Captain Richard's Arc

Chapter 7 of 13

Richard worked until his hands shook. He wedged the shaft with stone, drove a fresh bolt into the trap door, and turned the stranger's red-thread key in his palm until the metal warmed. The pool sat quiet inside its ring of pale, carved stone — a low wall worn smooth by old water. He could not seal the shaft tonight. He could only watch it. He spread the wolf's gingham cloth, found folded in the chest, near the water's edge. Kovu circled once and dropped onto it, chin on paws, scarred eye half open. Richard sat against the stone rim and rested a hand on the shark tooth at his throat. Alexis had tied the twine herself. The knot pressed into his thumb like her hand near his on the table. He meant to keep watch. He told himself so. But the pool held the moon as if the sky had fallen inside it, and his eyes closed against his will. In the dream he stood on the deck of a ship he did not own, a blue dragon snarling at its prow. Alexis was there in the lantern light. She did not speak. She lifted her hand and set it against his cheek, and he turned his face and kissed her palm, then her mouth. It was quiet. It was allowed. For one breath, no one was hunting them. Kovu growled. Richard came awake with the tooth biting his fingers. The wolf was on his feet, hackles up, staring at the moon pool. Something below the water had moved. A shadow slid across the reflected moon and was gone, leaving a slow ring widening on the surface. Richard stood. The dream burned off him like smoke. He had slept. He had let himself want something soft, and while he wanted it, a stranger had passed under his floor. He drew his knife and set his back to the stone rim. The sanctuary was not sealed. It was a door, and someone on the other side now knew he was inside.