Page 1 of Virelai's Hoard
1. The Bait and the Bite
Riley
Riley hoisted herself up on a crate, taking in the sprawling dockside and the half-blooded giant trailing it. Saltmere used to be a major port town, judging by its sheer size, built to hold four or five times its current population. That fact only made it feel more desolate as the merchant and fisher tents flapped in the morning wind, scant and with wide spaces stretching between them. The handful of people browsing the wares counted as a busy day. Once Aelion joined Nivros high in the sky, the whole place would be bare, with Saltmere’s rubble fleeing the heat and stink deeper into the town’s bowels.
Riley had never bothered herself with the docks. None of the street rats did. But today was different.
Despite the distance, her mark, Thorian, was hard to miss, standing out through the thin crowd like a ship’s mast as the fog rolled in, barely touched by Nivros’ gentle light. He towered over two sailors at the far edge of the dock, making them seem like children. Thick as a barrel, and armed to the teeth, judging by the pair of guns at his hips, glinting in plain sight. That was a pirate, alright. More than that, giant blood clearly coursed through his veins, but his stance was tall and proud and ready for a challenge. No one would dare give him grief for not beingentirely human. Not here. Not when Saltmere was still trudging along thanks to pirates such as him.
As if sensing the threat, Patch crawled out of his bag and scuffed up her clothes until he perched on her shoulder.
Letting the rat keep watch for her, Riley pulled out a parchment, cracked and yellowed by time. It was a map to something beyond the Quiet Sea, as far as she could tell, though she couldn’t read it. She squinted at the faded ink, ran her fingers along the brittle edge. Then, with a sharp rip, she tore it in two. The smaller piece with the writing was crumpled up and flung to the ground. The bigger piece she carefully folded up and stashed away.
Thorian had tried to be inconspicuous, but Riley was a street rat, and rats heard things.
“Isn’t that right, bud?” she murmured, more to herself, as she mindlessly stroked a finger under Patch’s chin. It didn’t distract him from his watch, and Riley wouldn’t allow herself to get distracted either.
Word was Thorian was searching for a map, or even just apieceof it, and this was the perfect opportunity for her to make use of something forgotten in a nook of her bag. She hadn’t wanted to risk someone else taking a look at it, or, more honestly, hadn’t wanted to be confronted with the embarrassment of her own illiteracy, so she’d never found out what the map wasfor. All she knew was that it was a map of the seas, rather than a map of Vareth, which made it valuable. No one sane of mind evenglancedat the water these days, and they certainly didn’t dare to venture beyond the calm sea surrounding the mainland. You’d have to be a fool. Or a pirate. Either way, Riley would be doing this one a service, relieving him of his coin before the seas did. She suppressed a smile. Too bad if this was actually the map he was looking for, and she’d just ripped off the most important part of it.
The time to move came when the group she was watching split. The two sailors disappeared down a side-alley, likely in search of drink, leaving Thorian by himself.
“How do I look?” she asked Patch.
He squeaked and scrambled off her shoulder, back into his hiding place.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
This con was promising enough to warrant some preparations. So today she was Ryan, a young hustler who acquired hidden gems in questionable places and passed them off at theirrealvalue. Her hair was temporarily dyed, her unruly curls tucked under a beret, and flecks of paint carefully applied over her nose and cheeks gave the impression of freckles, subtly changing the shape and feel of her features. For good measure, one of her front teeth was inked in black. If people looked at her teeth, they didn’t pay as much attention to her face. Not that she expected to ever see the man again after this, but one could never be too careful now, could they?
With a customary brush of her good clothes, she hopped off the crate and took the roundabout way to her mark, who had taken to haggling with one of the still half-asleep merchants. He didn’t notice her approaching, so she took a moment to settle against a wall, one foot up against it and arms crossed, in the attitude of someone who knew they owned something precious and had the upper hand in the bargain.
“Heard you’re looking for something, but it’s gonna cost you,” Riley said, letting her voice hang low.
When Thorian turned from the fisher’s stall to face her, she let her lips slip into a sly smirk. Her neck cracked as she looked up at him. The jagged scar on his face was the first thing she noticed, running across his nose and cheek and splitting his beard unevenly. His long, dark hair was gathered in a bun, grayslivers flashing through. More scars puckered his sun-bleached leather skin from under the salt-stained coat he was wearing.
Thorian’s eyes, clear blue and sharp like chipped glass, squinted with suspicion. “And what is it you think I’m looking for?” he asked gruffly.
Riley pushed off the wall, approaching. “A treasure,” she quipped, and started circling him as he tensed up, crossing his arms.
She studied his heavy leather boots, the gold rings decorating his fingers, the silver buttons of his coat, and figured the man must’ve survived at least a couple of trips out at sea. The trick to gambling was knowing when to stop, though, and Thorian? He looked like a man who had never backed down from anything in his life. The more she circled like a predator sniffing around her prey, the more he stiffened, though she posed close to no physical threat to him.
She stopped at his back as she said, “I have the map, or, well, a piece of it.”
When Thorian turned to face her again, nowhisback to the wall and arms crossed, she could tell the bait landed, though he tried to hide it with a frown. “A map, you say. Alright. Where is it?”
Straightening up to all the dignity her modest height allowed and linking her arms behind her back, Riley declared, “I need proof of payment first.” If he was willing to waste days asking around for this map, it must be worthsomething. “I can’t just pull it out for anyone who asks, you understand.” Faking obliviousness at his snort to that, she continued, “Who’s to say you en’t one of those fellas who can glance at the thing and jot down a perfect copy?”
The man eyed the bag slung over her shoulder dangerously, as if debating just taking it from her.
The back of her neck tingled, and she changed tactics. “Probably better you can’t afford it. I don’t see anyone sane of mind attempting the journey.” An obvious strike at his ego, but she coupled it with the most innocent expression she could muster. As if she weren’t even aware that he was a pirate and none of them were sound of mind. But, beyond that, if both she and these treasure-hunters had anything in common, it was their dream for one last con, one last adventure, with a reward at the end to top them all off. So she played it up, grasping for the first fear-inducing thing she could think of. “It crosses the siren-infested waters, and worse things besides.” Riley let a hint of worry worm itself into her voice. “You’re more likely to end at the bottom of the ocean than at the end ofthatjourney.”
His eyes snapped back to hers, at full attention again but harder, somehow. Like he’d expected this, but he was surprisedshe’dknow.
Could it be?
In the rush of an act going a littletoowell, Riley further ramped up the heat. She lowered her voice, pensive. “I don’t even think it’s gold at the end, if you get there. Notonly. But something the legends say-”
Thorian grabbed her now gesticulating arm, shocking Riley into silence.Shit. She went too far. She overshot and his iron-grip was going to crush her wrist and how the fuck was she going to get out of this one? Her free hand twitched toward the knife strapped at her hip, but before she could reach it, Thorian’s other hand slipped a bronze coin into her palm.
