Aldric Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 5 of 11

Aldric ran down the trail with the sealed jar against his ribs and the wolf at his heel. The firebreak was behind him. His sister was four days ahead. The pebbled beach opened through the trees, gray in the pre-dawn light. He stopped at the waterline. The leaf-shaped skiff was gone. The caterpillar was gone. The little wooden chocks that had held the hull were scattered in the pebbles. He saw a drag mark where the boat had been pushed off, and a single set of soft prints in the wet sand that led into the water and did not come back. Aldric stood still. He counted. Six days back by trail. Four days until his sister was dead. He set the jar down between two stones so it would not tip. The wolf sat and did not whine. She watched him. "She was here," a small voice said behind him. The mushroom girl stood at the edge of the trees, breathing hard. Her bare feet were cut from the run. Her blackened fingertip was tucked against her palm. She was the seer who had paid a piece of herself to keep the smiling woman off him, and she had run from her own hollow to reach him. "Who," Aldric said. "The smiling woman. She could not cross the firebreak, so she came here instead. She spoke to the caterpillar. He is a small creature. He listens to kind voices." Chanterelle looked at the water. "She sent your boat out empty. She wanted you stranded with the jar." Aldric picked up the jar. His hand was steady. His chest was not. "There is no other skiff," Chanterelle said. "Not on this shore. The trail is six days. I have seen it." "Then I walk it," Aldric said. "She will die." "Say something useful." Chanterelle flinched. She closed her eyes. She stood very still with her bad hand against her chest, and Aldric watched spores drift from the underside of her cap and settle on the pebbles. Her lips moved. When she opened her eyes, they were wet. "There is a woman who keeps a glass house of herbs," she said. "Her plants slow poison. If you can reach her before your sister's third day, one leaf laid on the tongue buys you two more. I can draw the path. It is on your way." "Two more days," Aldric said. "Two more days to walk six." He looked at the empty water. He looked at the wolf. He looked at the coin-shaped weight in his pocket that he had carried for two months. "Draw it," he said. Chanterelle knelt on the pebbles and scratched a line with a stick. Aldric lifted the jar against his heart and started walking before the sun cleared the trees.