Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 48 of 51

The first creature straightened and did not charge. It watched him. The second one stepped clear of the pines and stopped beside it. Same height. Same wrong hide. Two sets of flat eyes on him now. Zeph felt the draw thin under his ribs. The candle held, but it was a candle. He had taken one down with the small draw and a name he already owned. Two would not go the same way. He knew it before Kaine said anything. "You can't split the boy between them," Kaine said. His voice was low. "You pull deeper, the seam goes." "I know." Zeph knelt again on the wet grass. He kept his eyes open this time. He set two fingers on the bracelet. The sacred markings warmed under his skin. He opened the door only a hand's width, the way he had before. The boy sat at the base of the shaft. Gold hair. Yellow eyes. His palms were still on the stone, but his shoulders were tight now. Behind him, Zento watched the door with white eyes. "Two," Zeph said. "I can't hold enough for two." "Not yet," Zento said. "The boy is a well, not a bucket. You have been dipping. You have not learned to carry." "Teach me now." "Not now. Now you buy the time to learn later. Take what you can hold. Give the second one to your brother." The boy looked up at Zeph. He nodded once, small, the way he had before. His palms glowed thin under the rock. Zeph opened his eyes. The creatures had moved apart. They meant to come at him from two lines. He stood. "Kaine. Take the one on the left." Kaine did not argue. He stepped wide and drew the left creature's eyes with a short cut of his blade through the air. It turned to him. Zeph pulled what the boy could give without cracking. The gold ran up his arms as a whisper. The right creature lunged. Zeph read the shoulder and the drag of the trailing foot the way he had read the first one. "Return of the step." He came in under the swing and drove his palm into the same place he had struck before. The creature folded and stayed down this time. Kaine's blade rang once, twice, and the left one went to a knee in the grass. The candle guttered. Zeph felt it. He released the draw before it snapped and dropped to one knee beside the body. His hands shook. Kaine stood over the other creature and put his blade through its throat. He came back breathing hard. "You held," Kaine said. "Barely." Zeph looked east through the pines. A third horn sounded, deeper than the last two. "I need to learn to carry more. Before the next one." Kaine nodded and did not answer. There was nothing yet to say.