Cherriese's Arc

Chapter 1 of 13

Cherriese crouched at the edge of the road and counted the gray streaks in the dirt. Iron-dust. The patrols had been through again. She pressed a hand to her ribs, where the last crossing had left a deep ache, and reminded herself why she kept moving. Somewhere ahead waited a place with safe water and borders she could hold. The exiled fairies counting on her did not have time for her to be careful. She pulled the little bubble from her pouch and breathed on it. It bloomed around her in a shimmer of pink and green, thin as a soap film. She stepped onto the road. The dust hissed against the shield but did not touch her skin. Halfway across, the bubble popped with a small wet sound, and the burning bit her ankles. She ran the last stretch and collapsed in the grass on the other side. The shield had worked, barely. She had three left, and the road ahead was long.