Nym's Arc

Chapter 33 of 41

Nym woke before the light reached her window. The green cat slept curled at her feet, ivy trailing off its fur. Outside, boots scraped against stone. She sat up. The torches still burned in the yard. It was too early for the servants. She rose, pulled on her gown, and laced her brown boots in the dark. She rolled the map and packed her bag fast. The whistle. The ring. The cat, who blinked and stretched. Then she ran outside. Titus stood in the torchlight. He was not dressed for a farewell. He wore a traveling cloak over his dark green coat, a pack slung across his back. Beside him stood a beast Nym had never seen. It had the tusked head of a boar and the heavy frame of a wolf. A green saddle sat strapped across its back. The animal snorted and pawed the stone. Nym stopped. She had spent weeks with Titus. He had brought her the cat. He had taught her to hold the light. She had come outside to say goodbye and could not find the words. Now she saw she would not need them. "You packed a horse," she said. "I raised him." Titus rested a hand on the beast's neck. The creature leaned into his palm. "Found him alone in the woods as a pup. He's fast. Faster than your pegasus over rough ground." He met her eyes. "I'm coming with you." "You can't." Nym shook her head. "Zarool is healing. The spell could kill us. This is my fight and my mother's." "You'll need light steady at the arch. I taught you how to hold it." He nodded at the cat in her arms. "Someone has to keep you calm when your hands shake. I won't wait here and read about it later in a book." Behind them, wings beat the air. The black pegasus dropped into the yard, green and gold saddle catching the torchlight. Drasila climbed down from its back, the white streak bright in her dark hair. She looked at Titus, then at his beast, then at her daughter. "He rides well?" Drasila asked. "Since he was a boy," Titus said. Drasila studied him a moment longer. Nym waited for her mother to send him home. Instead Drasila swung back onto the pegasus. "Then keep up," she said. "We ride east past the broken bridge. We don't stop for the dark." Nym let out a breath she had held all night. She would not lose her only friend at the gate after all. She mounted the pegasus behind her mother, the cat tucked in her cloak. Titus climbed into the green saddle. His beast lunged forward, hooves ringing on stone. The three of them rode out through the castle gate as the sky went gray. The goodbye Nym had dreaded never came. The road to Zeroth opened ahead, and now three riders carried the light toward it.