Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 53 of 66

Rebecka mounted the fresh horse at the milestone and pushed it hard up the ridge road. The second horse ran on a lead beside her. She would trade when the first tired. She had to reach the cave before dawn. Three traitors sat bound at the arch under Marcus's guard. If she came late, someone inside would cut them loose or die trying, and the sealed crack would open again. The first horse blew out at the second bend. She swung to the second and rode. That one lasted a mile before its head dropped and its stride broke. She dismounted and led it. The sky over the ridge was already turning gray at the edge. She was going to be late. She pulled the ring off her thumb and held it in her palm. White gold, dragon claws around a pastel stone. Marcus had given it to her the winter Ninka turned six. He had told her the stone was a call, once, and only if there was no other road. She had carried it four years without using it. She pressed her thumb into the stone and said, "I need you now." The stone warmed. A wind came down the ridge that did not belong to the ridge. The horse shied and she let it go. Wings opened above the pines. The dragon came down onto the road in front of her, white scales laced with pale rainbow, smoke curling from her nostrils in soft ribbons. The smoke reached Rebecka's face and her chest loosened a notch she had not known was tight. The dragon lowered her shoulder. Rebecka climbed on. She gripped the ridge behind the neck and said, "The crystal caves. The ridge cave. Before the sun." The dragon went up. The ridge road fell away under them. Rebecka saw the shepherd's hut with its dark lamp, the milestone with the dead rider, the coast road empty. Wind cut her eyes. The dragon's smoke kept curling back over her shoulders and her hands stayed steady on the reins of scale. The cave mouth showed below in the first gray light. The collapsed crystal shelf. The narrow slot. Marcus at the arch, bow up, the three bound shapes behind him. He heard the wings and stepped out with an arrow drawn, then lowered it when he saw her. The dragon set down on the shelf above the slot. Rebecka slid off. The stone in the ring had gone dull. The dragon met her eye once, then lifted and was gone over the ridge. Marcus caught her arm. "They tried the cord an hour ago. I stopped them." "How many hours have we bought?" "Enough." He looked at her face. "You're here." She walked past him into the cave. The quiver hummed against her back. The traitors watched her come and looked away.