Blue Gentian: A 'Spies of Kwedregiol' novel

Soldiers

It was late when the soldiers came the second time.

The front was closed and Bren behind it, but Salya still sat up in case he needed anything. He wasn't any better, although he rocked and muttered less in his stupor after Salya made that absurd promise. She would not even know how to find a man named Sammit in the whole of Dregiol, nor what to tell him if she found him.

In the quiet night, Salya jumped when the door crashed open. The men that poured into the wagon were not dressed as soldiers. They wore black, and fierce expressions.

"You," said one of them. "We're searching the wagon. Leave, or we'll put you out. You too." He thumped his fist against the rail of the top bunk and startled Amma awake.

Salya's hands shook as she struggled to wrap the blanket in her lap across her shoulders and stand up from the chair. Amma climbed down from the bunk and threw a blanket across her own shoulders. Salya willed herself not to look at the panel to see if it held. She could not give Bren away. She couldn't.

She slipped her hand beneath Amma's blanket and tucked her arm around her grandmother's waist, for her own comfort mostly. They went to stand in the field in the night, under the bigger blanket of stars with the rest of the traders who were gathered there. They looked back at her with stone faces. She tucked her head into Amma's shoulder and tried not to cry.

Silent, silent, she repeated to herself over and again as if chanting it hard in her head would bind the crowd around her from speaking. They had agreed. But they had not agreed when they knew that soldiers in black would come and turn them into the night.

More black figures busted through wagon doors, and more travelers joined the crowd in the circle of earth between the wagons. They all glowed white in their nightclothes in the moonlight. Together, they listened to men bang cupboards open and pull aside furniture. Sometimes the men tossed things into the dirt. The moon was full and round.

Silent, silent, Salya willed.

It seemed forever; waiting and not being able to see. Not knowing whether Bren was found or whether he was safe in his hiding place. She hoped Farndon could keep quiet, that Upiel wouldn't speak. Every shout from the men made the breath catch in her throat. Every shout might mean that they had found him. And then what would happen to them all? From the wagon came the tinkling sound of shattering dishes.

Silent, silent.

The black figures poured back out of Salya's wagon and into the one next door.

Salya couldn't help herself. She ran. She had to know.

Amma tried to catch her arm as she ran, but failed.

Salya could not see the panel from the doorway. A heap of broken dishes and bedding covered the floor three feet deep. Her heart leapt. She thudded up the steps.

The panel was there. Bren was still there.

"Salya come out," said Amma, softly.

Bren was thumping on the inside of the paneling.

"Have to. Dregiol... they'll kill her," said Bren. The panel broke free and Bren's arms flailed underneath.

"NO!" said Salya. "No, Bren your leg is broken. Bren, you can't get up. Bren!" She pushed his shoulders but he struggled against her hands and tried to bat her away. "Bren, you have to lie down and be quiet right now. You have to."

"Salya!" said Amma's voice from outside the wagon.

Next door, something smashed.

"Kayl, they'll kill her," said Bren.