Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 66 of 86

The morning after the reunion, Zach studied a map of the north with Talon. The emptied villages sat far past the Dead River, a week's hard ride away. He could not march there yet. His scouts had gathered no facts. His companions had just arrived. He had two children who barely knew their aunts and uncles. The mystery would wait until he had answers, and until he had someone he trusted to watch his family. Raven found him frowning at the paper. She leaned over his shoulder, her cat ears flicking. "You can't fix a thing you can't reach," she said. "Not today. Not blind." "I know," Zach said. "That's what makes it worse." She took the map from his hands and folded it. "Then stop staring at it. Talon's people will scout the north for a week. They'll send word before we go." She sat on the table's edge and met his eyes. "Before all that starts, I want time with you. Just us. No inn. No war." Zach opened his mouth to argue. She pressed a finger to his lips. "We've earned a week," Raven said. "Talon has an airship. Fairhaven's coast runs to lands we've never seen. My father raised me. He can mind two grandchildren for seven days." That afternoon they rode to Whiskerbark. King Aldric met them in the great hall, stocky and gray, his cat ears twitching as the twins ran to him. He caught the boy mid-leap and set him on his knee. The girl climbed the throne beside him without asking. "You want me to keep them," Aldric said. It was not a question. He grinned. "Finally. A grandfather earns his purpose." Raven kissed his cheek. "A week. No sweets before bed." "Lies," Aldric told the boy, and the child laughed. Zach knelt and hugged his son, then his daughter. "Mind your grandfather." The boy nodded, already distracted by the king's crown. Zach's throat tightened. He had crossed worlds and lost the sword that could take him home. But leaving his children, even for seven days, pulled at him more than any of it. Talon's pilot flew them from the coast at dawn. The airship crossed open water Zach had never charted. On the far side rose green hills and a shore with no name he knew. For a week Zach and Raven walked strange markets and slept under strange stars. No demons. No seals. Just her hand in his. On the seventh morning, Talon's flare lit the sky over the harbor. The pilot brought word with him when he landed. His face was grim. "The scouts finished the north," the pilot said. He handed Zach a sealed report. "Two more villages gone. And they found something this time." He paused. "Tracks. Leading back toward the Dead River." Zach broke the seal. The rest had ended. The work waited, and now it had a direction.