Bailey Baz's Arc

Chapter 41 of 44

The morning after the crowd knelt, Bailey rode the three-headed elk back into the swamp. He needed to see it one last time. The great beast walked on the water without a ripple. Its three heads stayed still and solemn. Bailey remembered how the marsh had once hummed with hidden voices. Now the reeds hung limp. No fog curled. No child cried out to be led home. His father's spirit was at rest, and the swamp had gone quiet. Rufus waited at the muddy cove where Bailey once lived, his red beard bright against the gray water. His cousin's gentle trapper's hands were empty for once. "I walked the reeds all night," Rufus said. "No creatures. No lost young ones. Nothing to save." He rubbed his neck. "Your guards patrol every path now. A child couldn't get lost in there if he tried." Bailey climbed down and pressed his hand to the wet earth. He felt no pull, no debt, no whisper. For a hundred years the swamp had needed him. Now it needed nothing. He looked at the reeds and understood. The wardens were done. The lost were done. There was no one left to lead out. Crane came up the bank behind Rufus. The old marshal's boots sank in the mud he clearly hated. He surveyed the dead water like a battlefield already won. "You keep coming back here," Crane said. "There's no enemy left in this marsh, sire. No King. No emperor. No swamp voice." He nodded toward the reeds. "Your soldiers report the same thing every dawn. It's just water now." Bailey knew he was right. Every threat was gone. Malachar was sealed and beaten for good. His father rested. The children the swamp once swallowed would walk safe home to their mothers. He had spent a hundred years searching for what he was. He had his answer. He was the swamp's returned child, and now the swamp had let him go. He stood and looked at the twisted vines of his old cove hut. He would not sleep here again. "Pull the guards back to the roads," Bailey told Crane. "No one drowns in these reeds anymore. There's nothing here to fear." Rufus set a heavy hand on his shoulder. "So it's really over." "It's over," Bailey said. He mounted the elk one last time. The beast turned its three heads toward the capital. "I stopped needing answers. The swamp stopped needing a warden. I can go home and rule." He rode out of the silent marsh and did not look back. Behind him the reeds stood empty and still. No child would ever be lost in them again. Ahead, the capital waited for its king. Bailey Baz, Prince Colton Fenwick, rode toward his throne with nothing left to chase and a whole kingdom to hold.