Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 53 of 86

The swamp defeated their feet before it defeated their hearts. Mud pulled at Zach's boots. Serpents slid through black water. Lyra sensed each threat through the ground and steered them clear, but the marsh still swallowed their pace. By midday Zach saw the truth. They would not reach the cave by dark. They would drown in this mud first. Talon stopped on a low ridge and stared at the sky. "We need the fleet," he said. He pulled a signal charge from his belt and cracked it against his katana hilt. Green smoke rose over the reeds. "Fairhaven watches for that. If any ship is near, it comes." They waited on the ridge, backs together, weapons out. An hour passed. Then a shape broke the clouds. The sleek airship dropped low, brass fittings catching gray light, fins cutting the mist. It was Talon's own ship, the one he had repaired in Fairhaven. But the man at the wheel was not Talon. "A Fairhaven pilot," Talon said. He raised a hand. "They took my ship into the fleet after we changed strategy. Good. He knows the controls." The airship swung over their heads and held steady, engines humming against the wind. Zach cupped his hands and shouted up. "The cave under the northern peak! Take us there!" The pilot leaned out and nodded. He worked the wheel. The ship turned north and pulled them along the ridgeline, matching their march below, a shield of steel between them and the sky. By dusk the mountain filled the horizon. The airship climbed. Below the peak, a black mouth opened in the rock. The eternal fire's cave. The pilot brought the ship to a hover above it. Then he dropped a rope line through the open hatch. Raven grabbed the rope first. She tested her weight, then looked at Zach. Her cat ears flattened in the cold wind. "Malachar's inside," she said. "You feel it too." Zach did. His sword hummed at his hip, awake now, pulling toward the cave like a hound on a scent. "Then we go down," he said. One by one they descended. Raven, then Lyra, then Ayla with her staff strapped to her back. Garrok gripped the rope in both fists and grunted the whole way. Talon slid last, fast and silent. Zach came down between them, boots scraping the ledge outside the cave mouth. Wind screamed past the peak. Below the hatch, the pilot cut the line loose and swung the ship away to circle. They stood on the ledge, six of them, the fire's heat already breathing up from the dark. Lyra pressed her palm to the stone. Her face went pale. "Two hearts inside," she whispered. "Malachar. And one that is not beating right. Too slow. Too old." Zach drew his sword. White light climbed the blade. "The crystal's already here," he said. "He's starting the ritual." He stepped into the cave. "We're out of time."