Aldric Starweaver's Arc

Chapter 8 of 10

They stopped in the open valley, the keep small behind them. Aldric held the grey shard up to the light. Its facets caught the sun and threw a cold gleam across his hand. He had crossed the valley and lost a wolf to hold this. Now Galahad was staring at it too, and not the way a guard watches for danger. "That stone is worth coin," Galahad said. He wiped his blade and sheathed it. "Real coin. More than a burned tower can pay." He planted himself in Aldric's path, sword hand loose at his side. "I killed your dragon. I dug your rubble. I hauled you across open ground with a bear at our backs. I'm done working on promises." Aldric's stomach dropped. The valley stretched flat around them, no cover, no walls. Without a knight between him and the ridge, he was a lone old man with a stone in his fist. He looked at the twins. Faelan stood with an arrow half-drawn, eyes on Galahad, not on Aldric. Sylvra read the distance to the far ridge and said nothing. They had taken no side yet. That could change fast. "I can't hand you gold I don't have," Aldric said. "You know that." "Then you understand my problem," Galahad said. Aldric turned the shard slowly. He would not lie to a man holding a sword. So he gave the truth instead. "This shard rebuilds the crystal that kept dragons from these skies. The one that broke two weeks ago. You slew that dragon. You know what one costs." He held Galahad's eyes. "Another will come. When it does, every village in this valley will pay a slayer everything they own to stand between them and its fire. I can't give you coin today. I can give you the thing that makes your work worth ten times as much tomorrow." Galahad said nothing. His jaw worked. "He's right." Faelan lowered his bow. "No crystal, no shield. Then the sky fills with them." He looked at his sister. Sylvra nodded once. "A share of what the crystal earns you," Aldric said. "In writing, before a valley smith as witness. Not a promise. A debt." Galahad stood a long moment. Then he stepped out of Aldric's path. "A share," he said. "Witnessed. And I guard you until that stone is whole." He offered his hand. Aldric took it. They started down toward the willows by the stream, Galahad ahead now, watching the ridges again. Aldric closed the shard in his fist. He had kept his guard and his life. But he had signed away part of the crystal's future before it existed. Whatever the finished stone was worth, it was no longer only his.