Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 4 of 86

Zach stood at the base of the great living trunk, the sword steady in his hand at last. But he had no place to point it. The kingdom wanted him to hunt an ancient sorcerer, and he did not know where the man hid. He climbed back up the spiral stair to the King's high room. Raven followed, her boots quick on the wood. "I can hold the sword now," Zach said. "But I can't fight a man I can't find. Where is Maximus Darkthorne?" The King sat heavy in his chair. He rubbed his gray beard and did not answer at once. "No one has seen his fortress in a thousand years," he said. "We sealed him and buried the road. The maps are gone." Zach's stomach dropped. "So I'm stuck. A sword and no direction." Raven stepped past him. She knelt by the King's chair and touched his arm. "Father. The old song. The one you sang me as a child." Her cat ears twitched. "About the black tower and the dead river." The King went still. "That is a nursery rhyme." "It's a map," Raven said. "You told me the elders hid the way inside a song so no child would forget it." She looked up at him, fierce. "Sing it." The King held her stare a long moment. Then he sighed, the way he had when she first said she would go. He sang low and rough. The words told of a black tower past the dead river, north where the three-eyed things crawl from the ground. Raven mouthed the words with him. When he finished, she stood. "North," she said. "Follow the dead river to the black tower. That's where he is." Zach felt the ground under him again. He had a direction. "North," he repeated. The King rose, slower than his daughter. He crossed to Zach and gripped his shoulder hard. "The dead river runs through open country. The monsters are thickest there." His eyes moved to Raven, then back. "You will not reach the tower unseen. Every mile north, more of them will wake to Darkthorne's call." "I know," Zach said. "You don't," the King said. "But you will." He let go. He pulled a folded cloak from a chest and pressed it into Raven's hands. "Wear something over that. The northern roads are cold." Raven took the cloak. For a second her fierceness cracked, and she looked young. "Thank you, Father." Zach walked to the window. Below, the branches of the tree kingdom spread wide, homes glowing among the leaves. Beyond them the forest ran dark toward open land. Somewhere past it lay a dead river and a black tower. He knew where to go now. That was the easy part. The hard part started the moment he left the tree, with every mile north crawling toward him in the dark.