Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 36 of 66

The between-road opened for them at the tree line. Rebecka spurred the white mare through the seam and the world went thin. Grass turned to pale dust. The sky closed to a low band of light. Aiyana rode at her flank, silent. The mare's hooves ate ground in strides that should have taken minutes and took seconds. Rebecka bent low over the mane. The cave was hours away by this road. The riders sent for her mother and daughter had four days' head start on the outer world, but only paces on this one. A shape rose across the path. It had not been there a breath before. Scales the color of wet slate and river stone. Wings folded high. Teeth like knives set in a long jaw. The dragon settled across the road and did not move. Rebecka pulled the mare up hard. Frost bloomed on the dust where the beast breathed out. A thread of fire curled from the other nostril. "Toll," the dragon said. Its voice was low and even. "This road is not free. You crossed twice without paying. You will not cross a third time on debt." Rebecka's hand went to her quiver. Aiyana caught her wrist. "If you loose an arrow here, the road throws you out," Aiyana said. "Wherever it wants. A day from the cave. A week. You will not choose." Rebecka looked at the dragon. She had nothing shaped like coin. She had arrows she could not spare and a book she could not give up. "What do you take?" she asked. "Something kept," the dragon said. "Not something spent." She thought of the pendant at her throat, her mother's charm that had opened the cipher. She could not lose it. She thought of the bow. Without it she was a woman with cold hands. Then her fingers found the talisman tucked inside her coat, the sealed disc her mother had pressed on her the day the wards began to fail. She had never used it. She had carried it because Katia had asked. A dark charm meant to hold darker things off her back. She drew it out. The runes on its face caught the low light. "This," she said. The dragon lowered its head. She set the talisman on the dust between them. The beast breathed once, cold, and the disc frosted white and sank into the road as if into water. "Ride," the dragon said, and stepped aside. Rebecka kicked the mare forward. The road opened again. Wind tore at her hair. Behind her the crow burst from a fold of air and matched pace, eyes bright. Aiyana rode close. "You gave up a shield," Aiyana said. "I bought hours," Rebecka answered. "The riders won't reach the cave before us now." The cave mouth showed ahead, a dark seam in the ridge. Rebecka rode toward it with nothing left at her back to catch what came next.