HT CHAPTER 6

The small village of Carius was three miles further inland, and was a poor village made up of smaller stone houses and was no more than a mile long across. It was a very run down village, with dirtied streets that were no more than a worn path made by years of farmers and gatherers walking the same way back and forth each day. Farah, Aneurin, Tempest, and Rune arrived only a few hours after the rain had stopped early in the morning; the sun had not reached its maximum height, and the night’s rain and early morning drew had not yet dried. The air was still crisp and cold, and though it was a little better, to Tempest’s sweet relief since it was not nearly as cold, it was still unpleasant. The beat down appearance of the town enhanced the cold however- the two seemed to go hand-in-hand.

The town was far off in the horizon, and barely visible. Upon seeing it for the first time however, even Tempest knew the village just over the horizon was, in fact, Carius, since Carius was glowing with a bright orange light. This bright orange light swirled as it reached up to kiss the sky, and licked the hovering clouds. As they got closer, the three understood; the bright orange light was not just orange, it was a mixture of reds, blues, and yellows. The warmth they felt as they approached the town came from these flames, and they knew then that the village was on fire.

“So much for a lead.” Aneurin spat, the first to comment from on top of his horse. “Looks like we got here to late.” Aneurin cursed under his breath, judging by the size of the flames that the town had been lit up the night before.

“What in the world...?” Farah’s mouth hung open, not expecting to find anything like that as they came closer to the village. Aneurin sighed at her side and Tempest was too amazed and to say anything.

“We’ve got to hurry.” Aneurin tightened his grip on the reins. Both he and Farah smacked them once against the horses necks, forcing the horses to travel from a gallop to a fast sprint, the two of them wanting to get to town as fast as possible in order to check out the scene. Tempest and Rune were next to follow.

When they finally approached the small village, the sight was worse than what they had originally thought. Every house was set ablaze, every straw and mud hut burning straight to the ground along with the trash along the sides of the roads and covering the short stone walls with soot. The flames were vicious, cracking like a whip in the otherwise silent afternoon. The village itself obviously had no set plan to its design, and all that was left after the fire was the remains of what used to be a stable, a few cottages, and a small farm or two. When the group had arrived at the village, they did not dismount immediately. They stood standing along the outskirts of town at first, observing the flames and trying to gather as much information as possible considering survivors, injuries, and deaths. And of course, their own safety. There was one thing that all four of them noticed almost immediately as they stood untouched by the flames that devoured the self-sustaining village.

“There’s no sound. No one is screaming.” Tempest spoke with a deafening calm, like that after the storm. “Everyone is silent.”

“He said there is no sound. No one is screaming.” Rune translated, remaining his calm. “Everyone is quiet.”  Farah and Aneurin both looked at him with heavy eyes. “Unless they all got away but there’s no way the entire town could have gotten away in time.”

“Change of plans.” Aneurin took lead of the situation, observing the burning village.. “Search for Sadi. Or perhaps, Sadi’s body. But our own safety is number one. Don’t do anything that puts your safety in jeopardy. We’re too late already, so there’s no point in doing anything rash.”

Tempest lowered his head and the three listened to the flames roar for another minute, and when the flames began to grow quiet Tempest looked back up to see the flames were beginning to die down.

Farah, Aneurin, and Tempest dismounted their horses and dragged them over to what used to be the stable by the ruins just outside of town. The flames had now segregated themselves to the further half of the village, and the group could now enter without fear of being engulfed. They traveled down the bordered dirt path to the middle of town, standing just in front of what used to be the church.

“Alright, here’s the plan.” Aneurin met each of his companion’s eyes. “We split up. Rune, go with Tempest and cover the north. You’ll hit fire, so be careful.”

“Fine.” Rune crossed his arms in defiance, not happy to be left alone with the desert nobleman.

“Farah, you and I have to travel our own ways. We’ll cover more ground that way.” Aneurin turned to face her, and Farah nodded in agreement. “Cover the west, and I’ll cover the east. After surveying our areas, move south and we’ll more than likely meet up there.”

“I understand.” She confirmed, but realizing that Aneurin being in the east meant he would be in the heart of the flames. Farah frowned, knowing he had arranged himself to go that way for her own protection. “But Aneurin... please be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me, Farah. I’ll be fine.” Aneurin gave her his word. “Everyone, we meet back right here at this church once we’re satisfied we’ve surveyed our ground thoroughly enough. If you get here and no one’s here yet, just wait for the others to show up. We’re all trained assassins, so as long as we’re careful this shouldn’t be a problem. But remember what I said; Nothing. Rash.” The rest of the group nodded their heads, and each person went on their way.

Aneurin traveled down a path that lead into the eastern part of town, leading him into the heart of the flames. It grew hot, and he began to sweat, but he ignored that. It wasn’t soon after splitting up with the rest of the group that he noticed that the farther east he traveled the more bodies seem to stack up along the sides of the roads and besides buildings. The first body he encountered was a woman’s body that fell from the rooftop of a smaller home standing against the main road. The body fell next to him as he walked past, her limp and burned arm falling on top of Aneurin’s shoe. He did not gasp when this happened, but rather let it happen calmly. Aneurin stared down at the body with little emotion on his stone-set face, looking at what had used to be a decent-looking dark-haired woman, old enough to be the mother of many and possibly even the grandmother of some. Her body was thin and frail, and looking past the badly burned skin Aneurin could tell that her limbs looked as if they had been worked hard her whole life. She wore a typical maid’s outfit with a bonnet over her head, though what once one a brightly colored outfit simply dirtied by hard work was now burned beyond recognition. Aneurin avoided looking the body in the face, not wanting to spend any time looking at the remnants of what had been a painful scream out of hard and true pain that remained on the face that had at one point smiled, had cried, had felt emotion and had lived. Aneurin’s face softened, and he opened his mouth from beneath his hood slightly and took a deep breath in. He realized that this was a bad idea once the charcoal entered into his throat and he began to cough violently. Aneurin’s face hardened again, and he removed himself emotionally from the body. He shook the arm off of his foot and continued to walk along the main road. The roof of that same house collapsed as he walked away, and Aneurin did not turn back to look at it. He kept the same stoic appearance as he walked, and he began to notice that the bodies became more frequent the further into town, and the deeper into the flames, he walked.

*******************

Rune and Tempest made their way up north. They would not encounter any fire just yet, but the evidence that it had been there was enough. The north side of the village was obviously the poorest; the homes were made of mud and sticks and the roads, like the rest of the village, were not paved. There were no shops, telling both Rune and Tempest that this was not a business or shopping district of any sort but rather a living district. And as they had noticed before, a poor one at that.

“We should check the houses for Sadia.”  Tempest turned his eyes to the teenage boy traveling besides him. Neither of them liked the fact that they had been pinned together just for the fact that they speak the same language, but Tempest at least accepted that they had a job to do together.

“I don’t need to take directions from you.” Rune, who was not so willing, began to search the home closest to him. Tempest shook his head in annoyance, and began his own search.

What each found mostly was dead bodies and charred remains of the houses and belongings that had once been their life. With each house, both Tempest and Rune began to lose faith that they would  find their Sadia dead or alive. Tempest and Rune met up again, and moved in a direction that brought them closer to the flames.

Tempest was the one to come across what seemed to have been a church within the cluster of homes in this poor living district. It was much smaller than the one in the center of town, but like the other it was made of stone and stood remarkably tall for a building in the poor district. It made it clear to Tempest that worship was something these people had taken very seriously, and if Tempest were to find anyone alive at all it would be inside this church. He did not hesitate to pry its doors open and step inside.

On the other side of the door, on the marble floor, was a mother hovering over her child standing against the back wall by the altar. They did not move, but their eyes were cast wide-open in Tempest’s general direction and their mouths were open as if they were screaming but no sound could be heard. The child was a boy no older than ten who held his hands over his ears, and both wore rags so torn that they had obviously been living in one of the homes close to this church.

“Hello!”  Tempest shouted at them, in hopes of getting a response. “Can you hear me? Are you okay?” Tempest approached them slowly, though still they did not move. Rune entered through the doors behind him, and sighed heavily.

“There’s no point, Tempest, they’re already dead.” Rune raised his hand and dropped it, letting it fall to his side with a resounding ‘thump’ as though giving up.

“I had hoped not.” Tempest straightened himself and turned to face Rune. “But how strange that they died frozen in place like this? They look as though something was coming for them. As though it wasn’t the fire that killed them, but something- or someone- else.”

“....You’re right.” Rune shook his head, hating to admit it. “I don’t like this. We should check out the rest of the church.”

Tempest surveyed the room and found a flight of stairs leading down in the corner of the room behind the altar.

“I’ll go downstairs. You should check out the rest of the church to see what else might be here.”  Tempest ordered, and though Rune hated being told what to do by Tempest the situation, which could potentially be something much more serious, demanded he comply. Rune nodded his head, and Tempest sunk down the stairs that lead into a basement.

Upon entering the basement, Tempest found piles of dead bodies laid carefully in front of bookshelves full of charred, unreadable books. Their faces looked as if they had been screaming, and some held their hands covering their ears, now frozen in place. The basement was dark, and Tempest could barely see, but he could make out their faces well enough to see terror in their eyes. Tempest realized that these bodies had the same expression on their faces as the mother and son upstairs. He wondered about this, then realized how strange it was in the first place that bodies were stacked so nicely in piles, no blood and hardly any char.

As soon as Tempest realized this, he heard a crash behind him. Tempest quickly drew his scimitars, startled by the sound. and saw a bookcase had been toppled over and a hole in the wall appeared where the bookcase had once stood.

Standing on top of this bookcase was a figure, with skin colored darker than a night’s sky. The figured towered easily a foot over Tempest, with eyes that were endless, empty pools of white and horns penetrating the skin on top of his head and around his jawline. The figure wore simple leather armor, a skirt and a breastplate, and at its side rested a greatsword that looked heavier and larger than anything Tempest had ever seen. Its pointed ears twitched, and the heavy breathing beast approached Tempest, who quickly took a defensive stance.

“Small, nosy rat. You will perish like the rest of them.” The beast rose its sword as it spoke to Tempest, who was surprised to understand. Tempest knew, staring at the beast’s white orbs and ugly face, that this was a Ray’as standing before him. And it was about to kill him.