Kyros Valen's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

Kyros reached the mill as the sun cleared the ridge. He climbed down into the cellar and set the dragon on a folded sack. She hissed at the cold stone and paced a tight circle. The walls were bare dirt. The straw was thin. There was nothing here she loved. He knew what would happen. She would cry. She would scratch the door. Sound would travel up through the boards and out across the fields, and someone on the road would stop and listen. The sanctuary would betray itself before nightfall. He needed to give her something that felt like home. He remembered the toy he had used to smuggle her out of town — the crystal palace with its teal and lavender spires, the enchanted glow inside the walls. She had slept in it without a sound. He climbed the ladder, crossed the mill floor, and pulled the toy from the sack where he had hidden it under grain dust. He carried it down and set it in the corner. The dragon walked to it and pushed her nose against the door. She crawled inside and curled against the lit wall. Her breathing slowed. He watched her a long moment. His face changed in the dim light. He touched the crystal roof with one finger. "Stay quiet for me," he said. "I'll come every night." No one was there to hear him say it kindly. He was fitting the trapdoor into place when a voice spoke behind him on the mill floor. "You keep a strange pet." Kyros turned. A man stood in the open doorway, black hair falling across his eyes, a dark robe belted with a worn pouch. He held a small bird in one cupped hand. The bird's blue tail flicked. It did not try to fly. Kyros put his hand on his knife. "Who are you." "Corvus Nightshade." The wizard did not step closer. "I'm looking for a woman. She goes by Echoing Willow. She was seen on this road two years ago." "I don't know her." Corvus watched him. He opened his hand. The bird hopped onto his knuckle and sang three quick notes toward the trapdoor. Corvus tilted his head as if reading the sound. "The witch at the palace sent me here," he said. "She said a boy at the mill trades in secrets." Kyros's mouth went dry. Luna. A third debt he had not agreed to. "I have nothing to trade." "You have something below the floor." Corvus closed his hand around the bird. "I don't care what it is. I care what you've heard. Names. Travelers. A woman who leaves no trail." He stepped back into the light. "I'll come again tomorrow. Think of a name by then." He walked out into the yard. Kyros stood over the trapdoor. The dragon was quiet below. The sanctuary held. But Luna had sold his door to a hunter, and the hunter would return at dawn.