Dune xix's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

Dune led the woman down into the marketplace, watching how she moved. Her eyes darted to every shadow, every corner. She clutched the kraken skull like it might save her life. It wouldn't. Nothing saved you down here except proving you could handle the pressure. Dune pointed to a ornate picture frame leaning against the far wall—some trader's failed inventory, showing a mutant kraken with too many eyes rising from painted waves. "Tell me who you stole from," Dune said, tentacles shifting slow. "And why they want you dead badly enough to chase you to my door." The woman's jaw worked. She looked at the frame, at the exit, at Dune. "I can't," she whispered. "If I say their name, they'll know. They're tracking me. Not just following—tracking." Her voice cracked. "It's not rivals. It's not a crew. It's something federal. Something worse." She dropped the skull and stumbled backward, knocking the frame to the floor with a crash that echoed through the market. Glass shattered across stone. "I shouldn't have come here. I've marked you just by being here." Dune's tentacles went still. The test was over. The woman had given them exactly what they needed to know—and far more trouble than one stolen skull was worth. But the damage was done the moment Dune opened that door. They knelt beside the woman, who was pulling at her sleeve with shaking hands. A thin green vine wound around her wrist, bright against her skin, dotted with sharp spikes. "Found it an hour ago," she gasped. "Tried to cut it off but it just grew back." Dune had seen tracker magic before, but never something living. Never something that marked its target like a brand. The vine pulsed once, twice, like a heartbeat. Dune stood and walked to the kraken statue mechanism. Their fingers found the hidden switch. The entrance above groaned shut, stone grinding against stone until the marketplace was sealed. "Here's what happens now," Dune said, turning back to the woman. "You work for me until I figure out how to remove that thing without killing you. You don't leave. You don't contact anyone outside. And when whatever's hunting you comes knocking—because it will—you stand with us or you die alone." The woman looked up, tears streaking her dirty face. She nodded. Dune had wanted to test her loyalty. Instead, they'd learned the marketplace wasn't hidden at all. It was already compromised. And now Dune had to decide whether to cut their losses or fight to keep what they'd built.