Keith Sterling's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

Keith left the sanctum with two charged rings and one question. Lysandra had promised to name the third ring's hiding place. But three days passed on the road, and no place came. He camped by a cold stream and held the signet up each morning. The blue thread still pointed, taut and warm. Yet by the third dawn, the thread had thinned. The metal cooled again in his palm. He knew the sign. The trace was slipping once more, and he had no idea where to go. He turned back toward the roses. The arch opened for him. Inside, the small blind woman waited by her altar. Her staff glowed. She faced him before his boots hit the stone. "You came back empty," Lysandra said. "I heard you circling for days." "You said you'd tell me where the third ring hides," Keith said. "I've wasted three days. The trace is fading again." She tilted her head. "I could not tell you before. The path only shows itself once the second ring wakes. Now it has." She lifted her staff. Its light bent toward the far wall. "The last ring lies in a black vault. A vast door of cracked stone, sunk in shadow. Men hide their treasures there and never return." Keith's chest tightened. "How do I find it? I don't know these roads." "You don't," she said. "But the owl does." She pressed two fingers to her lips and whistled, high and thin. A flash crossed the doorway. The silver owl dropped through the arch. Its mirror wings threw light across the roses. It landed on the altar and fixed Keith with one bright eye. "It carried you to me," Lysandra said. "It carried you to your dying ring. Now it will carry you to the vault. Follow it, and do not stop to rest. The trace won't hold another week." Keith looked at the bird. He thought of the two rings in his pouch, both alive, both waiting. He thought of the man whose name he still could not say. "Then I go now," he said. "One warning." Lysandra's blind eyes did not move, but her voice dropped. "The vault does not open for empty hands. It takes something before it gives. Decide what you can lose before you reach its door." Keith did not ask what she meant. He had no time for it. He tucked the cooling ring against his chest and stepped through the arch. The owl lifted off and flew low over the hills, its wings scattering sparks of light. He followed at a run. For the first time in three days, he knew where he was going. The blind question was answered. But a heavier one waited at the black door, and he carried no answer for it yet.