Renni Ashfire's Arc

Chapter 6 of 12

The satyr led her uphill through wet ferns. Renni followed with the borrowed blade low at her side. She moved at half pace, checking twice, the way she did now. The satyr stopped at a ridge of broken stone and would go no further. Below them should have been the sealed den. Renni stepped past the satyr and looked down. The seal was gone. A heavy stone door lay split outward on the ground, its carved face cracked from the inside. Vines hung torn around the opening. Blood marked the threshold in a dark smear, then a wider drag. The beast had forced its way out while she sat at her own grave. She followed the blood trail down into the hollow. It wound between trees and ended at a clearing that should not be there. A shrine stood in the bare earth, tall as a house, its stone face set with bright gems and gold sun-marks. The blood went up the steps and stopped at the closed door. Above the door, carvings showed a beast like the one she had wounded, crowned. Renni stood very still. The forest had hidden a place of worship, and the thing she was hunting had walked inside to be healed. She looked down at the engraved blade in her hand. Stolen from a shrine. Returning to one. Renni set her boot on the first step. The satyr did not follow. She climbed alone, slow and certain, and pressed her palm flat to the door.