Earland Khan's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

The stone snakes hissed and the marble man rose whole again. The many-headed beast coiled around his legs. Earland Khan clutched the iron key and faced the thing that had guarded it. His brothers stood at his back. One key of three, and now they had to keep it. The stone club swung. Brave dove aside, laughing even as the club cracked the ground. Earland's youngest brother had no fear and no staff. Fire ran up his bare arms. He hurled a blast at the marble chest. The stone glowed but held. "It's too solid!" Brave shouted. "We cracked it once. We can't crack it swinging blind." Jimmy leaned on his wooden staff, breathing hard. Age had slowed him, but his mind moved fast. "Same as before," the old man said. "Hot and cold. Roots to hold it. We break it where it healed." His eyes found Earland's. "You cool it. I'll bind it. Brave burns." Earland nodded. He raised his coral staff and pulled water from the wet air. Jimmy's green light shot out. Thin roots wrapped the beast's snake heads and pinned them still. The stone man roared and raised his club to smash the old man. "No," Earland said. He struck first. A freezing sheet of water hit the marble legs and locked them to the ground. Brave leaped in and pressed both burning fists against the frozen stone. Cold met hot. The marble screamed. A crack split up the beast's body. Then another. The snake heads shattered inside Jimmy's roots. The stone man swung once more, but his frozen legs would not follow. He toppled. The club fell from his fist and broke apart on the rock. The statue crashed down in pieces. Dust rose and settled. This time nothing moved. The marble man lay still, his carved face split in two. Earland caught his breath. Then he saw it. Inside the broken chest, where the heart would sit, a symbol was carved into the stone. Deep lines. A curling wave over a jagged mountain. He knelt and traced it with his finger. "Another mark," Jimmy said, kneeling beside his brother. "Like the ones on your map." Earland pulled the map free. Three symbols marked it. The wave and mountain matched the second one exactly. He looked from the carving to the map and understood. "The statue held more than the key. It held the way to the next one." Brave wiped dust from his beard and grinned. "Then we're not done." "No," Earland said. He stood and gripped the first key. The wave and mountain burned in his mind now. He knew where the second key waited. The sunken castle felt one step closer, and the golden city he meant to raise felt real. "We follow the second mark. But first we find where it leads."