Dame Elara Brightshield's Arc

Chapter 6 of 11

Elara followed the wagon tracks deeper into the marsh than she'd ever gone, past the tower where she'd first spotted the hunters and beyond the territory Skarsh had shown her. The ruts carved through soft ground told her everything she needed to know about how often they came through here. The tracks ended at a pool ringed with standing stones, half-submerged and covered in moss. Broken eggshells floated in the murky water, dozens of them, scattered among the stones like grave markers. This wasn't just a nesting site. It was a breeding ground, and the hunters had stripped it clean. Elara knelt by the water's edge and picked up a piece of shell, still warm to the touch. The drakes had been here recently, maybe days ago. Now there was nothing left but fragments and silence. Movement in the water made her reach for her sword. The pool's surface rippled, then bulged upward as something massive rose from beneath. A water drake erupted through the surface, but not like the small creatures she'd seen before. This one was enormous, its body made of churning water and foam, eyes burning orange with fury. It coiled above the pool, scales dripping like waterfalls, and fixed those eyes on Elara. She understood immediately. This was the mother. And she'd come back to find her young gone. Elara didn't run. She stood slowly, keeping her hand away from her sword, and met the drake's gaze. "I'm not with them," she said, voice steady. "The hunters took your children. I'm trying to stop them." The drake's head swayed closer, water streaming from its jaws. For a long moment, nothing moved but the ripples spreading across the pool. Then the creature's eyes dimmed slightly, and it lowered its head to the broken shells floating in the water. Elara saw it then, clear as daylight: this wasn't just about Skarsh's egg anymore. The marsh had been hiding something far larger than she'd known, and the hunters had nearly destroyed it. She turned toward the standing stones and saw stairs carved into the largest one, descending into darkness below the waterline. A sanctuary, hidden for who knows how long, now exposed and emptied. The mother drake sank back into the pool without a sound, leaving Elara alone with the shells and the choice she'd already made. She couldn't build a braver world by protecting one creature at a time. She'd have to protect the marsh itself, and everyone who'd been taking from it would have to answer for what they'd done. That meant no more bluffs. No more borrowed tricks. It meant showing up, the way she'd been asking Skarsh to do, and making the hunters afraid of what happened when they came here. She picked up another shell and slipped it into her pouch beside the illusory stone. When she found those cages again, she'd make sure every creature inside them made it home.