Aurora's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

The gorgon brood found Aurora before dawn. Three of them slid over the palace wall, scales hissing on the stone. She met them on the balcony in her golden armor, sword already drawn. The scar below her left eye ached, the way it always did when they came close. She had carved a dozen of these creatures apart since that first cut, and still they came. They would never stop. Their queen had marked her, and the brood hunted the mark. Aurora killed the first with a thrust through the throat. The second she took at the knees, then the neck. The third she pinned against the railing. "Where is she?" Aurora asked. The gorgon spat and lunged. Aurora ended it and stepped back, breathing hard. Three dead, and no answer. Killing them taught her nothing. She needed the nest, and the brood carried its secret into death every time. She found her brother in the high tower, bent over a bowl of black water. Othos was a wizard, and he had never once let her forget he was the clever one. He did not look up. "You're bleeding on my floor," he said. "Again." "I need to find their queen," Aurora said. "I can't kill my way to her. I've tried. There are always more." Othos finally turned. His star-painted robe was stained with old ink, and his beard hid whatever he felt. "You want me to trace them," he said. "That means using one that still lives." He raised his staff. Yellow light woke in the crystal at its tip. "Bring me a fresh eye. From a living one. The nest leaves a scent in the blood. I can follow it home." Aurora went back down to the balcony. One gorgon still breathed, its legs crushed under the railing. It watched her come with hate in its yellow eyes. She knelt, avoided its gaze, and took what her brother asked. The creature shrieked and went still. She carried the eye up the stairs in her cupped hand, warm and wet. Othos dropped it into the black water. The bowl hissed. Steam curled up and formed a shape—a mountain split by a deep ravine, and inside the ravine, a cave mouth ringed with bone. "There," he said quietly. "A day's ride north. The queen nests below the ravine. That's your den." Aurora stared at the image until it faded. She finally had the place. But her brother's face had changed. "The trace runs both ways," Othos said. "The moment I opened the path, she felt it too. She knows you're coming now. And she knows exactly where you are." Below them, in the dark beyond the palace wall, something began to howl. Then more voices joined it, dozens of them, rising from every side. The whole brood was awake. Aurora tightened her grip on her sword. She knew where to go at last. The trouble was reaching the door alive.