Arron Liken's Arc

Chapter 11 of 11

Lilly swayed on the bare stone. Her knees buckled, and Arron caught her before she fell. Her skin was cold. Her breath came shallow and quick. The goddess had sealed her wolf to hide her, but the seal had drained her. Without food and water soon, she would collapse for good. Arron lifted her in both arms and turned in a slow circle. Then he heard it. Waves. He carried her toward the sound. Beyond a low ridge the stone gave way to sand. Water met land in white lines of foam. Arron scanned the shore and found a ring of weathered rock rising from the beach. Its walls curved inward, breaking the wind. A cove. Shelter. He carried Lilly across the sand and laid her in the shade of the tall stones. "Stay with me," he said. Her eyes fluttered but stayed open. He needed warmth. Near the back wall lay an old fire pit, a ring of stones scarred black from other fires long gone. Someone had built it and left it. Arron knelt and cleared the ash. He gathered dry seaweed and bark from the tide line for tinder. But he had no wood and no way to spark a flame alone. Air shimmered at the mouth of the cove. A gate opened, thin and blue, and Elizabeth stepped through it. The seer leaned on their tall staff, its head burning like a small sun. Arron had summoned this one through the temple stone once before, and they had bound Lilly's trail to hide her. Now they came without being called. "I saw her fall," Elizabeth said. Their pale eyes moved to Lilly. "The seal takes more than she can spare." "She needs water," Arron said. "And heat. I have no wood." Elizabeth planted their staff in the sand. "Then we split the work. You build. I gather." They turned and walked toward a line of driftwood scattered above the tide. Arron watched them go, then bent back to the fire pit. He laid the tinder in the black basin and packed it tight. Elizabeth returned with an armload of gray driftwood and dropped it beside him. Arron stacked it over the tinder. He struck a stone against the saber's steel edge until sparks jumped. The dry seaweed caught. A thread of smoke rose, then a flame. Fire filled the old ring and pushed back the cold. Elizabeth pressed their staff to the sand. A trickle of clear water welled up, and Arron cupped it to Lilly's lips. She drank. Then she drank again. Color crept back into her face. She gripped his wrist. "Where are we?" she whispered. Arron looked past the fire at the dark water stretching to the horizon. He had no answer. The sea went on with no other shore in sight. "I don't know," he said. "But you're safe. And we will find out together."