Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 69 of 86

At dawn Zach carried his twins to the wagon and held them a long moment. Their cousin waited on the castle steps, a girl of the tree kingdom trusted by Raven's family. Zach knelt and looked his son and daughter in the eyes. "Mind her," he said. "We'll be back soon." Raven crouched beside him. Her cat ears drooped as her daughter clung to her sleeve. She pried the small fingers loose one at a time. Then she stood, jaw set, and did not look back again. "They'll be safe here," the cousin said. She lifted the boy onto her hip. "Better guarded than the whole north. Go." Raven kissed both children's heads. Zach saw her hands shake once, then still. Leaving them was the hardest step of the journey, and it was already done. Talon was loading the last crate onto the airship when they reached the field. His two katanas hung crossed at his back. Black hair fell over his eyes as he checked the ropes. Beside him Lyra sorted their packs, her silver hair catching the light, the blue orb swinging at her hip. She had been a mage of the guild before she was Talon's wife, and her elven senses had guided this group through worse than any road. "Blankets, dried meat, rope," Lyra said. She counted on her fingers. "Water for three days. Bolts for Raven's crossbow." She looked up at Raven and softened. "Your children asked me last night if you were going to fight the dark." Raven's ears flattened. "What did you tell them?" "That their mother wins," Lyra said. She handed Raven her pack. "So we'd better make it true." Talon offered his sister a hand up the ramp. She took it. "You always did hate goodbyes," he said. "You faked your death for five years," Raven shot back. "Don't talk to me about goodbyes." But she smiled as she climbed aboard. The airship's deck gleamed with polished plating and brass fittings. Zach ran a hand along the rail. He had flown on this vessel through the war, and it had never failed them. Talon moved to the wheel and worked the levers. The engine coughed, caught, then hummed. Fins spread from the hull like wings. "Fairhaven first," Talon called over the noise. "The skyport smiths finished your blade. Word came three days ago. It's waiting." Zach gripped the rail. A new weapon. He had lost the last one saving this world, and had felt half-armed ever since. "Then get us there," he said. The deck tilted. The field dropped away below them, the castle shrinking to a dark shape among the trees. Zach watched until he could no longer pick out the steps where his children stood. Then he turned north. "No turning back now," Raven said beside him. "No," Zach agreed. The airship climbed into the morning sky, carrying all four of them toward the coast, toward the blade forged for his hand.