Maren Goldweaver's Arc

Chapter 15 of 42

Kato crouched in the alley and drew a square in the dust with his finger. "Cargo hold sits below the aft deck. Loaders bring crates up the plank at dusk. Two guards check faces at the gangway, not lids." Maren watched his hand. "You want me in a crate." "Barrel would break your back. Crate has straw. I know the loader on the third stack. He owes me. I mark yours with chalk and it goes below without a lift check." Gisela nodded once. "It works. I studied the plank last summer." Miller set the rifle across his knees. "And the informant?" "Sunset," Miller said. "I take him behind the net shed. No sound." They waited. The cub slept in Maren's coat and its ribs moved against her hand. The sun dropped and turned the water orange. Miller stood, checked his knife, and slipped out of the alley without a word. Maren watched him cross the boards and disappear behind stacked crab pots. Kato led her to the third stack. He pried a lid, dumped half the straw, and held it open. Maren climbed in. She folded her knees to her chest. The cub pressed warm against her stomach. Kato marked the wood with a chalk X and hammered the lid down. Light came through in thin lines. She felt the crate lift. Boots on the plank. A grunt as it dropped. Then dark, and the smell of tar and rope. The ship groaned around her. She counted her breaths and waited for the hold to empty of loaders. A crowbar hit the lid. Wood split. Hands seized her collar and dragged her out over the splinters. She hit the deck on her knees. Gisela knelt beside her, wrists bound behind her back. Kato next. Miller last, blood down his temple, hands tied at the front. Four men in gray coats stood over them with rifles leveled. "You really thought Kato was the informant." The voice came from behind a stack of barrels. A young man stepped into the lamp glow, hands in his pockets, easy as a boy at market. Maren had never seen his face. Kato had. "No," the young man said. "It was me." Kato lunged against the guard holding him and the guard drove a knee into his gut. Kato folded. "No," Kato said into the boards. "No, no—" Gisela's mouth opened and no sound came for a full breath. Then it came all at once. "How could you betray your brother?" she screamed. "Kato, how could he—" The young man crouched in front of Maren and studied her face like a page. He tapped her coat where the cub breathed. "The Registry wants the file," he said. "And the animal. Take them below." A guard hauled her up by the braids. The gangway was gone. The dock was gone. Water slapped the hull. The ship was already moving.