Kai Drakon's Arc

Chapter 22 of 30

The green light spread through the soil in thin veins. Kai crouched at the edge of the field, one hand near his dagger. Crops did not grow in a single night. Something had touched this ground, and he meant to know what. He walked the fence line, following the glow to where it pooled brightest near the trees. A figure stepped out from the dark pines. Silver hair, green eyes, a layered dress stitched with gold thread. Kai knew her face. She was the midwife who had delivered Ren, who came to the cavern in the small hours and put his son into his arms. Seraphina Silverleaf. He had not expected to find her standing in his field at night, her palm turned toward his soil. "You," Kai said. He lowered his hand from the blade but did not step closer. "The light is yours." Seraphina drew her hand back. She looked at the ground, not at him. "It is," she said. "I asked Scarlett where she worked. I came after dark to see for myself." "See what?" "Whether I could help." She was quiet a moment. "I can push growth in a plant. A little. It costs me, so I do it rarely." She met his eyes then, careful and even. "Azure has fed half this town when the winters were hard. I have not forgotten." Kai looked at the veined earth. Pea shoots stood a hand high where yesterday there had been turned dirt. "Why hide it?" "Because people ask for more once they know." Her voice dropped, closed. "I decide who learns what I can do." She folded her hands. "You are one of them now." Azure came from the cavern with the sling empty and Ren asleep behind her. She stopped when she saw the elf, then crossed the field fast. She took Seraphina's hands in both of hers. "It was you," Azure said. "The rows. I thought I dreamed them." "It was a small thing," Seraphina said. "It was not." Azure's eyes were wet. "Winter is six weeks off. We had bare fields and an empty larder. Now we have this." She pressed the elf's hands tighter. "Thank you." Seraphina's careful face softened by a degree. "Scarlett clears the stone. I wake the seed. You will have a harvest to sell before the frost." She stepped back toward the trees. "I ask one thing. Do not tell the town it was me." "You have my word," Kai said. She nodded once and was gone into the pines. Kai stood with Azure among the glowing rows. The fear that had kept his hand on the dagger drained out of him. The field would feed them now. But he watched the dark where the elf had vanished and knew he owed a debt to a woman who wanted no coin, only silence. He did not yet know what such a debt would cost.