Xara Zynthar's Arc

Chapter 12 of 16

The council had voted. The ships would sail. Xara walked out of the chamber with the prince at her side and the mark climbing past her elbow under her sleeve. In the corridor she stopped and pressed her back to the cold wall. The ships would sail without her. That was the trap she had not seen until now. Aid needed a guide across the border. Every guide her people trusted was her. And the moment she crossed, the pact would finish its work. The prince took her good hand. "We send them with our own captains," he said. "You stay here." "Your captains don't know the reefs off my coast. They don't know which harbors are still standing. Half the fleet will run aground before the grain reaches anyone." She pulled her sleeve back. The black had crept another finger's width. "And I need to see my mother. I need to put the children on a ship myself. No one else will convince them to board a foreign hull." Verity stepped from the chamber door. She had been listening. "Then send a voice, not a body," she said. Xara looked at her. "The orb goes both ways, if someone on the other side knows how to answer it." Verity reached into her robe and drew out the vial of moonlight water Xara had offered the council. She had kept it. "Drink. Speak to your mother through the glass. Tell her what she needs to hear in a voice the pact cannot argue with. The moon compels only the drinker. It does not cross a border." Xara took the vial. Her hand shook. She thumbed the cork loose and swallowed. The cold went down her throat and settled behind her eyes. She knelt on the corridor stone and set the orb on the floor. She pressed her palm to the glass and named her mother. The scene inside cleared. Her mother sat by a low fire, thinner than before. She looked up as if she had heard a knock. "Mother," Xara said. "Ships are coming. Grey sails, three masts. The captains are honest. Take the children to the black cliff harbor. Not the north one. The north one is gone." The water pushed the next words up before she could stop them. "I am not coming home. If I cross, I die. I chose this. Do not wait for me." Her mother's mouth opened. She placed her own hand against the inside of the glass. She nodded once. Then she stood and began to call names Xara had not heard spoken in a year. Xara sat back on her heels. The prince crouched beside her. She let the orb dim. "I will not cross," she said. "I stay on your soil. My people live. I live." The mark on her arm stopped spreading. It did not fade. It waited.