Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 27 of 86

The map lay flat on a boulder above the ash-gray river. Zach smoothed the folds with one hand. The lines meant nothing to him. Cramped symbols crawled across the page in a language he had never seen. Malachar had written his next steps in secret, and until someone read them, the sorcerer could hide anywhere. "It's the same cant as before," Lyra said. The elf leaned close, tracing the marks with a slim finger. On the tower parchment she had cracked this script once already. Zach trusted her eyes more than his own. "Give me a moment. The shapes fight me, but they hold a place name." Raven crouched beside her, cat ears swiveling toward the river. "Read fast," she said. Her voice was low. She had spent this whole journey at Zach's shoulder, and he knew her warnings meant something. "The water woke when he touched it. It hasn't gone all the way back to sleep." Lyra's lips moved. "North of the river. A black tower Malachar means to reach on foot. He'll raise Darkthorne there instead." She looked up. "I have the way. I can lead us." The ground shook before Zach could answer. Ayla planted her staff and threw up a shield of white light. From the far bank, dark shapes climbed out of the ash. Lean bodies. Black skin. Claws like curved knives. Red eyes burned above ragged cloaks. Malachar's trap, left behind for whoever followed. "Darklings," Garrok growled. The barbarian swung his axe off his back. "He knew we'd come." They came fast across the water. Zach met the first one blade-high. He stopped fighting the sword's weight, and the edge went light in his hands. He cut the creature across the chest. It fell and did not rise. Raven's bolts snapped past his ear into red eyes. Garrok's axe split another in half. Ayla's light burned two more where they clawed at her shield. Then the last Darkling dropped, and the group stood breathing hard among the bodies. Zach's arms ached. Ayla's crystal had dimmed. They had spent too much. The riverbank heaved. Mud burst upward. A hand the size of a cart clawed free of the earth. A giant dragged itself up, gray flesh hanging from its bones, fifteen feet of rotted muscle. Its dead eyes found them. It opened a broken mouth and roared. Zach gripped the map and shoved it into Raven's hands. "Keep this safe," he said. "Whatever happens, we know where he's going now." The obstacle was gone. Lyra had read the cant, and the black tower north of the river waited on the page. But the price stood before them, huge and hungry. Garrok raised his axe. Ayla lifted her fading staff. Lyra's hands filled with frost. Zach set his feet and turned his blade toward the giant. "Then we fight for our lives," he said.