Nyx Evenfall's Arc

Chapter 4 of 9

Nyx stared at the map in the flat morning light. The wheeled house had rolled off hours ago. Out on the open mesa, one wind could scrub a wheel track to nothing. Silas leaned on the shack wall and said what Nyx already knew. "On foot, you'll never close the gap. The trail's already fading." Nyx broke into a run anyway, following faint ruts across the hardpan. The tracks thinned. Then they stopped at a wide stretch of blown sand, wiped clean. Nyx turned in a circle. Nothing but heat and empty ground in every direction. The trail was gone. A sound cut through the still air. Someone crying out, low and hurt. Nyx followed it over a rise and found a young woman crumpled in the dirt. Blood soaked her white shirt at the shoulder. She had dark hair matted to her face and hard eyes that tracked Nyx as an enemy first, help second. "Stay back," she said, one hand raised. "I can still throw a rock." "You're bleeding out," Nyx said, kneeling slow. "Let me look." Nyx tore a strip of cloth and pressed it to the wound. "What did this?" "Sera Cross," she said through her teeth. "And a striped thing with claws. Came out of the rocks. I ran. It got my shoulder." She winced as Nyx tied the cloth tight. "You want the wheeled house. I saw it. I know which way it turned." Nyx went still. "You saw it." "Two hours back. Rolling slow." Sera's eyes narrowed. "Fix me up right and I'll point the way. Leave me here and I take it to the grave." Nyx had no herbs, no salve. But a stranger appeared at the top of the rise, drawn by the noise. A boy with brown hair, a spread of swords slung across his back. Gareth Finder. Nyx had settled his fight two days ago. "You," Gareth said. He looked at the blood, not at Nyx. "That's a claw wound. Wild thing did it." He did not offer help. He stated it. "You owe me," Nyx said. "I kept Marina off you. Do you carry anything for a cut like this?" Gareth pulled a small bundle of flowers from his pack, stems wrapped tight. "Trade for these near the water holes. Crush the petals on the wound. Stops the bleed." He tossed it down. "Now we're even." He walked off, eyes back on the ground. Nyx crushed the petals into Sera's shoulder. The bleeding slowed. Color came back to her face. She sat up, tested the arm, and pointed south-southwest across the sand. "It turned there," she said. "Toward the second water hole. Follow the low ground. You can still catch it." Nyx pulled out the map. The line of water holes ran exactly the way she pointed. The trail was alive again. Nyx stood, marked the heading, and started walking fast before the wind could steal it twice.