Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 85 of 86

Zach spent the next morning at the coast, asking after a pilot. He had a destination now. The shadow plague waited across the open sea. But every captain gave him the same answer. They knew the coastline. They knew the shipping runs. Not one had ever crossed water that wide. "No land for days out there," an old sailor told him. "You'd fly blind until your engine died over black water." By afternoon Zach stood back at the cabin, no closer to leaving than when he woke. Raven found him at the table, staring at the rolled map. She still wore her travel leathers, her black cat ears flat with worry. She set two cups down and sat. "No pilot," she said. It wasn't a question. "None will chance it," Zach said. "They all stop where the maps stop. The curse is real and I can't reach it." He rubbed his face. "I'm stuck at my own door." Raven wrapped her hands around her cup. She looked toward the stairs where the twins slept, then back at him. "Then you don't go," she said. "Not this time." Zach lifted his head. "What?" "You heard me." She leaned forward. Five years of marriage sat between them, and two children asleep above. "You've left them enough. Every trip north, they wait at the window for you. I won't watch them do it across an ocean." Her voice stayed steady, but her ears twitched. "I'll go. I'll find whether a crossing is even possible. If a route exists, I'll find who knows it. You stay with the kids." "Raven, that water killed the last people who tried it." "And I've slipped through worse than open water." She almost smiled. "I can go where an airship can't. Scout the coast north, the far ports, the sailors who don't talk to strangers. You can't. You'd draw a crowd in an hour." She reached across and gripped his wrist. "You trust me in every fight we've ever fought. Trust me in this." Zach said nothing for a long moment. He wanted to argue. But she was right, and he knew it. He had always crossed the danger himself. This time the danger was a door he couldn't open, and she could. "You don't go alone," he said finally. "I won't." She stood and pulled her cloak from the hook. "I'll take Ayla and Lyra. Ayla can carry us out fast if it turns bad. Lyra can sense a crew's heartbeats before they see us." She fastened the clasp at her throat. "Three of us. We find the route or we prove there isn't one. Either way you'll have an answer." Zach rose and pulled her close. He held her, and for once he stayed while she left. "Come back to me," he said. "Always." Raven kissed him, then slipped out into the fading light. By dark she was gone, and the crossing was hers to find.