Sienna Du’for's Arc

Chapter 22 of 30

By late morning they reached the pond bridge that marked the last mile before the border. Sienna drew rein at the near post. The wooden span arched low over still water. Painted rails caught the sun. Behind her, the road held. Two hundred faces waited for her to cross. She did not cross. Clementine brought her horse up alongside. She did not ask what was wrong. She waited. "I only meant to walk in and speak to my father," Sienna said. "I meant to face Cecilia alone. I did not ask for any of this." "You did not," Clementine said. "They came anyway." Sienna swung down from the saddle. Her boots hit the boards of the bridge. She turned to face the road. Aldric was already off his horse, one hand on the hilt at his hip. Caspian stood behind him with his page open. "Come closer," Sienna called. Her voice carried further than she expected. The nearest ranks pressed forward. The baker. The blacksmith. The woman with three children. The old man who had served her grandfather. She made herself slow down. She made her hands stay still at her sides. "Past this bridge is my sister's land," she said. "Cecilia has jailed priests. She has turned her guard on villages. I do not know what she will do when she sees you behind me. I do not know if she will let you speak. I do not know if she will let you leave." No one moved. "I did not ask you to come. I am glad you did. But I will not lead you into her hand without telling you plainly." She drew a breath. "If you cross this bridge, you may not cross back. Go home now and no one will blame you. Not me. Not the scribe writing this down." She waited. She counted three heartbeats. Then five. The woman with three children shifted the smallest child on her hip and stepped onto the boards. The wood creaked under her. "I have nowhere to go home to," she said. "You know that." The baker came next. Then the blacksmith. Then the old man, slower, with his hand on a boy's shoulder for balance. One by one the line began to move. The bridge held them. Their weight rang through the boards under Sienna's feet. Aldric stepped up beside her. He did not speak. Clementine took her hand. Sienna had wanted to warn them off. She had not. She had made them a promise instead, and they had answered it. Caspian's pen scratched. "They are all crossing," he said. "Every one." "Write that," Sienna said. Her throat was tight. "Write that I told them, and they came anyway." She stepped off the far side of the bridge onto her sister's road. Behind her, two hundred people followed her into Lorimar.