Anon Frost's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Anon reached the first clan at dusk. The elders met him at their gate. He held out his crown, its green and violet light steady in the cold. Then a woman with blue-flame hair stepped from the crowd. Azura. The debt had brought her here before him. The elders saw her mark on him and stepped back. They shut the gate. Two more clans did the same. Each time, Azura arrived first. Each time, the door closed. Anon knew what would end it. He had known since the shore. He would not do it. On the fourth night, an old elf found him in the snow. Thaelon Silverleaf. His long black hair hung frozen. His purple eyes fixed on Anon with plain hate. Long ago his kin had sealed a door. Anon had opened it, and Azura had come through as the price. "You brought fire to my people," Thaelon said. "Every clan you touch, she follows. You will burn us all to keep a crown." "I need one clan to take me in," Anon said. "Help me, and I go. Refuse me, and she stays at your border forever." Thaelon did not answer. He looked past Anon at the sky. Anon turned. Light poured down from the dark. A dragon descended, white-scaled, four wings sweeping wide. It fed on the aurora as it flew, pulling ribbons of light into its mouth. Anon's crown flared toward it, drawn to its kind. "It comes once in a hundred years," Thaelon said. "It knows where the aurora is born. Follow it. Leave us." Anon understood. If he found the source of living aurora, he could forge without the dying tree. He could answer for the tree's death some other way. But the debt would still bind him. Azura would still come. He had one thing she wanted. The crown. Azura walked out of the dark toward them. Her spear caught the dragon's light, its four elements shining down the shaft. "Give it back," she said. "The tree, the crown. That is the only door out." Anon looked at the crown. He looked at the dragon climbing away with the aurora in its jaws. He made his choice. He held the crown out over the snow, then pulled it to his chest. "No," he said. "But I will not chase clans that shut their doors. I chase the source instead. Follow me there." He ran after the dragon. Azura followed. Thaelon watched them go, then turned to his gate and began sealing it against the fire he could not stop. The clans were closed to him now, all of them, as long as the debt stood. Anon had traded the race for a new road. The dragon knew where aurora was born. He would take his crown to its source and forge it there, beyond any clan that could refuse him. Behind him, Azura followed. Her anger rising with each step.