Glowly's Arc

Chapter 7 of 16

Glowly crossed the channel with Nova on a short raft. The dark ridge rose ahead, but the shore below it split into a hundred tracks. Sand, mud, tangled root. No sign said which way her father had gone. She turned in a slow circle. Every path looked the same, and each led into thick jungle. Her flask was full now, but full flasks emptied. Wander too long and they would starve here. "He came this way," Glowly said. "He built the cave. He knew the road. But he left us nothing." Nova wiped chalk from her palms and studied the treeline. "People who know a road don't need signs," she said. "They mark it for someone else. Someone they hoped would follow." Glowly's chest tightened. That someone was her. She walked the shore again, slower. The wolf pup nosed the sand. The little dragon lifted its head on her shoulder and made a low warm sound. Then it leaped down. It scrambled toward a stone slab half-buried in vine, wings buzzing. Glowly followed. She tore the vine loose and stopped. Behind the stone stood a tall case, set upright in the earth. Weapons filled it. Long blades, curved axes, a slim spear. Their edges glowed faint blue and pink in the shade. Runes ran down each shaft. The metal shone clean, kept dry, kept whole. Her father had built this, the way he built the cache. A display meant to be found. "These are his," Glowly whispered. She touched the tallest blade. Carved into its base was the same symbol from the crate. Her throat burned. "He wanted me to see them." But a case of weapons was not a road. She stepped back, frustrated, and the dragon buzzed at the spear again. Glowly lifted it from the rack. It was light and true. When she turned it, its glowing tip pointed inland, and something on the shaft caught the light. She held the spear flat. Fine lines were scratched along the metal below the runes. Not decoration. A path. A curve of shore, a fork, a mark where two trees crossed. A route drawn into the weapon itself, hidden where only a hand that lifted it would find. "He didn't mark the ground," Glowly said. "He marked the spear. He knew whoever came would need a weapon first." Nova leaned in and traced the scratched line with a chalky finger. "Then we're not lost," she said. "We just weren't holding the map." Glowly slung the spear across her back. She took a curved blade too, and passed a short one to Nova. The wolf pup pressed against her leg. The dragon settled warm on her shoulder. She read the scratched route once more, then faced the jungle where the two trees crossed. Her father's road ran under those branches, straight toward the drowned steps. "This way," she said, and walked.