Captain Richard's Arc

Chapter 5 of 13

At first light, Richard followed the wolf out along the pier. The boards were wet and gray. Kovu moved ahead with purpose, the leather collar at his throat clicking soft against a small black box. Every few steps, the wolf paused and turned his scarred eye back, waiting. Richard understood. The collar was a quiet compass. Kovu was leading him somewhere he had been before. The wolf stopped at a heap of canvas and burned cloth piled against the pilings. Richard pulled the top layer back. Under a charred jacket, stiff with salt and old smoke, stood a low stone arch choked in vines. A pirate's flag, faded to rag, hung above it. No one walking the pier would see it. The jacket had been thrown there to look like trash. Richard drew his knife. He stepped through the arch. Two small lanterns inside still gave off warm smoke. Someone had lit them within the hour. He moved slow along the stone wall. The room was small and dry. No second door. No cracks. It was, in every measure, the place he had been searching for. His chest tightened with a hope he did not trust. Then he saw it. On a flat stone in the center lay a parchment, its edges curled, runes faint along the border. A red X had been inked over the very cove he stood in. Beside the map, a fresh boot print pressed into the dust. Richard's hand closed on the parchment. Someone knew. Someone had stood here, marked it, and left the mark for him to find. Kovu growled low at the arch. Richard folded the map into his coat. The sanctuary was real. The sanctuary was found. And it was already not his alone.