Waverly's Arc

Chapter 5 of 13

Waverly spent the first morning sorting replies. Twelve messages came back by dawn, most from contacts who'd already spotted the convoy or heard rumors about their offers. Three growers confirmed they'd been approached. Two had refused to sell. One had taken the deal and cleared out his entire stock. She needed a route the convoy couldn't follow. The merchants had mapped the main roads and tracked shipments through towns where their wagons could reach, but Lovelock's next delivery required a path that stayed invisible. Waverly pulled out her oldest maps—the ones from her courier days that showed abandoned trails and forgotten waypoints. She found what she needed twenty miles east: a canvas shelter built into the rocks where traders used to rest between longer runs. The structure blended into the landscape well enough that you'd miss it unless you knew to look. She marked it on a separate sheet, then added two more stops using the same criteria—places that existed off the documented routes, where a wagon could shelter without announcing itself. Between the second and third waypoint, she spotted a rusted warning sign that had marked a defunct mining boundary. It still stood, half-buried and easy to overlook, but visible enough to guide someone who'd been told to watch for it. She wrote instructions for her most reliable courier, describing each landmark without naming them on any map the merchants might intercept. The route would add half a day to the delivery time, but it would keep Lovelock's shipment invisible. When Silas arrived that evening to review responses, Waverly handed him the route instructions and watched his face as he read. He asked if she'd tested the path recently. She told him the waypoints had been standing for fifteen years and the terrain hadn't changed. He folded the paper and said he'd send two of his traders to verify the shelters were still usable, then looked at her directly and asked what happened if the convoy found out anyway. Waverly said they wouldn't—because this time she wasn't holding anything back. Every contact who needed to know about the route would get the message the same day, and Lovelock would have her flowers delivered before the merchants realized the shipment had moved. Silas nodded and pocketed the instructions. Waverly felt the shift settle: she'd just committed her hidden knowledge to someone else's operation, trusting that speed and honesty would protect Lovelock better than silence ever had.