Zephyra's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Three days since the tower fell away behind her. Zephyra sat against a rock with the skunk warm in her lap. She peeled a peach with her gloved fingers and split it. The animal took its half, and she ate hers slow. The wind cut through her sheer sleeves. Her breath showed white. "It's been three days," she said. "I think we may be lost." The skunk lifted its head. Its nose worked at the air. Zephyra smelled it too, faint under the pine: warm bread. She stood, brushed the peach juice from her gloves, and followed the smell down the slope. At the bottom sat a small house of old gray stone. Pies cooled in the windows. Smoke rose thin from the chimney. Zephyra pushed the door. A bell rang. A woman turned from the oven, a scarf tied over her hair, flour dusting her apron. "Come in, child, before you freeze," the woman said. She looked at Zephyra's bare shoulders and clicked her tongue. "You've been out in this? Sit. I'm Rosa." She set a warm roll on the table without waiting to be asked. Zephyra sat. The heat stung her cold hands through the gloves. The skunk poked its head from her collar, and Rosa smiled instead of flinching. "I'm looking for someone who knows this," Zephyra said. She drew the silver charm from under her collar and laid it on the table. The lion caught the firelight. Rosa wiped her hands slow. She leaned close, then looked up at Zephyra's face, and something moved behind her eyes. "That's the lion of Emerald Vale," she said quietly. "The king's own house. I sold bread to their riders for years." Zephyra's heart kicked. "Where is it? How far?" "South. Five days, if the roads hold." Rosa sat across from her. She studied Zephyra's black hair, her pale brown eyes. "You wear a princess's mark, but you came in half-frozen with a skunk in your dress. Who gave you this?" "My mother. She left it with me and never came back." Zephyra held the older woman's gaze. "I mean to find out why." Rosa was silent. Then she rose and went to a chest by the wall. She pulled out a blanket and a pillow. “For now you rest and tomorrow you can leave.” Zephyra took the blanket and the pillow. "I can't pay you." "I don't want pay." Rosa finished putting muffins in her oven. "I want you warm and rested so you may reach that gate alive." Zephyra pulled the blanket over her shoulders and felt the cold lose its grip. She had a name now, and a direction. Emerald Vale. The king's house. She was no longer lost, tomorrow she would leave for Emerald Vale.