Spero's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

For three nights, the loose stone gave Spero nothing. His notes to Valeria stayed folded, untouched. His last words to her still sat there, ink faded. She always answered by morning. Now silence. He pictured guards dragging her from some alley, and the thought made his hands cold. He needed help searching. The squad was the only tool he had. He found them sharpening blades in the ruined sparring hall they used as a den. Vines crawled through broken windows. Faded banners hung over dusty floors. Spero cleared his throat. "A woman saw a girl matching my sister near the old market. Weeks back. If we search there today, we could find a trail." A younger boy laughed. "We're hunting rainbow dragons. Real coin, not lost sisters." The others nodded and kept polishing steel. Spero's chest tightened. His lead was slipping under their greed. He looked to Rebecca. Rebecca stood apart, working a whetstone against her sword. Her black hair fell loose over her collar. She had shielded him once, orphan to orphan. He hoped she would again. "Please," he said. "You told me nobody asked your history. You just fed people and let them prove worth. Let me prove mine. One day of searching." Rebecca set down the stone. "Show me you're worth a day," she said. "Spar with me. Win, and we search your market. Lose, and you hunt dragons like the rest." Spero drew his blade. He fought the way he had learned—light on his feet, reading her before she moved. She came in hard, fast, all force. He didn't meet it. He slipped sideways, rolled off a cracked pillar, and struck her wrist from behind. Her sword clattered to the floor. The squad went quiet. Rebecca flexed her hand and smiled. "Acrobat and swordsman. Nobody teaches that here." Then her face fell. "You fight like her. The girl who beat me raw when I first tried the knighthood. Strongest thing I ever saw. Spiky hair, always grinning while she wrecked you." She looked away. "I hated her. Not because she won. Because she got to fight. My family sent me to guard, not to make the things I wanted to make." Spero's breath caught. Spiky hair. A grin mid-fight. Always ready to throw a punch. She was describing Valeria. Rebecca had crossed paths with her inside these walls. The girl he was hiding, the one gone silent three nights, was known to the very leader he was lying to. He kept his face still. "I'm sorry they took your art from you," he said, and meant it. Rebecca picked up her sword. "We search your market. One day." She turned to the squad. "Move." Spero won his day. But he walked out with a new fear heavier than the old. Rebecca knew Valeria's face. If Valeria was caught, and their paths crossed again, his whole lie would burn down at once.