Eduardo's Arc

Chapter 28 of 60

Eduardo slept poorly and woke before the sun. He fed the stove, drank water, and sat with the ledger open on the table. Two names. A third waited at a door he had not seen. He put on a clean shirt, his cap, his boots. He walked out to meet Aldric where the road bent past the pale house. Aldric was already there, blue hat tipped back, staff resting in the crook of his arm. He held out a folded cloth. It shimmered faint at the edges, marked with signs Eduardo did not know. "Put it on," Aldric said. "You don't get to see the way in. No one does." Eduardo pulled the cloak over his head. The world went soft and gray at the seams. Aldric took his elbow and walked him off the road. They went a long time. Eduardo counted turns and gave up. When Aldric stopped him, a door opened somewhere ahead. Warm air. Stone. The cloak came off. He stood in a low chamber under a carved arch. Angels watched from the keystone. A star burned in the center of the door behind him. An old man waited by a torch set in the wall. White hair, plain robes, a staff with a crystal head. "Cap off," Guardian Noble said. Eduardo took it off. "Aldric says you paid your debts." "I paid what I could count. Some I can't pay back. Those I named." "Who did you hurt worst?" Eduardo's throat closed. He wanted to name the trade, the buyers, the man who had taken his routes. He heard the angel's rule in his head. No lying about why. "A woman," he said. "I called her a liar so I wouldn't have to look at myself. She told me never to come back. I won't." Guardian Noble did not move. "Why come here." "I need a third name on my ledger. Aldric said you might look at me." "I don't sign ledgers." Eduardo's stomach dropped. He kept his eyes on the old man. "Then look at me anyway." Guardian Noble stepped closer. He held the torch up. The crystal light passed over Eduardo's face and stayed there. "I let a man in once who didn't make it," he said. "I've been careful since. Careful gets slow. Slow costs too." "I'm not asking to come in." "I know what you're asking." He lowered the torch. "Come back in thirty days. Keep the rules. Don't lie to Aldric, and don't lie to me. If you hold, I'll walk to the tea house myself and put my mark on your book." Eduardo breathed out. "Yes, sir." "Cloak on." Aldric raised the cloth. The chamber went gray again. Eduardo walked back the way he had come, blind, with a date to keep and a witness who would not be rushed.