Aldric Thornmoor's Arc

Chapter 7 of 16

The runes on the spire pulsed slower now. Aldric watched a thin crack open along the base where his blood had dried. Wanda saw it too. She knelt and pressed a charred finger to the fissure. "It's leaking," she said. "An hour. Maybe less." On the north road, the woman with the burned hands still stood mid-step, but her fingers had begun to twitch. If the spire failed before Aldric learned what she knew, she would run straight to the councilor and tell him a mute herald was coming for his door. Aldric ran to the road. Wanda kept pace. The woman stood between two ruts, one boot lifted, eyes locked forward. The flame in Wanda's palm grew. She held it a hand's width from the woman's cheek. "The councilor with the missing thumb. Where does he sleep on Thursdays. Not the gate house. The room after." The woman's jaw worked. The spire behind them dimmed another shade. Aldric pulled out his paper stub and wrote fast: WHO WARNS HIM. WHAT SIGN. He held it in front of her eyes. The woman smiled without moving anything else. She would wait them out. Wanda saw it and cursed. Aldric turned and ran back to the spire. The mermaid was still there, half-risen from the black pool, watching the light drain from the crystal. He had seen her in the lagoon two nights past, the still water and the drifting canoe, and she had told him then that names were not kept in stones. Now he knelt at the pool's edge and wrote: TAKE MORE BLOOD. HOLD HER LONGER. "Not blood," Lyra said. "The spire is full. It's the anchor that's failing." She looked at the tuft of pale blue grass he had used, the white berries now gone dull. "Fresh. From the same hollow. Or she walks." The hollow was a quarter mile back. Aldric went. Wanda stayed with the woman and her flame. He tore through frost until his hands bled, found a fresh cluster of the grass, cut it clean, ran back. He pressed the stems to the crack. The berries brightened. The runes steadied. But on the road, Wanda was shouting. The woman had gotten one boot down. Aldric reached them as the second boot lifted free. Wanda's flame caught the woman's sleeve. The woman laughed, low and hoarse, and spoke for the first time. "He knows your face already, herald. I sent word before you set your trap." Then she ran. Wanda threw fire after her and missed. The woman vanished into the trees toward the north gate house. Aldric stood in the road. His trap had held her body. It had not held her tongue. The councilor knew he was coming, knew his face, and had been warned before the spire ever glowed. Wanda wiped soot from her mouth. "Then we go tonight," she said. "Before he moves."