Aldric Vane's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Silas stood in the cold ground beyond the ward line. His cutlass hung in his hand. The gap in the wards yawned open behind both men, a doorway in empty air. Aldric felt it like a wound in his own skin. Every second it stayed open, the island lost the wall that kept the sea creature out. He had built that wall over months of blood and burnt magic. Now his own lie had cracked it wide. "You said they'd be here," Silas said. His red eyes did not blink. "They aren't." "I was wrong about where." Aldric kept his voice flat. It was the truth wearing the shape of a lie. "But the gap won't hold. Something worse than your grief wants through it." Silas took a step. The blade came up. "Then you'll close it with a hole in you." Aldric didn't argue. He turned his back on the drawn cutlass. It was the only choice that mattered. The staff warmed in his grip, the spiral grain breathing faint heat against his palm. He raised it toward the split in the wards. Green fire climbed the driftwood and poured toward the gap. The air fought him. Something on the far side pressed inward, cold and patient. Aldric knew that cold. He had worn it in his black eye for months. The creature had found the open door. It pushed a limb through first, black and slick, green light crawling beneath the skin. Faces surfaced in that skin and sank again, mouths open. "Kade," Aldric said through his teeth. "Cut me now and it comes through. Cut it, and I close the door." Silas saw the thing reaching. He was proud and he was angry, but he was not a fool. He stepped past Aldric and swung. The cutlass bit the black limb. The creature shrieked and pulled back an inch. Aldric drove the staff forward. The ward line snapped shut like a mouth. It caught the creature's arm at the shoulder and severed it clean. The limb fell to the cold ground and dissolved to wet smoke. On the far side, the thing wailed and sank into the dark. The gap was gone. The wall stood whole again. Aldric dropped to one knee, the staff smoking in his hand. Silas stood over him, breathing hard, blade still wet. "You closed it," Silas said. He looked at the sealed air. Then at Aldric. "With my crew still out there." Aldric got to his feet. The island was safe. The ship floated in the shallows, whole enough to sail. But now Silas understood the truth. The wards were the wall. His crew was on the wrong side of it, and the man who could open the door had just proven he would seal it to save himself. "Next time," Silas said, low, "I won't help you shut it."