Wren Ashvale's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

The castle gates stood open when Wren and Alora reached them. Wren still held Dax's torn plan in his fist. The guards let them pass, but Wren knew paper alone would not be enough. He was a foreign man in a rival uniform. No lord would take his word that the plan was real. They would need a sprite to read it true first. The throne room was full when they entered. Lords lined the walls in their damp finery. Wren laid the plan on the long table. "This is Dax Nightbloom's own hand," he said. "He wrote out his plan to marry Alora, sell Elmwood, and burn it all. When that failed, he tried to poison me to start a war." A lord picked up the paper and frowned. "A man can write anything. You brought us words. Words from a stranger." The room murmured. Hands moved toward hilts. Wren felt the trust he had earned begin to thin. "Then do not trust me," Wren said. "Call a sprite." Elderwen Starwhisper stepped forward from the far end of the hall. She was the elder who had first sponsored Wren's right to court Alora. Her silver hair fell past a purple gown, and flowers dotted the braid at her crown. The lords quieted when she raised a hand. She had vouched for Wren once. Now her eyes were cool, weighing him again. "I will bring the truth-reader," Elderwen said. "But understand, messenger. It reads the paper and the man who carries it both. If you have shaped one word of this, it will show." "Read all of it," Wren said. Elderwen opened her cupped hands. A small dark creature uncurled there, wings thin as glass, eyes bright and sharp. It hopped onto the table and crept across the torn plan. Its claws traced the crossed-out lines and the words scrawled in a hard hand. Then it turned and studied Wren's face for a long moment. The sprite lifted its head. It chirped once, clear and certain, and its wings flared gold. Elderwen's shoulders eased. "It reads no lie in the paper," she said. "And none in the man. The plan is Dax's. The threat is real." The room changed. The hands left the hilts. The lord who had doubted set the paper down and stepped back. Alora reached for Wren's hand and held it. "Then the court accepts this as truth," Elderwen said. "Dax Nightbloom stands proven a traitor before us all." Wren breathed out. His claim was safe. The plan was true. But Elderwen was not smiling. "A proven traitor is a hunted one," she said quietly. "Dax has lost everything now, messenger. A man with nothing left to protect is the most dangerous man in Froghollow. He will not wait for a wedding. He will come for you before it."