Valeria's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

The map led Valeria off the ridge and onto a packed dirt trade road. She kept low, knife loose in her hand, eyes tracking every bent reed and broken twig. The road narrowed between two stands of brush. Somewhere ahead, the trap was already set. She did not yet know it was not meant for her. Her boot caught a rope hidden under leaves. The ground gave way. Valeria threw herself sideways and slammed onto the dirt as a net snapped up where her chest had been. She rolled to her knees, breathing hard. The pit gaped open beside her, leaves still drifting down into the dark. The net hung slack and useless now, torn at one corner by her fall. Someone had built this for a man who walked taller, slower, heavier. Not her. She wiped dirt from her palms and stared at the sprung trap. Whoever set it was close. And they would come back to check. Valeria crept forward and found the bait. A chest sat open in the road, gold coins spilling over its lip, gemstones catching the low light. No merchant could pass this and not stop. Beside the chest, propped on a stone, an ornate hand mirror caught the sun and threw a slow, glowing circle across the dirt. A lure inside a lure. She crouched behind the brush and waited. Boots crunched gravel down the road. A lean figure stepped into view, scowling at the tripped net and the empty pit. Another hunter. Valeria's grip tightened on her knife. The benefactor had not sent her alone into Needlefall. He had sent her into a race, and the other runners did not know her face yet. She slid back into the brush and let the stranger pass. The hunt had new rules now, and she had just learned the first one. She waited until the other hunter knelt to reset the net. Then she slipped from the brush, lifted the glowing mirror from its stone, and tucked it under her coat. The chest she left as it lay. Let him keep his bait. She had taken his eyes. Valeria moved off the road into the trees, lighter and colder than before. She was not the hunted here. She was a rival now, and the trade roads of Needlefall had just grown crowded.