Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 29 of 86

The giant's corpse still steamed on the riverbank. Zach wiped his blade and looked north. The black tower rose against a gray sky, small and far. Malachar had run there while they fought the giant. Every hour he pulled further ahead. Zach turned to Talon. "How do we catch him?" Talon crouched and drew a line in the ash with one finger. "You can't. Not by chasing." He looked up at the group. "The tower moves. It never sits in one spot more than a day. Malachar isn't racing to a place. He's unlocking seals at old checkpoints. The scrolls of this dark land tell him where each one waits." Raven knelt beside her brother. "How many seals?" "Two more, I think." Talon's jaw tightened. "After the last one, the sorcerer wakes. Maximus Darkthorne walks free." Zach felt the weight of it settle. Chasing north would only wake more of Darkthorne's monsters with every mile. The road itself fought them. But the tower would not stay still to be reached. He gripped the sword. "Then we don't chase the tower. We chase the seals. Where's the next one?" Talon pointed to a low ridge across the water. "North of that. I've watched his men go there twice." He stood. "I can take us straight to it. We reach the seal before he opens it, we stop him there." Lyra pressed her palm flat to the ground. Her violet eyes closed. "I feel movement under the earth. Things waking." She opened her eyes. "He's ahead of us, but not far. The land is stirring around him." Garrok hefted his axe and spat. "Then every step we wait, more of them crawl up to meet us." He looked at Zach. "I say we don't wait." Ayla gripped her crystal staff. "I've healed all I can here. If we push, I can mend on the move." She glanced at Raven, then at Zach. "But we go together. No one runs ahead alone." Zach nodded. The head start no longer mattered. Malachar had a road with a fixed end, and now Zach knew where it lay. "Talon leads. We cut to the next seal and hold it." He sheathed the sword. "We stop being behind him. We get in front." Talon smiled under his mask. "Good. He won't expect anyone waiting." He looked at Raven a long moment. "I told you I know this land." They forded the black river before dark. On the far ridge, Talon stopped and pointed down into a shallow valley. A ring of standing stones sat there, older than the tower, faintly glowing. Figures in hoods moved among them, lighting torches. "The seal," Talon whispered. "And his men are already here." Zach counted the hooded shapes. Six, maybe more. Not yet Malachar. They had beaten the sorcerer to the checkpoint. The chase was over. Now came the ambush. Zach drew his blade. "We take the seal before he arrives."