Aurelius Draconis's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The seven stones rang together into the sick wood, and for a moment Aurelius thought the work would be simple. Then his tail cracked hard against his calf. Something at the far edge of the trees had heard the signal too. It was moving toward him. Gaia felt it a beat later. The small mushroom on her shoulder pressed flat. "Something's coming down the old stone walk," she said. Aurelius turned. A cracked path of fitted pavers ran out of the grove, half swallowed by gray moss. Whatever the blight had drawn was using it as a road. He could not close the stones now. Closed stones would leave the grieving trees worse than he found them. Open stones would meet whatever arrived, and if the thing touched him mid-signal, the heart stone in his staff would shatter. A small bright bird-girl dropped out of a nearby tree whose leaves fluttered like wings. She landed light on the moss. "I'm Birdie," she said. "I saw it from up there. It's shaped like a man but it's hollow. It wants your sound." She tilted her head. "You can't run. Your feet are already ringing." An old wizard stepped out from behind the butterfly-leafed tree, blue robe dusty at the hem, a lit staff in one hand. "Aldric," he said, short. "I felt your seven from two ridges over. Boy, you are broadcasting like a bell in a well." He looked down the stone path. The gray thing was closer. It had the outline of a tall soldier. Aurelius's solar plexus stone went cold against his ribs. "I can hold the signal for you," Aldric said. "Not carry it. Hold it. You need a hearth to pour into, not open air." He struck the ground with the base of his staff. Between them a fire bloomed up out of nothing, logs stacked, sharp bright crystals rising through the flame. "Sing into this. It will take the vibration and keep it while you deal with what's coming." Aurelius knelt by the crystal fire and lowered the heart stone toward the flames. The seven stones poured their ring into the crystals instead of the open wood. The gray figure on the path stopped. It had no sound to follow now. Birdie stepped in front of Aurelius and spread her wings wide. "Go on," she told the thing. "He's not here for you." It stood a long moment. Then it thinned, sank into the moss, and was gone. Aurelius lifted the staff. The heart stone was whole. The fire held his signal, steady and bright, and the nearest gray trunks had gone from ash to pale brown. Aldric watched the flame. "You bought yourself a night," he said. "But that thing was one of many. Word is out in the blight now. They know your sound."