⚠️VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN⚠️
The bolts slid away and her mother flung open the door, the gale outside, howling like a mad wolf, rushed in, blowing out the fires in the torches. Sapphire had just enough time to see the face of her father before they were plunged into complete darkness followed by the pained cry of her mother's voice. Sapphire shot the arrow in surprise. The shaft flew into the dark, above the heads of the people in the doorway.
"Take him in," Orion's voice sounded strained and muffled as if his mouth was full of food.
Sapphire lowered her bow as Joseryn hurried to light the torches with a lump of burning coal she held in a tong. A loud click came as her mother closed the door and chained it. There was shuffling and a loud thump as a body fell down on the floor. Somebody moved in front of her and into the kitchen, towards the dining table.
The morbid stench of blood wafted into her nose, leaving her to try and grasp what was happening in the inky blackness. She could hear the whispers of her family and the fingers of dread clasped her in the dark of the night. She stumbled to the wooden table, knocking against the edge of a chair. She did not feel the sting of it. She was numb with fear. It pooled into her stomach and spine like icy water, taking over each and every nerve.
The shadows of two people hovered beside the table while one kneeled on the floor. Vision returned to her as the torches flared to life. For a moment the orange brightness was too much and then when everything became clearer, a gasp left her mouth as her eyes fell upon the body of her brother, coloured crimson with blood.
His tunic had been torn open by her father and a long gash ran the length of his pale torso - from his ear to collar bone to his stomach. Blood as red as wine poured out, colouring the plains of his chest crimson. Bruises covered his arms like faded gems. She could see the red muscle stretching taut beneath the incision as red bubbled out rapidly. She turned away from the sight, her stomach churning, bile rising in her throat.
On the floor, her uncle lay unconscious in a heap, his leg bent at an odd angle. Orion was cleaning a wound on the old man's face. Orion's own face was swollen, one eye as blue as a ripe berry. It seemed as if he had turned into an orchard in full bloom. Small cuts adorned his hands. One of his sleeves hung by a thread to his tunic. An ugly colourful blotch bloomed on his bicep like a tropical fruit.
"Get some water and heat it up! Quick!" Calitha ordered sharply and Sapphire rushed to do as told.
Cygnus' wounds were cleaned with a diluted solution of vinegar. Though unconscious, Cygnus hissed lightly and thrashed a bit causing Sapphire to hold down the boy. Once he had stopped, she tended to an injury on Cygnus' neck behind his hair. Calitha took a highly folded bed sheet that had been torn into strips by Joseryn and held it on the abrasion, trying to staunch the continuous flow of blood as her father washed a needle with the vinegar water. Cygnus had to be held down as his father stitched up the wound. Sapphire tried not to look, tried to block out her brother's high whimpers and the few high screams that left his mouth every time the needle pierced the skin to make an incision and the thread stretched across the wound.
She hoped she never heard nor saw Cygnus in such a state again. She rubbed her fingers in soothing circles on her brother's cold sweaty cheek. Her mother took another strip and circled it around Cygnus' torso. Joseryn extended towards Sapphire, a cloth in which snow had been wrapped and then went to put tea in the hearth. Sapphire held it to the bruises.
"What caused this?" Calitha said with repressed anger, her voice shaking, as her hands pulled her son's hands towards her chest, lips caressing the knuckles lightly. "Who did this?"
"Parr's men," her father replied, sitting down on a chair, clutching a snow parcel to his face. "They told us what they wanted. The mines. And not a single piece of iron from those mines they'd give to us, they said. Had they agreed to let us have even a small share of the iron, we would have agreed. We sent them away. They told us they'd be back. We stayed in case they came during the night and took over. We dare not send the children home in case they were attacked on the way or taken hostage. We were like hens in a coop. They returned near midnight. Twenty of them. We tried to placate them."
He trailed off, out of breath, clutching his side. Her mother rushed to his side, expanding the tear in the neck of his tunic and started examining his chest, where bruises mottled the skin grey under the light. Orion continued.
"That's when we sent the children down into the Pits. It was the safest. The talk didn't go as they planned. They got into a fight with Hamirden when he wouldn't let them through. Leif tried to stop it all. They ran Hamirden through." he sighed and slumped against the wall. Joseryn took his hand and started applying honey on the cuts, fingers gentle, face flushed with colour and brows turned down in a frown. Her eyes reflected nothing but fear. "The men took it as their chance and Leif raised the alarm. We attacked them. Outnumbered them ten to one, we did. Two of them snuck past our sentries towards the Pits. I saw them go."
He hissed and spat out a little blood. "I saw them go but one of their men delayed me. By the time I got to the Pits, Cygnus and Cane were trying to hold them off. Cygnus finished off one of them. One man killed Cane. I attacked the man from behind but not before he had turned upon Cygnus and given him that wound. Once the man was dead, it was all I could do to get him up. The other children were horrified and he was bleeding. I could only hope that his lungs hadn't been injured. The others had managed to subdue the soldiers outside. Father was injured. Uncle took Cygnus on Arzon and I took Jay."
Sapphire wondered if they would have managed to get Cygnus back in time had she not asked Jacinth to take the horses that morning. Not many men went to the mines on their horses. The teapot whistled behind them and Joseryn went to pour out the concoction. Sapphire held Cygnus' face in her hands, clutching his cold cheeks gently and placing her head beside his. The sound of hail crashing against the house punctured the silence.
"May Parr be damned for bringing this upon us," her mother growled, "and ripping the innocence from my child's heart."
"How many of our men were injured?" Joseryn enquired.
"Eight injured. Four dead. Hamirden, Cane, Stai and Dorden."
Sapphire kept her head down, resting upon the coarse wood, her eyes closed, her fingers feeling the soft beat of her brother's heart at the neck. She could feel the tears that threatened to fall if she opened her eyes. Her throat burned and skin perspired in the cold air and the apples of her cheeks flushed with colour. She raised her head to the sky, cursing the monarch and all who supported his heinous acts.
"They'll be back," Alphard said in a voice strained with fatigue and weakness. "We might have outnumbered them but those were trained soldiers. One of them escaped. They'll return. This time with reinforcements."
"We've got a week if not more," Orion said, "before they're back. The nearest cantonment is in Pyropa. The weather will prove to be a blessing. It might take longer. The men will have quite a task reaching Pyropa in this hail."
Sapphire volunteered to remain by Cygnus' side for the night as he lay in their room covered by the blankets. She ushered her mother to sleep once they were sure the house was completely bolted shut. Sapphire did not sleep. She lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. The gale outside raged like the thoughts in her mind. Somewhere in the distance, a loud crash sounded as a tree was uprooted.
How long was it till they were taken by the unknown, swallowed by man's own incessant greed? How long was it till they prevailed in their battle against iniquity? Her mind wandered to the men who lost their lives that night. Hamirden had been an honest man and a close friend of her Uncle. He had dined with them on several occasions. Cane was a sturdy young man of seventeen. Stai and Dorden had been Orion's companions and were among the ranks of the Nightwalkers. They had been as much a part of their landscape as much as the mountains that surrounded them or the river that twisted between their valley.
She heard movement and looked over towards Cygnus. He breathed in sharply before throwing his leg out of the quilt and going still once again. Sapphire got up and covered his leg with the quilt once again, her eyes lingering on the iron chain that surrounded the boy's ankle forming an image of two birds encircling each other.
She sighed.
We are the last VannØrn. The last surviving VannØrn. If our village dies, it'll be the end of our House.
Her skin crinkled as she narrowed her eyes, The end of their village meant the end of their bloodline. Cygnus stirred again but did not open his eyes. Sapphire frowned. Something was wrong. Cygnus was coloured red, cheeks as bright as a flaming hearth. She moved forward and placed her hand on his forehead.
Heat poured off his skin in profuse waves. Sapphire whipped the quilt off the boy, knowing it was essential for him to cool down. Cygnus shivered as the cold air struck his body, curling into a ball, groaning when his muscles stretched to pain him.
Sapphire helped him calm down. Taking one of her shawls she rushed out of her room, stopping in front of Orion's room when she heard voices. Putting her ear to the door she heard for any danger.
"And the fairy held the door,
O! The silver mighty door,
Her friends all sang and clapped,
For the enemy trolls had been trapped..."
Joseryn sang lightly; Lyra had probably woken up.
Orion spoke in a haggard voice, "We'll have to leave again. It's been eight months... They'll wonder..."
His voice trailed away into a yawn. Sapphire headed to the stairs. She was glad that Lyra hadn't walked in on Cygnus being stitched. They had probably been talking about Joseryn's mother, whose health had turned frail and she had moved away south to Yensrotho with Joseryn's older sister. The shift made it necessary for them to visit Yensrotho twice or thrice during the year.
Reaching the kitchen, Sapphire poured the freezing water from the barrel into a pot and took a towel from the cupboard. Going back to her room, she dipped the towel into the water, squeezed it and placed it on Cygnus' burning forehead. Using her finger she wet the boy's feet and hands. She stared at his face as the sky outside lightened a bit. Anger bubbled inside her and her fists clenched. She felt her eyes sting a bit.
Cygnus was too young to have observed the horrors of war, too young to fight, too young to kill. Parr had tainted the boy's soul... A knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts. It was Orion. His lip had been cleared of blood and a pink bulbous mass remained, glistening with honey.
"Did you sleep at all last night?" he asked, stepping into the room and looking at her from the corner of his eyes. "I heard you go downstairs."
"A bit," she lied, pulling her shawl close to her. Orion narrowed his eyes at her but borrowed the lie she fed him. "Is Joseryn asleep?"
"She has her eyes closed," he sighed.
Will anyone have a night's pleasant rest after the affairs of that night?
Orion continued, oblivious to her inner musings.
"However, I know her well enough to know when she's feinting. How's he holding up?" He tugged at the bandages that covered his hands.
"He has a fever. He stirred a few times but he won't get up... He will be fine, won't he?"
"The wound's not deep. His rib broke from the impact but it was fortunate his lung wasn't ruptured. It's the fever we have to get rid of. And he has to keep drinking something. He lost quite a lot of blood."
Orion took hold of one of Cygnus' hands. "Cane was his closest friend. They've been joined at the hip ever since Cygnus started at the mines."
Sapphire understood the implications of his words and a lump formed in her throat. A boy of a mere fourteen winters, having to watch his friend's life taken. She shuddered. Gulping, she spoke, "It's times like these that I wish Rueen was here."
"You always wish she was here," Orion replied. "He'll ask to go to the funeral if he gains consciousness before evening."
"We'll prepare the wagon for him. It'd be wrong of us to refuse."
Sapphire moved to her bed and started folding the blanket when silence enveloped them. "Is the Council assembling?"
"Right after sunrise," Orion tugged at the bandages once more. "God! They itch... It's being held at The Chamber. Father won't be able to go. Anyway, Leif asked me to tell you that he wants you there.
Sapphire turned around in surprise. "I thought only the Elders went. Why would he need me?"
"Half the village's been called. I expect him to lay down a strategy for fortifying." He looked at her with an amused smile. "We could do with a competent archer and warrior. Even if the warrior would rather fight the prey from a distance."
Sapphire chuckled lightly. "My enemies don't get to make it to me."
**
Sapphire plucked the string of her bow, absentmindedly, straightening her navy kirtle with one hand; she had abandoned her tunic for the Council meeting. She stood leaning against a wooden pole listening as the men argued, each of them putting forward their own suggestions. Half the village stood in the round room constructed from erected logs of pine trees. The sweet smell of pine sap lingered lightly in the air, though through the years it had decreased considerably. Soft sunlight filtered through the straw roof, bathing them in a burnished glow. Sapphire was surprised the structure had survived the storm that had wreaked havoc in the village, uprooting fourteen trees and causing half the wooden barns to fall in on themselves.
"What do you think leaving this place is going to do?" Ta Todhg growled, banging his bony fists on the table around which a dozen men sat. He stood up and leaned forward his nose a hair's breadth away from Leif, his eyes glaring at him through slits. "Where do you think we're going to go? Our entire lives we've been here, working like dogs to make a living. Our fathers built this place up from the ashes!"
"We all don't have to leave," Leif replied calmly, staring back at Todhg with a determined resolution. "But neither can we all remain. There are children here. They need to go away. And I don't think mothers will let them go on their own."
"We shall remain," Aine said, folding her arms over her shawl, jutting her chin out. "There's nowhere for us to go. If you think we're going to find refuge in Dofalmen or Medlar, then you're wrong. No one will support an entire village of four hundred men. No, we'll have to fend for ourselves."
"Mistress Delster is right," Margayn, one of Therin's four sons, put forth. "I have a family of my own. A farm that my father has made to flourish through the years as his father before him and all my ancestors before him. My brothers and I would rather fight those booger goblins than give up what we have built here."
Sapphire saw Leif grind his teeth in anger, but retained a facade of calm, clenching his knotted fists. She looked at Orion who stood among a group of men, beside her father, standing taller than any of them, his eyes narrowed and arms folded. He looked up and met her gaze. She raised her brows in question. He had remained surprisingly quiet ever since the meeting had begun. He tilted his head towards her. She narrowed her eyes at the gesture.
"If I might interject, Master Leif," Sapphire said, stepping forward to step beside Starla and Leif waved his hand, signalling her to continue. "I, for one, would be ashamed to call myself a VannØrn, if we suffered Soul-Ripper's injustice like silent mules. Someone has to stand up to oppression. They are hyenas, those men. They won't let us live anywhere in Falargimea in peace. They'll come for each and every village, every city till none of us remains but the rule of the King over the few subjects loyal to him. So, we'd better pick up our weapons and face the brutality rather than run from what's sure to come,"
Leif looked at her with his eyes narrowed. She saw Orion smiling at her, lips twisted. He had dared her to speak, and if the humiliation fell her way, she would rip apart each and every one of his preferred tunics. Ta Leif suddenly sagged in his chair, eyes roving over the resolute stares and set jaws around him and deflated as he put his head in his hands. He finally looked up. "What do you plan to do?"
Lorcan gave a sudden mad laugh full of glee, his black eyes glinting with an odd light she had never seen before in the old man. He remained to himself and his tavern, looking sour and rancid. "Oh! We fortify and we give those soldiers the best hiding they'd have ever had in their lives. We'll make them fear the very name of the mountain men."
"It's been too long that we've let ourselves be snuffed out," Orion said, moving forwards. There was a mad light in his eyes, a look that made the black caves of his eyes blaze. Something that told her his anger went farther than Parr's savagery the last night. "The king has committed slander against his people and for his crimes, he will burn. Burn like the brightest star and the light from his pyre would be the flare of a happier beginning."
The villagers cheered, yelling and crying out prayers and Sapphire couldn't help but smile at the hooting men, despite the fact that they were the golden particles of sand, at the edge of the shore, waiting to be swept away by the violent torrent of a stormy sea.
.·:*¨༻¨*:·.
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