Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 82 of 86

The curse was broken, but the danger was not. Hundreds of freed villagers waited in the buried city far above the cavern. They had no food. They had no way to climb back to the surface. Zach knew they would starve long before he could carry them all up through the crack in the black stone. He sheathed his blade and turned to Armin. "We killed the thing below," Zach said. "But those people are still trapped. How do I get them out?" Armin, the pale keeper who had served the demon for a hundred years, pressed a hand to the cavern wall. His dark eyes closed. For a long moment he only breathed. "I no longer feel the weight," he whispered. "The curse held this place under the river. Now it lets go." The floor trembled. Dust rained from above. Raven grabbed Zach's arm. Garrok braced his axe against the shaking stone. "It's rising," Lyra said. She pressed her palm to the ground, sensing through the rock. "The whole city. It's moving up toward the light." They ran for the airships. The buried streets groaned as ancient stone climbed. Water poured off the towers in sheets. When they broke into open air, Zach saw the black island splitting apart. Beneath it, a city lifted from the mud. Its spires cut the fog and caught the sun. The Dead River, dry for a century, now filled its old banks and ran clear and fast around the rising walls. The freed villagers spilled into the streets. They looked up at open sky for the first time in months. No fog choked them now. Zach landed his airship in a wide square and helped the people out. Ayla moved through the crowd, her staff glowing, mending the sick and starved. Talon lifted children onto crates so they could see the water. The villagers did not need to climb. The city had carried them home to daylight. Armin stood at the center of the square. He was no longer bent. Color had returned to his pale face. Around him, gray stone statues shifted and cracked. One by one they became people, gasping and blinking, freed from a hundred-year spell. His own lost citizens. His city. "This was Myst," Armin said. "The city of fog. My home, before the demon took it." He turned to Zach. "You gave it back to me. All of it." He bowed low. "These people will not starve. Myst can feed and shelter them until they choose to leave." Zach looked at the living city, the flowing river, the thousands now safe. The villages were saved. His work in the north was done. He clasped Armin's hand. "Then it's finished here," Zach said. Raven stepped close. "The twins are waiting," she said softly. Zach nodded. He had crossed a world and never found the door to his old one. But he had found a place, a family, and a reason to go back to them. "Let's go home," he said, and turned toward the airship.