Sarah Snakearm's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Sarah Snakearm stood in front of the challenger board at the edge of the sparring grounds and counted the names above her own. There were eleven. Two weeks ago there had been four. She wore her purple sports bra and her black and purple trim, and the morning crowd parted around her because everyone in these lands knew the Snakearm had never been pinned by anyone but Kevintor Neverloss. They also knew she had been asking him out since the day he swept her leg and reached down to lift her up. The board listed every fighter chasing the champion, ranked by how close they had drawn to him. A red ramen shop owner sat at the top. Below her, a feast-platter challenger from the poultry trade. Below that, a woman who had traded a saber for a forged message. Sarah's name was eleventh because Sarah did not know where Kevintor had gone. The others did. Every day she waited, the gap widened. She pulled a folded card from her wrap. It was the lesson invitation she had sent him three weeks ago, returned unopened by a courier who would not say from where. Private lessons. Her handwriting. Two ramen coupons clipped to the corner because she had heard he liked the spicy pork. He had not answered. He had not refused either, which was worse, because refusal would have been a fact she could fight. A shop boy pinned a fresh notice beside the board. Sarah read it twice. A floral-bordered date invitation, posted in the open, addressed to the champion by name. The signature at the bottom was the red-haired ramen cook from three valleys over. The notice said she had served him a bowl that brought him back to his feet, and that he would be returning to her shop. Sarah felt the crowd shift behind her to read it. Someone laughed, low and careful, and stopped when she turned her head. She went to the ramen shop that afternoon. Ronda Nayoodle was wiping down the counter and did not look up when Sarah sat. Sarah laid the returned lesson card on the wood between them. "Where is he." Ronda glanced at the card, then at Sarah's arm bands, then back at the broth she was straining. "Dragon mountain. Serpent bridge. He won't be there long." She set down the ladle. "You'll want to move." Sarah asked why she was telling her. Ronda said, "Because you're the only one who'll get there before the rest, and I'd rather lose him to a fighter than a forger." Sarah left the card on the counter. She walked out into the road with a direction for the first time in three weeks, and behind her the board kept its eleven names, and ahead of her the mountain held one.