If anyone had told Andrew a few years ago that he would be hiding from the King's men under the shelter of the Vakhor, then he would have laughed in their faces and set Chippy on them. Yet, there he was, travelling with an odd group of people. He kept on glancing backwards, towards the uninhabitable land beside them. Somewhere, in that cover of the Vakhor lay his home. Somewhere, in there, lay Murkat, rotting and crumbling after the rebellion there. He missed his Sama and he missed Chippy, the one white faced capuchin he had bought off a merchant by saving up the money for three months.
Twice, they came upon masses of slaughter and heaps of rotting bodies piled on top of each other, tangled messes of skin, limbs and cloth. He wanted to vomit each time. They couldn't bury each and every one of them with the proper rites, more for the lack of time they had rather than the lack of knowledge. Each time, Lysander floated each and every man into the graves, letting a final wave of Draedech wash over the ground, till Edwin Parr's symbol burned in the ground as bright as the West Star, till the meaning etched itself into the earth. This was Lysander's anger, one he had pushed deep into his soul till it had turned into bitterness.
But, he could push it down into the fragile glass for only so long, till it cracked and resurfaced. It had returned, raised its head like the flaming monster it was and Andrew knew it would burn each and every tyrant in their land.
Ileeyan was the one who made small wreaths out of dried tree leaves and fallen flowers, giving the villages a haunting beauty that lingered behind them as they went.
"What's the nearest city?" Thomas asked, wiping sweat out of his eyes and squinting at the afternoon sun as if it had done him some great offence. After three days of slow riding beneath the scorching ball of fire, Andrew thought that Thomas' glare was not strange.
"Heif," Lysander replied. "If my estimations are correct we'll be entering its outskirts by tomorrow evening."
"Then we'll have to turn back around," Ileeyan said from somewhere at the very rear of the group. "We'll be heading straight into Parr's hands if we continue."
"We will not," Lysander muttered, teeth clenched. He had been on edge all day. "We have to get something to eat, a newspaper and other supplies. We'll disguise ourselves. And if someone asks we are just a group of entertainers and sellers."
"Except that we have no goods to sell," Rueen's bored voice spoke up from beside him. "Nor anything to entertain anyone with. A bit suspicious isn't it?"
"You're a healer," Lysander threw over his shoulder. "I'm sure you of all people will find some use of your talents."
"She will," Thomas said. "If the situation's the same all over then there will be plenty of people for you to stitch up."
They fell quiet after that, straying farther and farther from the Vakhor border, leaving the blinding orange behind them. He saw Sapphire relax in front of him the moment the border was nothing more than a speck of orange in the distance.
They camped in an abandoned field that night, hiding between the half-trampled leaves of the radishes. Andrew heard a rat scamper by his ear. They pulled the half-ripe radishes from the ground for their breakfast the next morning, boiled them into a flavourless mush and downed their last pieces of stale bread with it. By the time they reached the gates of Heif, their disguised forms reeking of sweat and mud, Andrew wanted to jump into the sea stretching away from them, beyond the fences that surrounded the city. The crowd of people at the gates was large. Most of them carried large bags over their bags. Andrew realised these were the few people who could afford to get themselves out of Falargimea while others were left to rot under Parr's tyranny.
For a moment, his thoughts swam back to Donovan.
That backstabbing lizard.
He wondered if he had found enough wealth in Yensrotho to make himself an empire of lies and tainted luxury while they scurried around half the length of Falargimea trying to get to some sort of safety.
"What brings you here?" the guards at the gates, lowered their pikes on either side to make a cross in the middle. Lysander was the one who answered.
"We come to Heif in search of trade," he lied through his teeth. "Goods to buy. Goods to sell."
"Doesn't look like you have any goods on you," the second guard said, eyeing Sapphire and Rueen up and down. "You look like you don't even have a single Biral on you."
Andrew could agree with the last statement. They had about thirty Birals in their pockets combined.
"We sell medications," James said, stepping forward with his straw bag of herbs. "Me and my daughters, we have the best cures to all ails. See this echinacea, here," he pulled out some dried stalks and roots. "Coneflowers. Mix them with feverfew. The best remedy for any cold. Comes in handy for Sailor's Salt Flu. You see hot air in these seas really gets to the brains of the people. Muddles their memories and consciousness-"
"You and your daughters are healers," the first guard snapped, his golden hair ruffling in the light breeze as he interrupted James. "What do the rest of you do? Dance around their cauldrons when they make their remedies?"
From somewhere Ileeyan managed to conjure a bunch of baskets, weaved with branches that should have snapped in their current configurations.
"We sell weavings of the best kind," he started in his deep voice, a layer of anticipation and anger buried under the politeness. "There must be some market where we can sell these and earn some coin."
The guards scanned them with their eyes narrowed and Andrew wished wholeheartedly that Chippy had been with him. Then maybe he could have asked him to dance on his head to make the guards believe that they were entertainers. Perhaps he could snatch the baskets from Ileeyan and juggle them. They stood in tense silence for a few moments, eyeing each other up before the two sentries cleared the way.
"If you make any trouble, you'll be up in Sabal Hold before you can snap your fingers," the golden haired man warned and they piled in. They did not let their guard down.
The city was teeming with Harfen's men, barking out orders at the people, standing over stalls, overlooking each and every activity taking place. A sick lurch swooped into his stomach as he looked at a group of five children, each one below the age of ten, huddled in an alley piled high with garbage. One of them held a piece of dirt covered pie in one hand. He broke off small pieces and fed them to the others. Andrew looked away the moment the boy's met his.
James noticed and patted his back in sympathy. They split later, pairing up and heading to get whatever they could with the small amount of money they had. Andrew fell in the company of Sapphire. The woman scared him. He couldn't get the image of her hair in a tangled mess on top of her head, blue eyes blazing, blood on her cheek and sword brandishing in front of Lysander's face as she thrust a leaf of all things into his face, growling under her breath.
Her staff tapped on the ground as she limped beside him, one hand holding onto her snow white mare.
"I'm not as scary as you think," her amused voice cut through his thoughts.
Could she read minds?
She turned to him with her lips pursed.
"You've been like an injured buck around me," she said. She had a lilt to her voice, an accent he thought he had heard somewhere before. He just could not put his finger on it.
"You looked deranged the first time I saw you," Andrew replied in a low voice.
"I was being chased. It's no wonder I looked deranged. I assure you, I can be quite polite when I want to."
"I have no doubts about that."
The sardonic remark caused a laugh to burst out of her and she snorted in a completely unladylike manner, before turning towards him with an odd twinkle in her black eyes.
"You remind me of my brother," she whispered and her smile turned wistful.
"Did he escape? The raid on Kapok I mean."
She looked around and her next words were vehement and firm. She looked around and said them as quietly as she could.
"They disappeared. My brother, cousin and his wife. They have to be somewhere out there. Maybe hiding, somewhere but safe. They have to be safe."
Andrew understood the sentiment. The woman was holding onto some kind of invisible rope, trying to give her mind peace. The other way led to madness. For her sake, he hoped her family was safe.
They bought a few vegetables. The prices were higher than they had been the last time Andrew had set foot in a market in Medlar. It took ten Birals for them to fill their packs with dried salted meat and bread. A loud horn blew in the harbour and as the two passed it, they saw a large ship being docked. The merchants stumbled their way with their loads, all over the cobbled streets.
The sea looked welcome. A path away from this madness they were swimming through. The two stood there, just staring at the blue white foam of the waters, stretching forwards and then retreating as if stung by the darkness of the land. It was the yells that broke their reverie and made them look towards the marketplace that had frozen and cleared, leaving three armour clad men holding down a lone man. One of the sentries punched the man in the stomach and he doubled over, but only for a few moments, before kicking one of the three in the shin. The guard stumbled back.
Blood streaked down the man's broken nose and onto his lips. His brown hair was wild and when he looked up his gaze fell on them for a mere moment before he was being tackled onto the ground. Beside him, Sapphire's breath hitched and Andrew turned to look at her. She had paled.
"Kian," she whispered and that was all the sign Andrew needed to hold her back. His hand curled on her upper arm and he held on firmly, trying not to let her move. The commotion in the market kept the attention away from Sapphire's struggling form as she snarled at Andrew.
"Let me go!" she said, dark hair escaping from her braid.
"Are you out of your mind?" Andrew whispered back, stepping on her foot. He knew it was cruel of him to step on the appendage that pained the woman, but that was the only way to stop her from flying towards her friend in the market. "You'll give us away!"
"I can't let him die! Please. They'll kill him. He's too young! He has children to look after. Let me go!"
From somewhere on their right, a woman and man came sprinting towards them and it took Andrew a moment to recognize Rueen and James with their disguises. James took hold of Sapphire's other arm. The expression on Rueen's face told him that it was taking all her restraint to not go bounding up to the guards.
They could not give themselves away. They had to survive. They could not reveal themselves. Not when they had come so far.
An arrow came flying from somewhere on the rooftops and embedded itself between the two breastplates of one of the guards. Kian took the momentary surprise of the other two sentries to whip out a dagger and gut one of them, slashing right through the chainmail and padding. Screams erupted across the square and the people rushed away, stampeding over each other to get to safety. Another arrow came flying and hit an approaching guard.
Andrew and Sapphire lifted their heads to look at the place the arrow had come from.
"It's him..." Sapphire's voice was breathy, faint. "He's the one who killed Elyane."
The dark shadow on one of the tallest buildings moved, a point protruding from the shoulder as he loaded another arrow. The face was obscured in darkness. Another arrow went flying.
Andrew turned back to look around, hoping Kian had gotten away. The man was struggling against a bulky man. Kian punched him in the nose and sprinted the moment his captor fell back, howling. People pushed into them, their bodies colliding with them and jostling them into each other.
"Come on!" James said, pulling Sapphire and Andrew, a hand on each of their arms. Behind them, the snow white horse had vanished. "We need to go! Before the whole place turns to disaster."
Sapphire moved.
Finally!
Andrew could dance in relief as she started walking as fast as she could away from the scene, looking back again and again. It was then that the first gunshot sounded. Loud and clear, it split the air in two. More screams followed and then howls of pain as bullets rained down upon them.
"GET DOWN!" James' voice rang and they shuffled forwards, their hands above their heads, crouching as low as they could.
Two women knocked into Rueen from behind. The three toppled over and onto the ground. One of the women screamed as a bullet pierced her side, fountaining red over the other two. Sapphire pushed her off Rueen and the healer tumbled back, eyes wide in horror at the blood that coated her hands and face.
Had the woman not bumped into Rueen, it would have been James' daughter with a lead pellet in her gut. They rushed forward. Something stung Andrew's ear and he realised a bullet had grazed him, pulling the skin off.
Whoever had fired, had no intentions of stopping. Neither did he care how many people he took down as long as he got Kian. A man fell onto Sapphire, his hands gripping his chest as he fell. Sapphire jumped away, but not before the man's crimson hand had made a grab for her face. She screamed and rubbed at her cheeks. James pulled her arm, wrenching her away as she tried to clean the blood off her face.
The rain of death stopped as they neared an alley and all of them made the mistake of looking back. In the middle of the square, Kian fell to his knees, neck covered in gaping wounds, face bruised and blue.
Andrew knew the image would be etched into his brain for as long as he lived. He had no time to dwell on the guilt that came with the man's death because the momentary calm that had settled over Heif like a silent wind was shattered by a blinding white light that threw them off balance. Andrew felt himself flying. His feet left the ground. His vision was lost. All he could see was the brilliance that had come with the explosion and then he was falling. Falling into a void.
His back hit a brick wall and he heard a surprised yelp. The world swam when he opened his eyes and he could see specks of odd blue and green in the corner of his eyes. And then a man's face swam into his view.
"What are you all playing at?"
His sluggish mind came up with the fact that the man in front of him was Lysander in disguise.
He sat up and massaged his temple. He saw Rueen rubbing her arms with a torn piece of James' tunic. Her eyes were blown wide as she muttered under her breath.
"Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off...!"
Sapphire was on her side, staring blankly in front of her, eyes unfocused. James had sat up and put his arms on each of their shoulders, calming them down.
"What is going on? Why are you all covered in blood? Will someone explain something?"
That was Thomas. He looked up. Thomas was frowning at him in concern, his eyes darting over the others. A trumpet sounded a far distance off.
"There was a fight in the city square," James said, taking a cloth from Lysander's outstretched hand to clean Rueen's face. "We didn't start it," he added as soon as he saw Thomas' incredulous expression.
"Then pray tell what happened? It looks like you were right in the middle of it."
"They caught a VannØrn," James elaborated. "A farmer from our village. Kian tried to get away. The guards open fired and it became a stampede."
"Stampede," Sapphire huffed under her breath, still staring at her hands, her eyes in some far off land. "It was a damned blood bath!"
There was a loud neigh and Ileeyan popped up in front of them out of thin air, the reins of Sapphire's mare in his hands. Thomas almost hit him in the face in shock.
"We need to leave," he breathed out, chest heaving. "Now! They know we're here."
"How? We never showed ourselves," Lysander swirled around to face the man. His eyes travelled over Rueen, James and Sapphire and he turned to Andrew with the question in his eyes. Andrew shook his head.
They hadn't revealed themselves either.
"It's the Draedech," Ileeyan explained, cleaning the blood off the women with a wave of a hand before handing Aurora's reins to her owner. Sapphire offered a polite word of gratitude. "Toluer's managed to track it down. He's here. Right this moment."
"Draedech can be tracked?" Sapphire grit out, her cheeks flushed with anger and her eyes narrowed at Lysander and Ileeyan. Her right hand clutched the neckline of her tunic, crumpling it up. "Draedech can be tracked? Then why have you been using it all this time? Have you had leave of your senses?"
"It isn't easy to track," Ileeyan said placatingly. "The fabric of our world is made of small dancing strings and when one performs Draedech he meddles with their configuration. The changes can be felt by only the most skilled trackers."
Sapphire cursed. Andrew had similar sentiments. He wanted to stop for some moments and lay down in a bed, even the floor would work, and sleep for a whole day. He was tired of riding and his back felt sore.
"But you can sense if it's being tracked, can't you?" Lysander spoke up and he sounded confused and lost to Andrew.
"Only if you're asleep," Ileeyan replied. "Let's go, now."
"We need to move out as inconspicuously as we can," James said. "And no more hickety wickety tricks till we're out or I'll have your heads."
It wasn't a bad threat.
.·:*¨༻ ༺¨*:·.
What do you think will happen next?