Valeria's Arc

Chapter 7 of 7

Valeria circled back at dusk. The trading post was no longer settled. The heaped display had thinned. Silk coats were gone. The small carved boxes sat half-packed in a crate by the porch. Through the open door, Valeria saw the merchant moving fast, folding clothes, sweeping coins from a tray into a pouch. Her mother was running. Valeria stood at the edge of the lantern light, hand on the locket at her chest, and watched the woman she had been paid to kill prepare to disappear before dawn. A travel pack sat open on the counter. It was elegant, painted with pale flowers, stuffed with bottled water and wrapped food. Beside it lay a folded dark cloak and a small knife. The merchant worked without looking up. She took only what she could not leave. Valeria stepped onto the porch. The boards creaked. The merchant froze, one hand inside the pack. "Stop," Valeria said. The merchant turned. She lifted her locket again. Valeria lifted hers. The two halves caught the lantern light — twin frames of gold, twin portraits of a black-haired woman with gold eyes and a third eye set above her brow. Side by side, the lockets were one matched pair. Proof in metal. The merchant's hand shook now too. "Decide," she whispered. "Hide me, or finish it. But do it before the other one comes." Valeria did not finish it. She stepped forward and shut the pack. "Go," she said. "North road. I will slow whoever follows." The merchant grabbed the pack and ran into the dark. On the counter, forgotten in the rush, a green jade dragon coiled around itself — a bracelet the merchant had worn every day Valeria could remember from the locket portrait. Valeria picked it up. The stone was warm. Her choice was made. She had let her mother live, and now the hand that hired her would learn it.