Stryker's Arc

Chapter 12 of 16

Stryker slipped the bone dagger into her belt and followed the arrow's direction deeper into the chamber. The passage narrowed, forcing her to slide sideways between stone walls slick with moisture. Her scales scraped against the rock as she pushed forward, the gem's weight pressing against her ribs through the pack. The tunnel opened into a small room where lantern light flickered against cracked walls. Cloaked figures emerged from the shadows, moving with practiced silence. One grabbed her shoulders while another forced a mud-stained scroll into her hand. The parchment felt rough against her scales. Before she could read it, they pulled the gem from her pack and held it up to the light. A voice spoke from beneath a hood—her grandmother's name, then the word "debt," then "forty years." They showed her writing on the scroll: her grandmother's signature next to a promise to deliver the gem in exchange for breaking a family curse. The figures closed their circle. They'd been waiting. Stryker tried to pull free but rough hands pinned her arms. She heard Croaker's voice shout from somewhere behind her, then a heavy thud as he hit the ground. The cloaked figures bound their wrists with rope and dragged them through a concealed exit in the chamber wall. Outside, the marsh stretched dark and endless. They walked for what felt like hours until a fortified house appeared through the mist, surrounded by coils of barbed wire that gleamed in the moonlight. The figures shoved them through the doorway and locked it behind them. Stryker pressed her back against the wall and looked at Croaker. The gem was gone. Her grandmother's deal was real. And she'd just inherited a debt she never knew existed.