Willow Thornheart's Arc

Chapter 8 of 9

The matriarch grew strong again by the week's end. Willow watched her stretch her wings in the yard, scales bright and green once more. The golden hatchling flew circles overhead, then landed hard and shrieked. The big dragon nudged it toward the smaller creatures huddled near the fence. She pressed her tail low, making a wall. The hatchling copied her, spreading tiny wings over a shivering fox. Willow smiled. The mother was teaching her baby to guard the others. But the sight only sharpened the old worry in her chest. That worry had a name. The road. Every creature Dex rescued had to cross open woods to reach the sanctuary. Trackers watched those trails. One bad crossing and the whole haven would be found. Willow found Dex at the well, staring at his boots. He could not walk past the concealment line anyway, thanks to her mother's curse. But the fear on his face was different today. He turned a small ring over in his fingers. "I've been thinking," Dex said. He shut his hand around the ring. Then he stopped Gareth as her father crossed the yard. "Sir. I need to ask you something." Willow's father folded his arms and waited, eyes hard. Dex swallowed. "I want to marry your daughter. I'm asking your permission." A long silence held. Then Gareth's mouth twitched under his beard. "You'll protect her and every beast in this place," he said. "Then yes." He gripped Dex's shoulder once, firm. Willow's mother clapped from the doorway. "Finally." She pointed her staff at Dex. The curse broke with a soft snap he could feel in his knees. "You may leave the land now," she said. "But you'll come back." Gareth was already walking toward the trees. "Come," he called. "I have your answer to the road." Behind the cottage stood a caravan, round and wooden, painted like a flower shop. Blooms climbed its sides. Pots crowded the little windows. Gareth touched the door, and gold letters flared, then faded to look like faded paint. "Concealment anchored inside the walls, same as the land," he said. "No tracker reads what's within. The creatures ride hidden, in comfort, all the way home." Dex opened the door. The inside was wider than the outside, soft with straw beds and water troughs. Willow climbed in and turned in the warm space. Rescues would never cross the open woods exposed again. The road was solved. "Test it," Gareth said. Dex hitched the caravan and drove it past the concealment line, out onto the trail. Willow watched from the trees. To her own eyes the caravan turned faint, a smudge of color that slid from notice. A pair of riders passed on the far path and looked straight through it. Dex brought it back, grinning for the first time in weeks. "I can reach the far valleys now," he said. "The ones with the worst hunters." Willow's stomach tightened even as she laughed. Those valleys held the creatures who needed her most. And the men who guarded them would not let go easily.