Devils on Starfall Isle

5

Verity finished the fifth charm, and laid it next to the others. The fire was warm, the big log having caught; she grabbed a wad of rags and pulled the grill out as quickly as she could before her bread burnt. She put the hot grill down on the cold earth, and took the rolls off, laying them on a piece of cloth. Then she bundled the cloth into her bag. Next to it, she had a little bag of sharpberries that she'd picked earlier, the blue juices already staining the fabric purple. She took some clothes, a knife, her flint and tinder box, a rag for her teeth; and then lastly she picked up the rune bag.

She told herself that she didn't trust her shaking hands to cast the runes; but the truth was she was too afraid to find out what it had to say. She remembered Tira's warning about the power of knowledge. So she packed the rune bag, unopened. And then, she sat down to wait, tending the fire.

Soon enough, the calls subsided; the things were going west.

This was their grim routine; to arrive just after sunset in the village clearing, where they would prowl and shriek; and then again, just before sunrise, fleeing the light. She remembered the first night, how the other survivors had huddled together in the village hall, brave torch light against the dark; and how just before dawn, she'd listened to their screams. And she'd wept.

She pushed a third log onto the fire, so that it kept burning bright, the smoke curling from the chimney like every other night that she'd hidden here; and she opened her door a crack.

The clearing was, as far as she could tell, empty.

As quietly as she could, she crept from her hut. She'd been counting the days, scratching the lines on the bricks of her chimney; and tonight was starfall's peak.

The sky was cloudless, the moon full and bright, its light bleaching everything like bone. And above her, every ten seconds or so, a blazing yellow spark fell from the sky in the north, briefly lighting everything with pale fire, before fading to nothing.

This was her plan; while the things were away in the west, doing whatever they did, she was going to walk south-east to the town of Hod; and from there, to the harbour town of Lee, and get the ship that would arrive the day after starfall's peak, when the danger of burning rocks was at its lowest. And she would get off this terrible island. The ship would arrive early in the morning, and she couldn't make the journey in the time she had between the things leaving and the ship departing; so she had decided to stay in her hut for their first visit, and chance a night in Hod, or maybe the bay, hidden as best as she could. She had no idea what state they were both in. More ruin and death, probably.

She closed her door carefully, and fled to the shelter of the trees as quickly as she could, the forest clearing feeling terrifyingly open. As she ran, another falling star lit up the sky like a torch; and she saw the corpse of a goat, torn apart, the mud around it stained black.

The road to Hod was wide enough for a little cart; it meant that she had to make a decision about travelling on the road itself, quick but exposed, or crashing through the undergrowth to the side. She'd agonised about this choice as she'd sat and waited in her hut, night after night, shivering in fear; but when she reached the path she realised that the forest was too dense, and her only option was the road. So, her heart pounding in her mouth, her boots pounding on the packed mud of the ground, lit by the moon and the falling balls of fire, she ran as quickly as she could to Hod.