Kaito Silverleaf's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Kaito crouched in the ferns and watched the north road. It ran straight and open through the trees. Marcus Ironhelm's soldiers stood across it, three of them, armor bright in the morning sun. They had walked ahead of him in the night and cut off the only path to the tower. Kaito's face was known now. One step onto that road and they would take him. He ate a strip of dried meat from Aldor's bundle and thought. The gray paste still hid his marks. But it could not hide his face. Marcus had studied it at the market stall. Kaito needed off the road, not on it. Boots crunched behind him. Kaito spun, ready to run. It was Aldor, one child on his hip, the older one gripping his coat. His silver hair had come loose. He looked at the soldiers, then at Kaito. "You again," Kaito whispered. "Why?" "Same road. Same men." Aldor set the small child down. "They hunt you by your face. They don't know mine well. Not yet." He nodded at the treeline west of the road. "There's a deer track through the pines. Runs parallel. Comes out past the ridge, above their line." Kaito stared. "You'd show me that? You have children." "I have children who watch every stranger's face," Aldor said. "I want a world where they don't." He pointed. "Go when I move." Before Kaito could argue, Aldor stepped onto the open road. He held both children close and walked slow, in plain view. Marcus turned. His guards fanned toward the family. "You," Marcus called. "Name yourself." "Silverleaf," Aldor said flat. "Traveling with my kids." Marcus's eyes narrowed at the name. He waved his soldiers forward. All three moved to circle the family, backs turning from the pines. Kaito ran. He kept low and crossed into the trees behind the guards. Needles muffled his steps. The deer track opened just as Aldor had said, a thin line climbing through the pines. Below, he heard Marcus questioning Aldor, sharp and slow, buying Kaito every second. Kaito climbed until the voices faded. The track bent around a ridge and dropped him onto the north road again, high above the guard line. He looked back. The soldiers were still gathered around Aldor far below. The road ahead lay empty. Nothing stood between him and the tower now. He pressed on. But the win sat wrong in his chest. Aldor had given him the name Silverleaf, spoken it straight to Marcus. Now Marcus had a Silverleaf in his hands, and a family that could not run fast. Kaito had slipped the trap by putting the man who helped him inside it. The tower was close. So was the cost of reaching it.