Aldric Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 7 of 9

Aldric knelt in the grass beside his cracked cane. Ephrat crouched next to him, the slingshot still hanging from one finger. The one-legged creature lay dead against a tree at the clearing's edge. Behind them, the air at the offering table had shifted, and Aldric felt the weight of it on the back of his neck. He turned. A woman stood at the altar. She was made of light. Her shape matched the hooded statue in every line, but she was bright, like a lamp behind thin cloth. The pale blue flower still sat in the white bowl at her hip. She did not walk. She was there, then closer, then closer again. Ephrat lifted the slingshot. Aldric put a hand on his wrist and pushed it down. "She's what we paid for," Aldric said. The boy lowered the strap. His hands were still shaking from the kill. Ephrat was fourteen, the neighbor's grandson, and he had followed Aldric into these woods against every warning. Aldric had stopped trying to send him back two days ago. The Lady of the Waspwood stopped an arm's length away. She looked down at Aldric first. Her face was the statue's face, calm and closed. She lifted her hand and set it against his cheek. He felt no heat and no cold. He felt something quieter. The ache in his ribs eased a small measure. The bleeding at his side slowed. It did not stop. She turned to Ephrat and touched his forehead with two fingers. The boy closed his eyes. Then she held out her other hand. A folded square of pale cloth rested on her palm. Aldric took it. He opened one corner. Lines showed through the weave, dark and moving as he tilted the cloth, like ink still wet. A path. A stream. A ring of stones. At the center, a single mark shaped like a leaf. "The oldest tree," Aldric said. The Lady did not speak. She stepped back. The light of her thinned. The statue at the altar stood as it had before, stone, hooded, holding its carved butterfly. Ephrat opened his eyes. "Did she\u201" "Yes." Aldric folded the cloth against his chest. Forty years he had carried the oath. Three days he had walked. He had the path now. He tried to stand. His legs would not hold. He sat back down hard. Ephrat slid an arm under his shoulder. "Show me the map." Aldric opened it across his knee. The leaf mark lay far from the shrine. Between it and them, the map showed a narrow line crossing what looked like open ground, and past that, a shape Aldric did not know how to read yet. Something waited on the way. But the path was his. He had not had that yesterday. "We go at first light," he said.