Elena Vasquez's Arc

Chapter 3 of 11

Elena stood at the window and watched the river. Two figures moved along the bank, heading toward the square. Their hoods were up despite the heat, and beneath the fabric their eyes glowed faint lavender in the dusk. She'd never seen anything like it before, but she knew what they were looking for. She grabbed the canvas-wrapped pack from the corner and moved toward the door. If these figures reached the square, people would see them. Questions would follow, then panic. The trader's warning would seem prophetic. She had to meet them at the river before they came any farther. The stranger still slept in the back room, his brand dark now but still weeping. Whatever connection existed between him and these hooded figures, it ran through the skull-shaped object in her hands. Elena reached the old boathouse at the edge of town just as the figures stepped onto the dock. Their footprints glowed lavender against the wood, fading slowly behind them. They stopped when they saw her. Neither spoke. She unwrapped the pack enough to show the skull's purple glow. "This what you came for?" One figure extended a hand. Elena pulled the pack back. "Not until you tell me what it does and how to break its hold on the man in my care." The figures looked at each other. The one who'd reached for the pack lowered its hand. When it spoke, its voice sounded like wind through hollow reeds. "The mark cannot be broken. Only carried. He is bound until death." Elena's grip tightened on the canvas. "Then you're leaving empty-handed." The figures didn't move. Above them, someone shifted in the banana trees near the boathouse—one of the fishermen's sons, watching from his lookout. Elena heard the boy's sharp intake of breath. The figures turned their glowing eyes toward the sound, then back to her. "We do not take," the first one said. "We follow. Where it goes, we go." They stepped backward off the dock, their feet touching the water without breaking the surface. The lavender glow spread across the river like oil, then faded. The figures sank beneath the current and were gone. Elena stood alone on the dock, the pack heavy in her hands. She'd kept the artifact, but she hadn't sent them away. They were still here, waiting in the water. And now the boy had seen them too.