Elowen Cask's Arc

Chapter 2 of 10

Elowen found the old tree at dusk. The map had drawn it plain, but the map had not warned her about the guards. Six of them ringed the trunk, tall fae with spears and eyes like cut glass. She crouched in the brush and counted. There was no gap. The moment she stepped into the clearing, they would take her. Twenty years of chasing, and now a wall of spears stood between her and the debtor. She pulled out the map and studied it again. Near the tree, Petra had inked a thin blue line. A river. Elowen had thought it decoration. Now she followed it with her finger and understood. Water ran beneath the roots, into the hollow where the court sat. If she could not walk in, she might swim in. She circled wide and found the river where it slid under the bank. Cold black water. She stripped off her coat, rolled it tight to keep the contracts dry, and tied it to her back. Then she slipped in. The current pulled hard. She kicked against it, lungs burning, and something moved below her. A shape rose from the dark. Scales the color of shadow slid past her leg, long and smooth as a rope. A sea serpent, thick as a barrel, wound through the flooded roots. Elowen froze. One coil brushed her ribs. It did not bite. It watched her with pale eyes, then turned and pushed deeper into the tunnel, parting the water ahead. She followed it. The serpent knew the way. It led her under the roots, past a wall of pale blossoms that glowed on trailing vines, their light soft on the water. The guards stood far above, watching the wrong door. Elowen surfaced in a still pool inside the hollow. She was in. She was under the court, past every spear. She dragged herself onto stone and untied her coat, gasping. Then she heard slow clapping. Petra Ashveil sat on a carved step above the pool. Her silk gown was dry. Her pearls caught the blossom-light. She smiled the same steady smile she had worn while draining ten years from Elowen's life. "You found the river," Petra said. "I hoped you would. It saves me the trouble of dragging you." Elowen's stomach turned. "You sold me the map. Why are you here?" Petra rose and curtsied, slow and perfect. The thin blade dropped from her sleeve into her palm. "Because the lord and I have an arrangement. He keeps my ledgers. I bring him collectors before they reach his throat." She stepped down toward the pool. "You paid me ten years to walk into his hands." Elowen backed against the wet stone. She had slipped past the guards. She had won the door. But the girl who charted fae lords had charted her too, and now Elowen stood inside the trap she had paid to enter.