid two of the keys into her belt. She kept one in her hand. Her mother's note had said not to use all three. She meant to learn why before her uncle reached the wall.