Artemis's Arc

Chapter 4 of 9

Artemis walked between the trees with the petal in one pocket and the butterfly on his sleeve. The path narrowed into a corridor of low branches, then opened. He stopped at the edge of the opening. The butterfly did not lift from his sleeve. He held out his hand to coax it forward. It stayed where it was and pressed its wings flat against the cloth. He looked at what lay ahead. The ground past the tree line had gone pale and cracked, split into long fissures that ran toward a ravine. A broken bridge hung over the gap, planks snapped in the middle, ropes frayed at the posts. Beyond the bridge, a dark cave mouth opened in the rock, framed by stacked stones. The forest did not reach across the cracked ground. No roots, no green. The air above the fissures shimmered the way air shimmers over a hot stove. Artemis took one step forward to test it. The butterfly shut its wings tighter and did not move with him. He stopped. He stood there a long time. The cave looked like the kind of place a path was supposed to lead. He had spent a year following thinner signs than this. He thought about the bargain. He had given the butterfly the only thing he kept hidden, and in return it had agreed to travel with him. A witness, he had decided. He had not asked what a witness was for. Now it was telling him, with its small body, that the bridge would not hold and the cave would not give him back. If he crossed anyway, he would be calling its warning worthless. He would be calling the trade worthless. He stepped back from the tree line. The butterfly loosened its grip on his sleeve. He turned along the edge of the cracked ground and began to walk parallel to the ravine, looking for another way down or around. After a few minutes the butterfly lifted from his sleeve and flew ahead of him, low, steady, leading. He followed. He had not crossed, and he was not lost yet. He had also used the only guide he had, and he understood now that it would not take him everywhere he wanted to go. Somewhere past the ravine was a direction it would not let him try. He kept walking and watched the wings move ahead of him in the gray light.