Ending Maker novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Twenty Paces

Tavi's shrine was a hut on stilts at the edge of the Greenmire, with a bell on the roof and a bed of dried herbs.

By the time we reached it, I could tell the pain was real and the leash was real.

Every time I walked more than a short distance from him, my ribs began to ache.

At twenty steps, the ache turned into a knife.

We tested it with a rope, and Tavi counted my paces out loud.

"Nineteen," she said. "Twenty. Twenty-one. Stop!"

I stopped and bent over, breathing through my teeth.

On the far end of the rope, Emmett leaned against a post with his eyes shut and his jaw clenched.

"Twenty paces," he said. "It's a leash."

"You sound very calm," I said.

"I'm not calm. I'm conserving air."

Tavi had a cracked old book open on her knee, and the pages were written in a thick looped hand.

"My grandmother kept the shrine before me. She knew the old rite, the one the Champion's priests tell you isn't real." She ran a finger down the page. "The Twin Bond. Seven seals. Each seal opens when the heroes give each other something."

"Give what?" I asked.

"It doesn't say. It says only 'what the hero will not give.'"

"Great. Riddles."

"It's your quest," Tavi said. "I just keep the book."

Emmett took the book from her very gently and read the page.

I watched his face.

He read it twice.

Then he closed it with the careful look of someone putting a lid on a pot.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing."

"You went quiet."

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