Elijah Winters's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Elijah told the witch to wait. She did not like it, but she sat on a stump at the treeline and watched the road while he took Gretel a few steps into the trees. He crouched to the girl's height and showed her the coin from Vale. The crest was worn but clear: a tower split by a branch, three small marks below. Gretel shook her head. She did not know it. Elijah had not expected her to. He had hoped anyway. He needed a name for the crest. Without one, north was just a direction. He could walk for weeks and pass the killer on the road and not know it. The woods answered before he did. A twig cracked. A boy stepped out from behind a dead, rune-carved tree that Elijah was certain had not been there an hour ago. The boy was small, maybe twelve, in a dark cloak too big for him. A gold brooch sat at his throat. The brooch was a coin. The coin bore the same crest as the one in Elijah's palm. Elijah moved. He had the boy against the trunk before the boy finished his next breath, one hand at the small throat, the other holding the coin up between them. "Whose mark," Elijah said. The boy did not struggle. He looked at the coin, then at Elijah's red eyes, and his mouth pulled into something that was almost a smile. "You're hunting the wrong end of it," the boy said. "But I'll trade." "Whose mark." "Not for a threat." The boy's voice stayed level. "For a favor owed. One. Called in when I say." Elijah's grip tightened. The boy did not flinch. Behind him, Gretel made a low sound in her throat. Elijah let the boy down. He kept the coin. "Name it," Elijah said. "Aldric Thornmoor." The boy touched the brooch at his throat like a man touching a scar. "I used to speak for them. I don't anymore. The crest is Vaelric. Old clan. The tower is their seat, the branch is the oath, the three marks are the founding blood." He paused. "The one you're chasing wears a dark coat and pays with these because he wants us to know. He's not hiding. He's calling us out." "A name," Elijah said. "His." "Corwin," Aldric said. "Corwin Vaelric. He killed your wife. He killed your daughter. He turned you. I was there. I held the door." Elijah did not move. The woods went very quiet. Gretel took hold of his coat. "The favor," Aldric said, "is that when I ask, you don't kill me first." Elijah put the coin in his pocket. He looked north, where the road bent into the dark under the trees. He had a name now. He had the man who held the door.