Jade Goldlight's Arc

Chapter 11 of 20

By midday the village called Jade back down the tan brick road. Drums rolled in the square. A cloth was draped over something tall near the lamp post. Raihan padded at her hip, smoke curling soft from his shoulders. Jade tightened her hand on the choker at her throat and walked into the crowd. The mayor pulled the cloth away. A bronze wolf stood on a black stone base, plaque polished bright with Raihan's name. Above it, on a fresh pole, a green and brown flag snapped open. A black wolf silhouette howled across the cloth. The villagers cheered for both at once. Then a sharp voice cut the noise. A blonde woman climbed onto a bench by the old timbered inn. She pointed at Jade and shouted that the wolf had done every hero's deed. She shouted that Jade had only watched. Heads turned. Jade's stomach dropped, because the woman was not wrong. Jade waited for the crowd to turn cold. It did not. The mayor raised a hand and answered plainly — Jade brought Raihan to them. Without her, there was no wolf, no statue, no flag. An old woman patted the blonde's arm and told her to come down. The crowd went back to cheering. The blonge stepped off the bench, red-faced and quiet. Jade should have felt relieved. Instead the praise sat heavy. They were forgiving her gap by counting Raihan as hers. She looked at the bronze wolf, then at the living one beside her. Raihan met her eyes with steady purple light. She pressed her palm flat to the statue's cold flank and made the promise again, where the village could not hear it. "Thank you," she said out loud to the mayor. "I will earn the flag next." The crowd did not understand, but Raihan did. He leaned his warm shoulder against her knee. The argument was over. The doubt she carried was not.