Storm's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

Night fell over the stone compound. Marcus lay on a cot his sisters had dragged into the dead creature's lair. His torn wing hung off the edge. Blood soaked the cloth they pressed to his ribs. Storm stood at the door and watched the sisters work. Raven held the wound shut. Lucy wet a rag and wiped his face. Neither looked up. Neither would move while he bled. Storm counted the hours in her head. Dawn was the deal. Dawn meant the stone path and the throne. But Marcus could not climb a flat floor, let alone a sky path. And the sisters had planted themselves at his side like roots. "He stays," Raven said. Flat. "We stay. Climb another night." Lucy's hands shook on the rag. She was not calm now. The grin from the hunt was gone. "He's cold," she said. "Raven, he's going cold." Storm had frozen this ground to save him once. Cold had been her weapon. It would kill him now. She stepped closer and saw his skin gray in the green light. He had hours, not nights. Then Lucy reached into her belt pouch. She pulled out a crystal the size of a fist. It glowed from inside, pale and shifting. "Grandfather carried this on the hunt," she said. "It's supposed to hold a healing touch. We never knew if it worked. He died before he used it." "Then use it," Storm said. "It shatters when it gives," Lucy said. "One time. That's all." Her hand closed around it. She looked at Raven. Raven gave one nod. Lucy pressed the crystal to the wound in Marcus's ribs. For a breath nothing changed. Then light spread under his skin, white veins running from the crystal into his chest. The crystal cracked. A thin line split one facet, then another. Marcus drew a sharp breath. His torn wing twitched. The gray left his face. The crystal broke apart in Lucy's palm and fell to dust. Marcus opened his eyes. He touched his ribs. The wound had closed to a scar. He flexed the torn wing. The feathers were still gone, but the bone held. He sat up. "How do you feel," Raven said. "Like I can walk," Marcus said. He looked at the dust in Lucy's hand. "You spent it on me." "We did," Lucy said. Storm felt the delay break. The thing that pinned her at the foot of the path was gone. Marcus could stand. The sisters had no reason left to wait. "Dawn," Storm said. Raven stood. She wiped her brother's blood from her hands. "Dawn," she agreed. Marcus rose to his feet and tested his weight. His wing could not fly. It could still carry him up a path. He looked at Storm. "I climb too," he said. "I owe you a debt. I pay it on the stone."