Aldric Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 9 of 9

Aldric kept his hand on the bark and waited. The small lights lowered through the leaves and settled around his wrist. Something soft brushed the back of his fingers. When he pulled his hand away, a clump of pale green moss sat in his palm. It gave off a faint warmth, like bread just out of an oven. He knew, without being told, that this was what the tree had come to give. Moss for happy dreams. A blessing for the village he had left behind. "That's it?" Ephrat said. He had come up beside the root. "That's it." Aldric closed his fingers around the moss. His hand shook. Not from the moss. From the walk still ahead of him. Three days back, on legs that had barely carried him here. He tried to stand. His knees would not lock. He caught the root with his free hand and stopped halfway up. The cracked cane slid off his lap and clattered against the wood. His breath came thin. Black spots crossed the edges of his sight. "Sit," Ephrat said. He crouched and pushed Aldric back against the root. "You'll fall." "I know I'll fall." Aldric held the moss against his chest. "That's the trouble." Ephrat picked up the cane and looked at it. The crack ran deeper now. He set it aside. "I can't carry this out," Aldric said. "I can't carry myself out. If I go down between here and the arch, the moss goes with me. It dries. It's nothing." He looked at the boy. His neighbor's grandson. The one who had followed him against his word and saved his life at the shrine. "I need you." Ephrat did not answer at first. He looked at the moss, then at Aldric's face. "Say it plain," Ephrat said. "Carry me if you have to. Carry the moss for certain. Get it to the village. Give it to my grandson. Tell him what it's for." "And you?" "Get me as far as you can." Ephrat nodded once. He took the pack off his shoulder and opened it. He pulled out the cloth that had wrapped the fairyvander bloom and folded the moss into it. He tied the bundle to his belt where he could feel it against his hip. Then he slid an arm under Aldric's shoulder and lifted. Aldric came up against him, lighter than the boy had expected. The cracked cane went into Aldric's right hand. Ephrat's shoulder took the left side. "Slow," Ephrat said. "Slow is all I have." They turned from the tree. The small lights followed them a few steps and then stayed. Aldric did not look back. He kept his eyes on the pines and the thin line of the river, and he made his legs move, one and then the other, against the weight of the moss at the boy's hip.