Atsuki Nightwhisper's Arc

Chapter 15 of 17

Atsuki ran until the trees thinned and the cliffs rose ahead. The sealed ruling pressed against his ribs. Two seals now, warden and archon. But paper meant nothing if Matthias reached the monastery first. Atsuki looked up the rock face. The goat path climbed slow and long. Somewhere on that path, a priest was already climbing toward his grandmother. He found Aelindor at the base of the old oak, the same groove worn into the root beneath him. The white-haired elf did not look up from his page. He had sent Atsuki to the warden. He had known the danger from the start. "Matthias is on the cliff path," Atsuki said. "I can't beat him up. Not on foot." Aelindor set down his pen. "There is a faster way." He pointed past the oak, to a hollow in the rock. "Something roosts there. It flies." Atsuki crossed to the hollow. Light spilled from inside. A bird stood among the stones, tall as a man, its feathers burning in shifting color, red into green into gold. Embers dripped from its tail and died on the rock. It watched him with one dark eye. "It carried the old bloodlines once," Aelindor said. "When their kin were hunted. It remembers oaths." He turned back to his page. "Show it the pendant." Atsuki drew the whole pendant from his shirt. The bird stepped forward. It lowered its head to the two joined halves, then bent its neck low, offering its back. Atsuki climbed on. Heat rolled off its wings but did not burn. The bird dropped from the hollow and threw itself up the cliff face. Wind tore at Atsuki's hair. Below, the goat path unwound in switchbacks. Halfway up, a figure in red climbed alone. Matthias. The priest looked up as the shadow passed over him. He shouted something the wind ate. The bird cleared the cliff top and landed on the monastery steps. Atsuki slid off and pounded the sealed door until his uncle opened it. "Bar it," Atsuki said. "He's coming." Matthias reached the top minutes later, breathing hard, the scar white on his flushed face. His hand rested on the starlit sword. Atsuki stood on the steps and held the ruling out flat. "Two seals," Atsuki said. "Scriptus verified the debt. The Oath Warden bound it into law. My family's blood was paid twenty years ago. Lift that blade and you break a warden's ruling." Matthias took the page. He read the seam, the two waxed marks. His jaw worked. For a long moment he said nothing. "This ends it," Atsuki said. "Not for me. For your order." Matthias let the page fall. He looked at the barred door, then at the bird still burning on the steps. His hand came off the sword. "The debt is closed," he said. He turned and started back down the path. Atsuki watched him go. His family was safe under law. But Matthias had not answered for the deaths he caused.