Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 29 of 51

They ran east through the trees until Zeph's legs stopped answering him. He dropped to one knee in wet leaves. Kaine turned back and pulled him up by the arm. The coal behind Zeph's sternum was cold. He had nothing left to burn. "We can't keep going straight," Kaine said. "Archers will fan out along this line by dawn. If we stop, they find us. If we run, we drop." Zeph looked at the bracelet on his wrist. The metal was dull in the dark. He pressed his thumb against one of the small blue stones and closed his eyes. He did not try to call Zento. He only asked the bracelet to steady him the way it had steadied him at the third payment. Something moved above the trees. A bird came down through the branches and landed on a low root two paces from him. Its feathers were pale blue and violet, patterned with small marks like writing. It watched him with one black eye. "That's not a hunting bird," Kaine said. He lowered his blade. "That's his. He sent it." The bird hopped once, then again, moving north off the eastern line. It stopped. It waited. When Zeph did not follow, it flew a short arc, landed on another root, and waited again. "Get up," Kaine said. "It's showing us a door." Zeph pushed himself off the ground. He followed the bird between two ridges Kaine would have passed without seeing. The ground dropped. They came out of the trees into a shallow bowl where a stone building stood half sunk into the hillside. Runes cut into the blocks held a faint blue light. The doors were heavy wood and closed. Zeph put his palm on the wood. The doors opened inward. Warm air came out. The bird flew past him into the hall and settled on a beam. Inside, a low stone floor. Marks cut into it in a circle. The air felt the way the ancient hall had felt after he cleaned the corruption out of it. Zento stood in the center of the ring. White hair. Blue sash. Arms folded. "Sit," Zento said. "They cannot track you here. The walls hold your signature inside. You have one night." Zeph sat. Kaine pushed the doors closed and dropped the bar across them. The hall's runes brightened, then dimmed to a steady glow. "One night," Kaine said. "Then what." "Then he learns to open the old form without dying to hold it," Zento said. He did not look at Kaine. He looked at Zeph. "Windchill will come again. Next time with more eyes and a plan for what you are. You will not survive that on three breaths." Zeph nodded. His hands were shaking. The bracelet warmed against his wrist. Outside, a horn sounded far off, searching. Inside, the doors held.