Avi Marie's Arc

Chapter 7 of 30

Avi Marie was halfway down the dark trail when the wind changed. It carried a scream from the upper world, thin and human. Then a howl she knew. Shadowmaw Grim, up above, holding the beast off the living. But the howl broke wrong. It was not a hunter's sound. It was pain. Malphas rode close behind her on the glowing horse, his horns black against the light. "He's losing," the goat said. "The beast turned on him." Avi Marie pulled the horse around. The deal was simple. The hound guarded the top while she killed the master below. If the hound fell, the living died, and every mile she gained meant nothing. "He can't hold it alone," she said. Malphas did not argue. "Then we go up," he said. "The master waits. The living can't." His voice was hard and flat. He hated the choice. He named it anyway. They rode fast for the gap. Through it, the sky burned orange. Avi Marie saw the fight below a cathedral's spires, its bright accents catching the last sun. Shadowmaw Grim stood between the beast and a knot of scared people. The beast raked his shadow flank. He bled darkness onto the stone. Avi Marie felt her power flare as the horse carried its light through the gap. She drove the horse into the beast's side. It shrieked and spun. That gave the hound his breath. He lunged and closed his white teeth on the beast's throat. "Now," Shadowmaw growled through the grip. "Its neck. Cut it." Malphas leapt down. He drove a shard of stone into the beast's spine where the hound held it pinned. The beast bucked once, then went still. Its stolen light leaked out and rose into the dark like smoke. The people ran. This time no woods called them back. Avi Marie slid from the horse. Shadowmaw Grim stood over the dead beast, breathing hard, his side torn open. "It's gone," he said. "The thief. Out of my woods." He looked at her with his red eyes. "You kept your word. Came back up." "I did," she said. The living were safe now, truly safe. But the master still ran the land registry below, untouched. She had won the small fight and lost her lead. The trail down had gone cold while she climbed. Malphas wiped the stone shard clean. He stared at the beast's dead mouth. "It carried the hollow thing," he said. "It's not here." He was right. The beast's prize was gone. Someone had already taken it before it died. Avi Marie knelt by the body. The hollow force it carried had vanished. That meant the master had a courier, or worse, had come himself and slipped away with it. The living were guarded. But the one who blinded her, the one she had sworn to find, now held the very thing that hollowed out whoever touched it. And she had no idea where he had gone.