Scaley's Arc

Chapter 10 of 13

Scaley walked back toward the village with the turtle's words in her head. The Elders had gone north. They were still moving, still out there. She stopped at the edge of the clearing and pulled out her ledger. Four cultists unaccounted for, the turtle had said before she caught them all. But the Elders weren't cultists — they were the ones giving orders. She'd been counting the wrong people. She followed the trail north for an hour until she reached the fence. It stood eight feet tall with barbed wire coiled tight across metal posts that leaned back at an angle. A red and white sign hung at eye level — no entry. She'd put it there herself three months ago after mapping the territory beyond. The ground past the fence dropped into sinkholes. The water ran black and still. Things moved in there that didn't leave tracks worth following. She'd marked it in her ledger as a zone to avoid. But now, just beyond the fence line, she saw them — footprints pressed deep into the mud. Three-toed, massive, spaced far apart. They led north into the dark water. The Elders had crossed into the forbidden zone, and their trail was fresh enough to follow. Scaley stood at the fence and opened her ledger. She could turn back now. The cultists were caught. The oath with Willow was as settled as it would ever be. Or she could cross the line she'd drawn for herself and find out what the Elders were protecting. She pulled the wire cutters from her belt and snapped the first strand. The fence peeled back with a metallic screech. She stepped through and felt the ground turn soft under her boots. The footprints stretched ahead in a straight line, deliberate and unhurried. Scaley adjusted her straw hat and started walking. She'd crossed her own boundary, and there was no turning back from it now. The Elders were within reach, and for the first time since the gem vanished, she had a trail that led somewhere real.