Princess Willowyn's Arc

Chapter 44 of 70

The morning they were to ride east, Willowyn readied her griffin in the castle yard. The pale white beast stood patient while she tightened the silver saddle. She had rested a long time. Her arms were strong again. She knew she was ready to fly. But her hands slowed on the strap, and a doubt crept in. Kai came up behind her and grabbed her waist. "Are you ready for our flight?" he said. Willowyn nodded. Then she sighed. "What if I can't mend whatever they fight about, Kai?" He turned her to face him. "Then we learn what it is first," he said. "Not after we land in the middle of it." His words stopped her breath. He was right. Twice before she had stopped a war blind. She had raised water without knowing the cause. She had chosen no side because she knew nothing. This time they had asked for her by name. If she arrived not knowing the quarrel, she had no way to broker peace. She would only be a girl with wet hands. She left the saddle and went to find King Aurelius. He sat in the great room over the same wide map. His purple robe pooled around the chair. "The two kingdoms east," she said. "You told me they quarrel over a road. That is not enough. I need to know why the road matters. Who built it. Who it feeds." The king studied her. His finger tapped the map. "You are wiser than the last person who tried to help them." He rose and called for the messenger who had ridden in. The man came, still dusty from the road. Willowyn made him sit and speak slow. He told her the road ran between the two kingdoms and carried grain from the eastern fields to the western market. One king had raised a toll on every cart. The other king called it theft. Both had lost sons to raids along the road. Neither would speak first now. It was not truly the road. It was pride, and grief, and coin. Willowyn wrote it all on the back of the map. Kai stood at her shoulder and listened. "So they don't need water held back," she said. "They need someone to carry the first word between them." She looked at Kai. "A toll can be shared. Grief cannot be un-lived, but it can be paid respect." "You have a plan," Kai said. He smiled. "I have a start," she said. "That is more than I had this morning." King Aurelius pressed the map into her hands. "Now you ride east knowing the wound," he said. "Go find the shape of the cure." Willowyn folded the map and tucked it in her belt. The doubt was gone. She mounted the griffin, and Kai climbed up behind her. She knew the quarrel now. She could fly toward it with a purpose, not a guess.