Raven Nightshade's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

The fog road led inland to a ruined house of black stone. Armin walked ahead, his gray robe brushing the ash. Raven counted the days in her head as she followed. Five gone already. Her twins waited across the sea. She had promised them ten days, then home. Now she stood on a shore no ship could reach in time. "How far to the one who buried those people?" Raven asked. Armin stopped. "Far. Days on foot, if the sand lets you cross." He turned. His dark eyes held no comfort. "You will not make it back to your children in five days. Not by any boat." Raven's claws slid out. "Then find me another way. You lifted us off the sand with fog. You can move us." "I move mist," Armin said. "Not people across the sea." Ayla stepped forward. She gripped her silver-crystal staff, and its light pushed back the gloom. "I can move people," she said. "I teleported us here. But I need to picture where we're going. I've never seen this shore from the other side." She looked at Raven, her cousin, and her voice softened. "I can send one of us home. Just one. The magic is too weak here for more." Raven understood at once. If Ayla sent her home, the mission died. Lyra and Ayla would face the buried curse alone. Lyra knelt and pressed a palm to the black stone. Her purple eyes narrowed. "There are more of them below us, Raven. Thousands. Still breathing under the sand." She stood and met Raven's stare. "If you leave, we still finish this. But we won't finish it fast." Raven thought of Zach holding both children at the cabin. She thought of the promise. Then she thought of the hands rising from the sand, and the fog that spread the same curse toward her village. "Send Ayla," Raven said. Ayla blinked. "Me?" "You can teleport. Go home. Tell Zach I'm safe and the mission runs long." Raven took her cousin's hand. "Bring back Talon and the mages. Bring an airship if Fairhaven can spare one. Then teleport us all out when it's done." She squeezed hard. "You're the only one who can carry the message and come back. Keep my promise for me." Ayla's eyes filled. She nodded. "I'll tell them ten days was a lie you couldn't keep." She raised her staff. White light wrapped around her. "I'll make them understand." The light flared, then vanished. The ruined house went dark again. Ayla was gone. Raven stood between Lyra and Armin on the dead shore. She had broken her promise to be home in ten days. But she had chosen the mission, and sent word so her children would not think her lost. "Now," Raven said to Armin. "Take us to who did this."