Serena Hollow's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Serena closed her fingers around the anklet and pushed on. But the trees swallowed the last of the daylight faster than she expected. Soon the mist that had pulled her forward glowed only faintly, thin blue lines she could barely see. She held her hand to a marked stem and felt the pull still there. She just could not follow it. She had no light. A torch or flame would scatter the mist and break the trail. In the dark, the pull might drag her off a ledge or into deeper woods with no way back. She stopped and let the owl settle on her shoulder. "I can't see it," she said. "If I light a fire, I lose it." A branch cracked behind her. She turned. A man stepped out of the fog, tall and lean, a weathered cloak over layered dark clothes. Silver marked his dark hair at the temples. His gray-green eyes moved from her face to the pendant at her throat, and something in him went still. This was the Waykeeper who had recognized her mother's pendant days ago and agreed to guide her. He had refused to explain how he knew it. She still did not fully trust him. "You followed me this far," she said. "You went deeper than I thought you would." He looked at the faint mist, then at her. "Fire won't work here. You know that." "I know." She held up the anklet. "She came this way." He took the anklet from her hand and turned it in the dark. His jaw tightened. "She wore this the last time I saw her." He gave it back and said nothing more. Silas swung his satchel around and dug through it. He drew out a lantern of silverwood and dark metal, its panes pale blue glass. A small pearl hung inside, giving off a soft, cold light. He lifted it between them. The glow did not spread and did not flare. The mist near it held its shape and kept curling forward, untouched. "Mistglass," he said. "It lights the way without scattering the trail. There are only a few left." Serena took the lantern. The pearl's light fell on the nearest stem and the carved symbol showed clear. Ahead, the pulling mist glowed steady in the pale beam, a low blue thread winding into the trees. She could see the trail now. All of it. "Why give me this?" she asked. "Because you'll go without it." He pulled his cloak close. "And I'd rather you didn't die doing it." She raised the lantern and stepped forward. The mist bent around the light and pulled her on. The owl flew ahead into the glow. Behind her, Silas followed, quiet, watching the dark he seemed to fear more than he would say.