Mariah's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Mariah left the town at dawn with the codex strapped to her pack and the rubbing tools rolled tight under the flap. The trail south ran clean for an hour. Then it stopped. A wall of green stood across the path, taller than she was, thick as a barn. Vines twisted through vines. Thorns the length of her thumb pointed every direction. She pushed a leaf aside with her sleeve. A thorn caught her cuff and drew a bead of blood from her wrist. She walked the edge for a mile east and a mile west. The wall did not thin. Going around meant three days lost, maybe four. The archive clock did not have three days in it. She went back to the town and asked the pepper seller who cleared vines. The woman looked at her for a long moment and named a name. Mariah found her in the back room of a shuttered bar, cleaning a curved blade on her knee. Rosa Lee did not stand. Her chest plate had a deep dent over the heart. Six knives hung off her belt in a row. Her red mouth barely moved when she spoke. "How much wall?" "A hundred yards. Maybe more. Thorned." "Pay?" Mariah opened her purse and set the coins on the crate between them. Rosa Lee counted them with one finger. "Not enough for my crew," Rosa Lee said. "Enough for me and the dog." "The dog?" Rosa Lee whistled once. Something moved under the bar. It came out low and long, ribs showing through patchy fur, jaw wet. Green stained its teeth. It was not a dog. It watched Mariah with one pale eye and chewed a length of vine like jerky. "It eats the thorn kind," Rosa Lee said. "I cut what it won't." They walked back to the wall by noon. The beast went in first. It tore leaves in wet mouthfuls and swallowed thorns without flinching. Rosa Lee followed with a curved blade in each hand. She cut low, fast, close to the root. Mariah came behind them and dragged the fallen coils off the path. It took four hours. By the end, Mariah's arms were striped red. The beast's jaws ran with green sap. A tunnel stood open through the wall, wide enough for one person at a time. Rosa Lee wiped her blades on a leaf. "Trail's yours," she said. "I go back at dark." "Thank you." "Something's watching from the far side." Rosa Lee did not point. "Since we started cutting. Keep moving once you're through." Mariah looked into the tunnel. On the far end, the trail bent into shadow. A branch shifted where no wind moved it. She tightened the pack straps. She stepped into the gap and started walking.