The Unkindness of Fire

Chapter 1

"Safe camps were established in Diladia shortly after the Great War began, encouraging citizens to flee inward, rather than to be refugees in surrounding regions. Safe camps provided shelter for those fleeing from border skirmishes, or those that had been displaced by natural disasters such as the increasing number of wildfires and drought. As the war waged on, the practice of having safe camps continued to be both a respite and a political conundrum for royal families." - Excerpt from A History of the Great War, Volume One, page 76.

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"Come on Vencia," I say, reaching for her hand.

We have been running for days, only stopping to catch our breath and, when we felt safe enough, to sleep. Rest had not come often. We were just a few miles from the safe camp, previous paths of travelers through the forest pointing us in the right direction, the paths growing wider as we got closer. We have avoided the main roads, fearful of Iburnian soldiers coming after any survivors. Without access to the newspapers, it was hard to know the state of things, or what exactly had happened in the days after the attack on our village.

With Vencia's shaking hand in mine, her small frame leaning against a tree, I have never known such a tired as the tired I feel in my bones now.

"I can't," she takes a deep breath as tears fall down her face.

I kneel in front of her, take her face in my hands. Her hazel eyes, identical to mine, stare back at me, pleading. "We are almost to safety."

"Nowhere is safe," she sobs. "Mom and dad-"

"We can mourn them later."

"And those things falling from the sky... Val, how can anywhere be safe?"

I close my eyes, trying to stop the memory of the projectile falling from the sky, landing with an explosion across the only place we had ever called home. 

Iburn had taken the war to the skies, something I had not realized was possible. 

A nightmare I was not creative enough to imagine.

"We must get to the safe camp in Dalonige, or the head start mom and dad gave us will be for nothing. I'll get us to safety from there."

I do not say the words 'I promise', worried still about our vulnerability in the wilderness we had been running through. Realizing that most of our village would be destroyed, we took to the trees, hoping they would shelter us. I didn't know if even the dense forest would be enough protection, or how long we could survive on our own.

The fear is crippling, but Vencia's oval eyes, full of tears, blink back at me, just like when she was a baby. For her, I know I must keep the fear at bay. I do not tell her how uncertain I feel, about our precarious safety.

I do not tell her what our father had whispered to me as he lay dying, begging for us to run, to get to safety, to speak the truth. I did not tell her of the necklace that he had slipped into my hand, that now lay heavy around my neck. His words and the necklace had turned an already upside down world inside out, and I could not face what they meant. Until I knew we could be safe, I refused to process his words.

"Valarie?" Vencia wipes the tears from her cheeks with her trembling, thin fingers, more adept for sewing and craftsmanship than my thick fingers had ever been. "How? How can you get us to safety?"

"I'm going to ask a favor from an old friend. But to do that, we need to get to the camp, so I can send a letter. We're so close Vencia." I reach into the backpack, another surprise - this one welcome - from our mother and father, and pull out a bottle full of water from the river near our farm. They had put rations of dried meat and fruit in the pack as well.