Aria Nightwing's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

The wagon sat tilted at the side of the road where the storm had left it. One back wheel lay split in two, spokes snapped clean, the rim cracked through. Rain still beaded on the canvas top. The horse stood in the traces, head low, mane dark with wet. Aria climbed down with her sword on her hip and crouched by the broken wheel. Ben knelt across from her. Neither of them had ever fixed a wheel before. They tried anyway. Ben dug a length of rope from his bag and lashed the split rim together. Aria braced the axle on a flat stone while he worked. The rope slipped twice. The wood would not hold its shape. An hour passed, then another. Ben sat back on his heels and wiped his face. "He's getting farther every minute," he said. Aria looked down the empty road behind them. The man they were chasing had a head start, a horse, and no broken wheel. She felt the chase slipping out of her hands. While Ben tied another knot, Aria walked a short circle around the wagon to stretch her back. She found a sealed scroll wedged under a stone near the ditch, dark ribbon still tight around it. The wax mark looked fresh. She brought it to Ben. He turned it once in his hand and his face changed. "That's his seal," he said. "He came through here. Recent." Aria looked up the road ahead. A figure stood at the far rise, small and still, watching them. The figure started walking. Aria knew the face before she could see it clearly. She had drawn it a hundred times. Ben stood up slow beside her. "That's him," he said. His voice went flat the way it did when something closed inside him. The man drew a long knife from under his coat as he came. He was not stopping. He was not speaking. He had found them on a broken road with a broken wheel and he meant to finish it here. Aria's wings opened before she told them to. She drew her sword. "Get behind the wagon," she said to Ben. Ben did not move. He pulled a short blade from his bag and stepped up beside her. The man kept walking, steady, close enough now that she could see the gray in his beard and the calm in his eyes. Aria planted her feet on the wet road. The chase was over. He had come to them. Whatever happened next would happen here, between the broken wheel and the empty road, and she would not be the one hiding under a bed this time.