Matthew Sharpclaw's Arc

Chapter 10 of 12

Inside the cave, Matthew heard the great bird's cry overhead and knew his moms had reached the council. He stood near the ice wall and watched the hooded man pace. A scroll lay open on a flat stone, gold leaf catching the cold light. The name at the top was Vesna's. Outside, somewhere far, that same name was being read aloud to people who would write it down. The hooded man stopped pacing. His skeletal hands hovered over the scroll, then drew back. He had felt it too. The binding on the page went thin, like ice under a thumb. Matthew took a step toward the entrance. The man did not move to stop him. The shadowy robes hung loose now, empty of weight. "You knew," Matthew said. The man's hood turned away. He had no threat left to make. The hospital was safe. His moms were safe. The paper was only paper. Matthew walked out through jagged shards of ice that had once felt like a door locked behind him. The shattered ruin glittered in the pale sun. Behind him, the hooded figure drifted back into the dark, a shape with nowhere to stand. The roc landed in the snow. Rarespot slid down first. Redtail was right behind her, and Lyra after that, breathless from the climb. They did not speak. Rarespot pulled him in and held him hard. Matthew felt the worry in her arms and, for once, did not try to talk her out of it. He had not made them proud yet. Not the way he wanted. But he had come back, and they had come for him, and the name that had hung over all of them was finally out in the open air.