High Maiden Crystal's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

High Maiden Crystal knelt in the dark soil outside Locksborough's walls and pressed a seed into the ground for people who would never see her do it. She was a widow now. Her husband had been a warrior; she was an enchantress. Every refugee who fled the regime needed somewhere to hide, and she meant to grow it. Not a wall of stone, but a living fortress of vines and roots and leaves that could shelter them all. This soil patch was rich and ready, the best she had found. She had already whispered growth into half a row. Then she heard boots on the road. She flattened against the furrow. Down the slope, three of the regime's scouts marched the outskirts, spears out, sweeping the land she needed. This was their patrol route. She had planted here because the soil was good, not because it was safe. Now she saw her mistake. If they found her hands in the dirt, they would drag her back inside the walls, and the garden would die with the seeds still cold in the ground. Crystal could not fight three spears. She could not run without being seen crossing open field. Her fingers found the crystal at her throat. Her husband had given her the necklace before his last battle. Its pale gem shimmered, then seemed to swallow the light around it. She had never dared to use it on herself. She stood up in plain view. The scouts turned. But the necklace bent the light over her shoulders and face, and what they saw was one of their own. A gray uniform. A dull helm. She raised one hand in the flat salute she had watched them give a hundred times from behind the walls. The lead scout returned it and waved her along the road, as if she belonged to their patrol. Crystal walked with them for twenty steps, matching their pace, her heart slamming. Then she peeled off toward a stand of brush and let them march on. When their boots faded, she dropped the disguise and breathed. But the necklace had cost her. As the light returned to her skin, the gem cracked with a thin, bright sound. A hairline split ran through its heart. It had hidden her once. It would not hide her twice. She turned back to her half-planted row and made her choice. She could not keep planting in the open where patrols would always find her. She needed a guardian for this ground, something the scouts could not salute their way past. She knelt over the seeds she had already sung to life. Deep in the enchanted soil, something large stirred and pushed against the dirt from below. Crystal spread her fingers over the patch and poured her magic down, calling up the one thing fierce enough to hold this land while her garden grew.