Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 47 of 86

The airship set down in a pine valley half a day north of Fairhaven. Zach chose the spot on purpose. His group could channel the sword's power as one now, but they had only done it standing still on flat stone. He needed to know the bond would hold when monsters came at them from all sides. So he told Talon to land where the fangcrawlers hunted. They did not wait long. Three of the beasts broke from the tree line, low and fast, eyes red in the shade. Zach lifted the blade and let its weight rise. "Hands on," he said. Raven slapped her palm to the flat. Lyra gripped the hilt below his. Ayla and Talon and Garrok pressed in. White light ran up the steel and into all of them. Zach felt their hearts through the metal. He pushed. The blade threw one clean wave and burst the nearest fangcrawler apart. Then the second beast slammed Garrok's shoulder and knocked him off the sword. The light broke. It snapped back into the steel like a whip and dropped the whole group to their knees. Pain shot up Zach's arms. "Get back on!" he shouted. Garrok grabbed the flat again, blood on his hand. But the beasts were on them now, and the group was scattered and rattled. This was the thing Geneva had warned of. The unity was real, but it cracked the moment one of them fell. "Stop reaching for the light," Lyra said, teeth clenched. "Reach for each other." She locked eyes with Zach. He understood. He stopped pouring his will into the sword and felt for Lyra's cool focus instead, then Raven's quick heart, then Garrok's raw strength under the blood. He held the people, not the power. The light returned on its own. It was steadier this time, fed by six wills instead of one. Ayla's healing washed down the blade and closed Garrok's shoulder mid-fight. Talon stepped out of the circle, cut low across a beast's legs, then stepped back in without breaking the chain. The last fangcrawler charged. Zach released a single narrow pulse. It punched a hole clean through the creature's chest. Silence. Steam rose off the dead beasts. Zach's group stood together, hands still on the sword, breathing hard. Nobody had fallen out of the bond the second time. "Again?" Garrok asked, grinning through the blood. "No," Zach said. He sheathed the blade. "We held it under real weight. That's what I needed." Raven wiped her dagger and looked north. "Then we're done training. Fairhaven's people are ready to march. Garrok's already sent word ahead to Black Hollow." Zach nodded. The bond would hold now, even when one of them went down. He was no longer six people hoping to fight as one. He was the point of a force that moved together. "Load the ship," he said. "We rally Fairhaven, then we head for Tyr Alys."