Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 83 of 86

The freed villagers filled the square of Myst. Ayla moved among them, healing the weak with her staff. Garrok hauled crates of food off the airship. Zach wanted only to reach the airship and fly home to his twins. But Armin, the pale keeper who had served the fog demon for a hundred years, caught his arm before he could climb aboard. "Wait," Armin said. "There is something you must see first." He led Zach into the tallest tower. His long black hair still hung damp from the risen river. In a round room at the top, a wide table held a map. It showed the whole world, not just Hazelfen. Zach saw lands he had never known existed. Oceans. Two more continents beyond the sea. "My people watched the world for a thousand years," Armin said. His dark eyes swept the parchment. "The fog curse was not the only one. Darkthorne was powerful. He was not alone." He pressed a finger to a far shore across the water. "A city here sits under a burning sky it cannot escape." He moved his hand. "Here, a curse turns the living to stone at each new moon." He tapped a third mark. "And here, a plague of shadow eats children while they sleep." Raven and Lyra had followed them up. Lyra leaned over the map, her purple eyes wide. "So many," she said quietly. "We only ever knew our corner of it." Zach studied the marks. Part of him wanted to look away. He had a village. He had children waiting at the castle. He had crossed a whole world and stopped fighting long enough to build a life. "These aren't my curses," he said. "I did what I came to do." Armin nodded slowly. "No one asks you to leave tonight." He rolled the map and held it out. "But you have the power to break curses now. Few living men do. Take it. Learn where the broken places are. Then choose." Raven watched Zach's face. She did not speak. She knew him too well to push. Zach looked at the offered map for a long moment. He thought of the villagers who had nearly starved in the dark. He thought of children on other shores, under other curses, with no one to come for them. Then he took the map from Armin's hand. "I'll take it," Zach said. "But home comes first. My family needs me." "That is fair," Armin said. Zach carried the rolled map down the tower and onto the airship. He tucked it into his pack beside his new blade. Raven stood beside him at the rail as the vessel lifted off Myst. He had come north to save some villages. He was leaving with the whole world drawn in his hands, and a question he could not yet answer.