Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 86 of 86

Raven left at dusk. She took Ayla, her cousin and a white mage who could pull them out fast, and Lyra, the elf who could feel heartbeats through stone. Three days passed with no word. Zach sat with the twins and watched the sea from the cabin porch. On the fourth morning he saw a small boat cut toward shore, and his wife's black ears stood tall against the gray water. Raven jumped to the sand before the boat stopped. She was grinning. "We found it," she said. "A crossing." Ayla climbed out behind her, staff first, planting it in the wet sand. Five years of marriage had not softened her old wariness of Zach, but she nodded at him now like an equal. "North coast," she said. "Past the last mapped port. There's a village of sea people who cross the deep water for trade. They've done it for generations." Lyra came last, boots sinking, robe hem dark with salt. She pressed a hand to her chest and breathed hard. "I felt them before we saw the harbor," she said. "A hundred heartbeats on the water, calm as anything. They aren't afraid of the open sea. They live on it." Zach looked between the three of them. "They'll take me across?" "They'll take you," Raven said. "For a price. They want steel and medicine, not gold." Her grin faded. She glanced back at the boat, then at the cabin where the twins waited. "There's a catch, Zach." Ayla stepped in. "The route only opens for one season. The winds turn in twelve days. Miss the window and the water closes for a year." She met his eyes. "The plague won't wait a year." Zach felt the weight settle. Twelve days. He turned the fact over. A door had finally opened, and it had a lock timed against him. Lyra sat on the boat's edge, worn thin. "The sea people won't carry a fleet," she said. "One ship. A small crew. They said any more would draw the deep things that live out there." She looked up. "You go light or you don't go." Raven crossed to him and gripped his wrist the way she always did. "So it's true. There's a way. I told you I'd bring you an answer." Her voice caught. "I brought it. Now you have to use it, and it means leaving again. For longer than ever." Zach pulled her close. Behind him the twins' voices carried from the cabin. He had a crossing now, a crew, and a clock. The impossible had become a plan, and the plan cost him twelve days to decide who sailed and who stayed. "Then we don't waste a day," he said. "We ride north tomorrow. I'll meet these sea people myself." Raven nodded against his chest. The scouting was done. The route was real. And the ocean he could not cross was suddenly waiting for him to try.