Amalthea's Arc

Chapter 5 of 9

Amalthea woke before the bells. Corvus had a month to find a seer, but the road was long and dangerous. She would not let him ride alone. She dressed fast and hurried down to the dining hall, the armored hound trotting at her heel. King Thran sat at the long table. Honey cakes and a cup of tea steamed before him. He looked older in the gray morning light, silver threading his dark hair, his crown resting between the horns on his brow. This was the man who had burned every book to keep her alive. She knew what she asked would frighten him. "Father," she said. "I want to ride with Corvus to find the seer." Thran set down his cup. "No." "He does not know these lands. I do." She stepped closer. "If he fails, the prophecy stays a shadow over us both. I can help him bring back the truth." "The truth is what I am trying to spare you." His voice was low. "You would put yourself beside the cursed man for weeks. Alone on the road. And you ask me to smile." "I am not asking you to smile. I am asking you to trust me." She laid her hand on the hound's armored head. The beast leaned into her, calm. "You saw this. The curse did not take me. It will not take me on a road either." Thran stared at the hound, then at his daughter's steady hand. He rose and walked to the window. His fur cloak dragged the floor. For a long moment he said nothing. "When you were small, you climbed the highest spire," he said. "I forbade it. You climbed it anyway. You always went toward the thing I feared." He turned. His eyes were wet and hard at once. "If I lock you in this castle, I will keep your body and lose your heart. I know this." Amalthea held her breath. "Go," Thran said. The word cost him. "Find the seer. Bring back the reading." He pointed one thick finger at her. "But you will take the hound. And you will send me word from every town. If I hear nothing for ten days, I ride out with every man I have." "I will," she said. "And Amalthea." He crossed the room and gripped her shoulders. "If the reading says you die by his hand, you come home. You do not argue. You come home." She wanted to promise it. She could not. "I will hear the reading with open ears," she said instead. Thran's jaw tightened. He heard what she did not say. But he let her go. By midday she stood outside Corvus room waiting to tell him the news.