Elowen Cask's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

The unicorn carried Elowen down the dark water road, its hooves splashing the shallow current. She had left her ledger behind. Then a cold thought stopped her. Petra now crouched over that pile with every debt Elowen ever collected. Names. Years. All of it signed and legal. Petra sold information to fae lords for a living. She could reach the court first and hand the fae lord fresh leverage before Elowen arrived. Elowen turned the beast around. The unicorn climbed back toward the riverbank. Petra still knelt over the heap, sorting contracts into her lap. She looked up. Her smile stayed neat, but her hands went still on the papers. "You came back for your trash," Petra said. She rose, silk gown clean against the wet stone. "Too late. These are mine now." "They're worth nothing to the lord," Elowen said. "He wants me clean of stolen things. You said so yourself." "He wants proof you're still a thief." Petra held up a fistful of contracts. "I sell him these, and you walk into his court owing more than your mother ever did." Elowen slid off the unicorn. The beast backed away from the pile, snorting. She stepped between Petra and the water. In the dark below, a long shadow-scaled shape uncoiled beneath the surface. The sea serpent had guided her once. It drank the lord's water, same as the unicorn. It knew stolen things too. "You want to sell those," Elowen said. "You need the river road to reach him fast. That serpent won't carry a thief either." She pointed at Petra's arms full of paper. "You're holding stolen goods now." Petra's smile finally cracked. She glanced at the water. The serpent's head lifted, jaws parting. "Give them to me," Elowen said. "Or carry them past that thing yourself." For a moment Petra weighed it. Her hand moved in the folds of her gown, and a blade dropped into her palm. Elowen did not step back. "Cut me," Elowen said, "and you still can't ride the water clean." Petra's hand shook. The serpent slid closer. She swore, low, and threw the contracts down between them. "Take them. They stink of you anyway." Elowen gathered the pile. She did not put them back in her coat. She carried them to the water's edge and dropped them in. The serpent snapped once, and the papers vanished under the black surface. Years and names, gone. "You destroyed your own fortune," Petra said. "I destroyed your weapon." Elowen climbed onto the unicorn. Only two contracts stayed in her pocket now. The scorched map. Her mother's debt. "You've got nothing left to sell him." The unicorn turned back toward the road. Behind her, Petra stood empty-handed on the wet stone. Elowen rode down into the dark, lighter than before, with nothing left to lose and one debt still to collect.