Petra Navar's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Petra had the letter and the layout. She did not have a single person who would stand beside her. That morning she carried her proof to the captain of the guard. He read Rowan Sable's broken letter twice. Then he set it down and looked at her with tired eyes. "You accuse the crown's betrothed," he said. "A lord. On a page you stole, with no name signed and no witness. Bring me someone who saw this hand write it, or leave." He slid the letter back across the table. Petra folded it and walked out. The clock had not stopped for her. She found the runaway servant woman where she often waited, near the gate of the candlelit manor. Maren Coldwell had confronted the servant boy here days ago and pressed the letter into Petra's care. She stood now with her wool cloak pulled tight, dark circles under her eyes, the folded engagement contract still tucked in her boot with its wax seal hanging loose. She saw Petra and stiffened. "They won't believe me," Petra said. "The captain wants a witness. Someone who saw Rowan give the boy his orders." Maren's jaw tightened. "You want me to walk into a palace and name a lord." She glanced down at the sealed contract in her boot. "I'm running from one of those already." "You saw the boy at this gate," Petra said. "You knew what he carried before I did. You told me to take it so he wouldn't hang alone." She kept her voice level. "If Rowan pours that cup, the boy hangs anyway. So do others. You know his face. You heard him." Maren looked at the manor's warm windows a long moment. Then she pulled the contract from her boot. She broke the dangling seal with her thumb and dropped the folded page in the mud. "I've been hiding behind that paper," she said. "It made me somebody worth chasing. Worth ignoring, too." She looked up. "Take me to your captain. I'll tell him what I saw the boy carry, and who sent it." They went back through the gate together. The captain heard Maren describe the boy, the sealed letters, the meetings, the name she had heard whispered. He wrote it down. When she finished, he did not slide the page back. "A witness," he said slowly. "That changes things." He looked at Petra. "I can't arrest a lord on this. But I can post you where you asked to stand. The passage behind the crown's seat, at the feast. Guard it." Petra had her order at last. She had a witness, and a place to stand. But the captain would not move against Rowan openly, which meant no arrest, no warning. Rowan would arrive smiling, cup in reach, and never know he was watched. The feast was tomorrow. Everything now came down to one narrow door and whether she reached it first.