Scarlett Meris's Arc

Chapter 5 of 15

Scarlett landed the green dragon in the pines above the healing house before dawn. The mother had followed her pup deep into the eastern peaks and settled there. That bought them a day, maybe two. It did not buy them a name. Someone in the fae court was paying for the barbs, and until Scarlett knew who, every strike she made risked hitting the wrong throat and burning her own cover. Brynn was already awake inside the healing house, grinding root at the table. Crystals along the eaves caught the first light and threw color across the stone floor. Scarlett laid the rune-sword on the wood between them. The runes were dim now. Six colors, sleeping. "I need a name," Scarlett said. "Whoever is paying for the barbs. I can't keep flying blind." Brynn did not look up from the mortar. "Then ask the arms dealer." "Thorn Nightwhisper." "He sells to whoever pays. He'll know the buyer." Brynn set the pestle down. "He'll also sell your face to them by morning." "Then I don't give him my face." Rivilin shifted outside, tail scraping the stone. Kieran came through the door with the sound of it, coat wet from the pines, crown pushed deep in his pocket. He looked at the sword on the table and then at Scarlett. "You're going to see Thorn," he said. Not a question. "He knows the buyer." "He knows my father's harbor too." Kieran's jaw set. "If he sees you carrying a court blade, he'll trace it back to my house before you clear the door." "Then I leave the sword." "Then he kills you." Brynn wiped her hands on her apron. "I'll go." Both of them turned. "He doesn't know me," Brynn said. "I'm human. I carry herbs. I buy a knife off him for boar and I ask which lord's coin has been crossing his table. Men like him talk to girls they think are stupid." Scarlett started to argue. Brynn cut her off. "You go, he sees a fae rider. I go, he sees a customer." Kieran said nothing for a long moment. Then, flat: "Take moonpetal. If he pours you a drink, don't drink it." Brynn left at midday with a coin purse and an empty satchel. Scarlett paced the healing house until dusk. Rivilin watched her from the yard with slit yellow eyes. Brynn came back after dark. Her braid was loose. There was a thin cut along her jaw she had already packed with yarrow. "He talked," she said. She set a folded scrap of paper on the table. One name, written in her own hand, because she had not trusted Thorn to write it. Scarlett read it. Her stomach dropped for she knew it was the king of their court. Kieran took the paper from her fingers. He read it. His face did not change, but his hand closed around the edge of the table until the wood creaked. The name was his father's.