Lil nerva's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Lil Nerva followed the road toward the warlord's sleeping place. She crested a ridge and dropped flat. Below, the road ran through a narrow cut between two rocks. Raiders had blocked it. Four of them lounged by a cart, crossbows across their knees. One checked every traveler who passed. This was the only road ahead. If they saw her green skin, they would know her at once. They would hold the ground and send word. Her trail would end here, and the warlord would learn she was close. She watched for a way around. The rocks rose sheer on both sides. There was no gap, no goat path. She could wait for dark, but the raiders had torches stacked by the cart. They meant to hold the checkpoint all night. "You're thinking of running it." The voice came soft from behind her. Lil Nerva spun with the dagger up. A woman knelt in the grass, hands open and empty. An elf, tall and still, with pale braided hair and a green tunic worn for travel. She had made no sound coming close. Lil Nerva had killed quieter than this and still not moved like that. "You'd die on the road," the elf said. "Crossbows beat a knife." She tilted her head at the raiders. "They burned something of yours. I can see it on you." Lil Nerva kept the blade level. "Why help me?" "I don't like their checkpoints." The elf drew a small glass vial from her belt. Inside swirled a pale fog, bright as a lamp. "This moves you past a wall. One throw, one step. But only one of us goes. There isn't enough for two." Lil Nerva looked at the vial, then at the four men. A trick could leave her stranded in the open. But waiting cost her nothing but trust. "How do I know it works?" The elf uncapped the vial. The fog rose and spun into a glowing veil the size of a door. "Step through where the road bends past the rocks," she said. "You come out beyond them. The men see nothing." She pressed the vial into Lil Nerva's hand. "Go while it holds." Lil Nerva slid down the slope under cover of the mist's glow. The raiders turned toward the light. One stood and shouted. She reached the bend, pushed the vial forward, and stepped into the veil. The world went white and cold. Then she stood on the far side of the cut, the checkpoint behind her. Crossbow bolts rattled off stone where she had been. The men ran to the rocks and found nothing but fading fog. Lil Nerva did not look back. The road ahead lay open to the warlord's door. But the raiders had seen the mist. They would know someone slipped their line. They would wake the warlord's house and tell him a shadow had passed their wall tonight.