Ziggy Malone's Arc

Chapter 2 of 8

The tavern with the black dragon over the bar was easy to find. The mystery person was not. Ziggy pushed inside at dusk. Two dozen strangers filled the room, and any one of them could be the sign-up. Nobody wore a sign. Nobody looked up. The solstice arrived tomorrow. If she didn't find the right person by nightfall, she'd wait another year. She worked the room. She asked a man cleaning mugs. He shrugged. She asked a woman by the window. Nothing. Her stomach knotted. The sun dropped lower through the dirty glass, and the shadows crawled up the walls. A heavyset boy tugged her sleeve. He came up to her chest. Brown curls, red sneakers, shoes rubbing his heel raw. He looked lost the same way she felt lost. "You're doing it wrong," he said. "Doing what wrong?" Ziggy said. "Looking. You look like you need something. That's how they know you're a stranger." He said it flat, like a fact. "I'm Milo. I'm not supposed to talk to you. I have to find my gate before the sun's down." "What gate?" Milo's mouth shut tight. "Can't say. It's secret." He glanced at the door, then back. "But I know how to spot people who hide. The old man taught me. You watch who watches you." Ziggy stopped moving. She looked, really looked. One person in the corner sat with a drink they weren't drinking. Their eyes tracked her every step. She'd walked past them twice. "That one," Milo said. "See? Been staring since you came in." Ziggy's pulse jumped. "Milo. Thank you." "Whatever. It's stupid you didn't see it." He pulled his sleeve free and turned for the door. "Sun's almost gone. I gotta go." And he slipped out into the fading light, off to a gate she couldn't help him find. Ziggy crossed to the corner. The watcher set down the untouched drink. Up close their face gave away nothing. "You keep circling," they said. "Sit or leave." She sat. Her hands were steady now. Eleven months of training, and it all came down to one word. "Who sent you?" the watcher asked. "Jade Monroe." The watcher studied her a long moment. Then they slid a scrap of paper across the table. A single mark on it, and a time. "Peak. Noon tomorrow. Late means out." They stood and walked into the crowd, gone before she could speak. Ziggy held the paper in her taped fist. She was in. The door had opened, and she'd walked through it. But she'd used Jade's name to do it, and now she owed the one fighter she most wanted to beat. Tomorrow she'd climb Jennings Peak. Somewhere up there, Jade would be waiting to collect.