Prince Aelindor Silverleaf's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Prince Aelindor Silverleaf knelt in the mud outside the guardhouse and counted the coins the road had left him. Four. He needed a witness before nightfall, or the knighthood board would strike his name from the trial roll and send him home to his father's hall in silks. No highborn of his house had ever returned alive from the quest he meant to swear. That was the point. But a claim without a sworn companion to witness it was called a boast, and boasts did not ride out. He stood, brushed his knees, and walked toward the living tree-house at the edge of the grove. Its roots swallowed the path. Balconies coiled up the trunk. Lantern light hung in the branches like fruit. The steward at the door told him what three stewards had already told him that day. No hedge knight would swear to a prince he did not know. No merchant guard would risk the road for four coins. The names on the board's roll list would be read at dusk. On the low balcony above the door, an elven mage sat cross-legged, stripping bark from a piece of wood with his thumbnail. Moss grew along the seams of his robe. An antler crown rested on his brow. His staff lay across his knees. Aelindor had seen him once at the ring gate, arguing quietly with an archdruid about a rot in the roots. "You," Aelindor said. "Mage. I need a witness." Thornwick Mossweaver looked down. "For what." "A quest. The board closes the roll at dusk." "Which quest." Aelindor named it. The old ruin in the black water. The tower no son of his house had walked out of. Thornwick set the wood down. "North of here?" "Three days." "The forests north of here are going silent. Tree by tree." He watched Aelindor's face. "You knew that." "No." "Then you know now." Thornwick stood. He was small under the antlers. "I need to walk that road. I will swear to you as far as the tower. Not past it." "Agreed." "One more thing." Thornwick came down the ladder and stopped a pace from him. "I saw a human at the ring gate. Black robes. He hid his sleeve when I looked. He is going north too." Aelindor's hand went to where his sword should have been and found belt. "Then we go faster." They walked to the guardhouse together. Thornwick pressed his thumb to the roll and spoke the oath in six words. The clerk wrote Aelindor's name above the quest. The board closed. Aelindor had his witness. Outside, the light had gone red. Thornwick was already looking north, at the line of trees where the birds had stopped calling. Aelindor understood, standing there with his four coins and his sworn companion, that he had bought his place on the roll by tying his road to a man who was hunting something else.