Spero's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

The border wall of the Platinum Imperial rose gray against the morning. Guards checked every traveler at the gate. Valeria pulled her hood low and slowed her steps. "They knew my face here once," she said. "A knight who left without leave. If a guard names me, they'll drag me off before we find a single trace of your sister." Spero saw her hand drift to the coiled rope at her belt, the heavy hooks worn smooth from use. She had carried it since the tower. Now he understood why. They slipped through with the crowd. But two streets in, a merchant stopped short and stared at Valeria. His mouth opened. "You," he said. "You're the one who—" Valeria didn't wait. She grabbed Spero's sleeve and ran. The merchant shouted for the guard. Boots pounded behind them. Valeria cut down a narrow lane between two walls, then stopped at a dead end. A high stone gate sealed the alley. Spero's chest went tight. She swung the grapple once and threw. The hook caught the top ledge. "Climb," she said. "Now." She shoved him up first, then hauled herself after, and yanked the rope up behind them. They dropped into a still, quiet yard. Before them stood a crypt, its face carved with worn symbols, moss in every crack. Valeria pushed the slab door open and pulled him inside. They crouched in the dark. Outside, the boots passed, faded, gone. "They'll watch the streets now," Valeria whispered. "I can't walk with you. Not in daylight. Not anywhere they might look." Her jaw was tight. Spero knew what it cost her to say she couldn't fight her way through. She never asked to step back. "But I know this city. I know where a scared girl would hide." Spero looked at the sealed slabs around them, the carved names of the dead. "Then we split up," he said. His stomach turned at the words. He hated working without her. But he saw the truth of it. Her face was the danger now. "You search. I ask questions. My face means nothing here." Valeria nodded slow. She pried loose a flat stone near the door and set it back crooked, leaving a gap. "Here," she said. "You leave a note under this. I check it at night. I leave one for you. We never meet in daylight. We never get caught together." Spero pressed his palm to the cold stone. "Every night," he said. "Every night." She gripped his shoulder, hard and steady, the only comfort she knew how to give. Then she pulled her hood up and slipped out through the crypt door into the shadows. Spero waited alone in the dark until the light shifted. Then he stepped out the other way, into a city that did not know his face, to hunt for his sister on his own.