by S E Turner
On the hillside above, Keao was driving his herd of cows, riding in a horse drawn wagon that carried the day’s supply of milk. The agitated lowing of his herd had alerted him, and now he was coming down to help, bringing the cows, his wagon and the churns of milk. As he got downside, he emptied the churns and let the rich creamy liquid gush out of the containers and into the path of the soldiers. Their chargers began to slide everywhere and couldn't be controlled. The cows began to stampede and forced the army back. More liquid made its way to the burning buildings and soon the rich smoky smell of burned milk filled the air.
Thunder rumbled in over the hills, and spots of rain could be felt. A flash of light could be seen in the distance. Dainn and Ajeya looked at each other desperately and nodded to Keao as he went to round up his herd of stricken cows and help with the terrified horses. Colom was standing there with Peira and the other villagers who could only look on in shock at what had just happened.
Suddenly a clap of thunder tore across the sky with such a force the vibration splintered the earth. The clouds opened and a wall of rain swept in battering down the last few remaining flames. Lightning struck in such ferocity that it lit up the true horror, and through the mists of rampage and the stench of fear, a tall, stately man appeared on a charger, and brought hell with him.
Behind him came the captains, and behind them came four drawn wagons which carried the cages full of slaves, the rations for the men, and the provisions for the horses. Storm, Malik, Durg and Tay, who thought they were on their way to the fields that morning, were already in one of the wagons and clung onto the prison bars. Their mothers screamed when they saw them and cried pitifully into their aprons, unable to do anything.
Colom stepped forward. 'What do you want from us?' his voice was bristling as he stood amongst the carnage.
'Well that is no way to greet a General now is it?' The fiend cocked his head and sneered. 'But as I am in a fairly good mood, and we don't appear to have lost too many men.' He looked coldly at the strewn corpses of his fallen soldiers. 'I am going to be very lenient today.' His white gloves steadied the reins of his black mare and a gold helmet covered a strong face. A blood-red cloak fanned out behind him and trailed like a burning flame.
Colom stood there, his face contorted with anger, for he was a mere pawn against this army and he couldn't risk another assault on his village.
'I know what you are thinking.' The General tilted his head to one side in a mocking fashion.
Colom shook his head, trying desperately to hold back the venom he wanted to deploy.
'You are thinking that you can't attack me because otherwise you will put your entire settlement in danger.' The General smirked and looked back at his captains who responded to his goading. 'And, of course, you would be right.' he sneered again. 'This is nothing to the hell I have unleashed on other clans.' he let the words sink in.
'So, what do you want from us?' Colom's voice grew louder and impatient.
'I want you to know my name so that you will remember who I am and know what I am capable of.'
Colom sighed loudly in response. he was getting tired of this man's games.
'I am the General Domitrius Corbulo and I work for the Emperor of Ataxata. I am instructed to take boys from your clans for our games in Ataxata. No questions asked. No answers given. If they please the crowd, they will return. If not...' he looked back and curled a grimace at the terrified youngsters.
'You can't do that!' Colom's voice was raging.
The General kicked his horse into a walk and drawing out his sword held it to Colom's throat. Peira screamed, Dainn moved forward, Ajeya got her bow ready.
The General spun his head round and barked out an order. 'Take him!'
Within seconds, Dainn had been frog marched to the waiting wagon and thrown in with the other boys.
'I can do what I like, and you had better not forget that! You are peasants, you are nothing. You are here to serve the Emperor and nothing more. Do you understand me?' His voice gathered momentum, his face contorted with loathing.
Everyone had their head low, only a handful stood their ground.
He then went over to Ajeya and flicked the hair from her face with his sword. 'What's this, then, the work of a devil?' His words were slow and controlled. He studied her face carefully. 'I should put you out of your misery right here and now. What kind of man could ever want you? Maybe a monster, maybe a savage, but certainly not a real man!' He taunted her with his blade and followed the invisible cord with its tip. She stood rigid and glared at him.
Rufus jumped forward and put himself between her and the General. 'Don't you touch her!'
Dainn shouted and bellowed from the cage and rattled the bars until his hands bled.
But the General wasn't interested in what he was saying. He was already a prisoner.
'How touching. So, you are going to give your life for that deviant? What a brave little boy.' His smile was sickly. Then he leaned forward and held his face within a fingers breadth of Rufus. 'Well more fool you.' He sat up, brushed down his cloak, and bellowed out another order. 'Take him as well.'
'You can't take him. He's just a child!' Ajeya was raging.
The General spat at her. 'Are you telling me what I can and cannot do again? Just keep that poisoned mouth shut!' He jerked his horse sideways on a vicious rein and spurred it into a canter to the head of the procession.
Red came running over and raced towards the wagons. 'Rufus!' her screaming voice was cut off with a torturous bayonet and she sunk to the floor.
Ajeya reached for an arrow and loaded it in her bow. She raised it up and took aim. Just one shot at the beast, that's all she needed. She could kill him so easily. But then she felt someone's arm on her own.
'The soldiers will set fire to those wagons if you kill the General, and then those boys will have no chance at all.'
'But I can't just stand back and do nothing, Colom. Dainn can at least fight back given half a chance, even the four farm boys are strong. But Rufus can't. Look at him. He's a child.' She raised her bow again and took aim.
'Ajeya, please!'
The words rang deep. She slowly dropped her bow and swallowed the pain. 'What I am I going to tell Keao? What am I going to tell him?' She stood defiantly while her throat ached with unshed tears. And as the wagons trundled over the hill, she could see Dainn mouthing the words 'I love you', and a bloodied hand was on his heart.
Chapter Thirty
The community were left stunned, a village awash in gloom. Red led the chorus of grieving mothers where even their husband's words of comfort and awkward optimism fell on deaf ears. Others picked their way between crumbled stone and blackened timber. The carrion scavengers were already squabbling and shrieking as they fought over the charred and mangled corpses amongst the wreckage. People were coughing and disorientated; colliding with each other in their stricken state, shouting out the names of loved ones, stumbling as they searched. Others staggered about clutching on to a few meagre belongings. Keao came back from the fields and his gaze fell on the slaughter and his wife sobbing uncontrollably.
'What on earth has happened here?' His voice was stricken.
'They've taken him, Keao. They've taken our boy.'
Keao could hardly make out what she was saying. 'Who's taken him, Red. What are you talking about?'
'The General has taken him, taken him and Dainn.' She was inaudible with sobbing. 'When you went to herd up the cows, the General came with wagons.' She was shaking uncontrollably as Keao strained to understand. 'He took Dainn, then he took our boy.' She broke down again and Peira comforted her.
'I don't understand.' His bewildered voice needed answers. 'How could this General take anyone?'
'After you had gone, he marched in with his army,' Colom started to offer some kind of explanation, but his voice was slow and inaudible as well. 'We were outnumbered, totally outnumbered.'
'Did anyone try and stop him taking our child?' He looked blindly at all the f
orlorn faces. 'Did anyone try and stop him? Did you? Or you?' He pointed at each one in turn. Then he stopped at his sister who was still clutching her weapon. 'Why didn't you stop them, Ajeya? Why didn't you stop them? What good is this bow if you are not going to use it?'
Tears ran down her face in quantities. She had never seen her brother so distraught, and there was nothing she could do. She couldn't even speak coherently as he shook her by the shoulders. 'I'm so sorry, Keao, I'm so sorry.' She let him take his anger out on her and tried to unload his pain.
'I stopped her firing the weapon,' said Colom, taking away the blame. But his voice was pained and tight.
Keao turned. 'Why did you stop her, Colom. Why?'
'Because the General is no ordinary man. He is a madman intent on wiping out clans. With him dead, the soldiers would have set fire to the cages.'
He had revealed too much. Peira looked at the floor.
Keao's face contorted with disbelief, his eyebrows met as he faced Colom. 'You knew about him and didn't warn us! You let me go off and take care of some wretched cows while my wife and son were in danger!'
The whole village was deathly quiet. Only Peira spoke out in defence of her husband.
'Would anything have been different if every one of you had known about the General? I think not. He had an agenda with a bigger force, and we have all paid a price.'
Colom stopped her with his arm. 'It's my fault.' His voice was faint and tiny. 'I didn't want to alarm anyone. I thought we were too far north to be attacked. I thought we were safe.' He hated himself before he said it. 'But six of us have lost a precious son today.'
'Six?'
'They took Storm and his farmhands,' said Peira.
'But those sons are men. Mine is a little boy.' He slumped to his knees and sobbed.
Red came over to comfort him and helped him up.
Ajeya stepped forward. 'We couldn't have done anything about it, Keao. We were totally outnumbered. Your heroic actions held them back for a while, but that General would have still carried on and executed his plan. There were only a few of us here that had weapons and could fight. Remember that we are a farming community. These people are not warriors.
'The General said that other clans had suffered far more losses at his hands. We should take some comfort from that, Keao. Please, I understand your pain, but Colom did the right thing. He really did, brother.'
Keao looked right through her, it was almost as if he didn't see her, and as the community made a silent aisle for him, he led his distraught wife back to their home.
'Rufus will be safe,' she called out after them. 'Dainn will take care of him, I promise you. Dainn will bring him back.' Her voice trailed after them and then disappeared into the stench of smoke and fear.
For the first time, Ajeya sunk her head in her hands and wept, and a weak voice begged the spirits to take care of all the boys and bring them home safe.
Jena and Hagen arrived in time to see Keao leave the enclosure. Having witnessed this type of attack once before, they knew the trademark signs. They left the wagon where it was and ran over to Colom.
'Is this the Emperor's work?' asked Hagen, his voice shaken.
'No, it's his henchman, the General.' But Colom couldn't speak any more. He turned and went back to what remained of his hut, followed by a weeping Peira.
Ajeya was left to explain everything.
But no one asked questions about how Hagen knew it was the Emperor's work.
Colom immediately thought Dainn must have told them; after all, Ajeya's fighting skills were superb that day.
Ajeya thought that Peira had told Jena. They told each other everything.
The whole community thought that Hagen and Jena had been given prior knowledge somehow.
No one raised the question.
The only person who sunk to an even lower state than everyone else was Jena, because she knew it was her husband's work. After all this time, he was still alive and still haunting her.
Chapter Thirty-One
The village was numb now and people moved about like slow grey moths. The broken bridge was drowning in the stream and most of the huts had been destroyed in the fire. Families had to double up or triple up in some cases. For those poor souls, their homes were a graveyard of ashes and memories buried deep within layers of dirt, soot and mud. Nothing of the beautiful apple orchard remained–that was trampled flat and bare. The rows of beehives were burnt out, those residents would have sought other accommodation elsewhere. Poles, splinters and nails protruded like hideous charred skeletons. It was like walking into hell itself. The slow grey moths picked their way about the tattered village, muttering and contemplating that life would never be the same.
But then the people gradually began to find hope.
'All is not lost,' said one brave soul. 'Most of the stone walls are intact, albeit fragments and charred, but the foundations are probably still strong and can be used again.'
Another voice added to the melody. 'The wooden stable block is burned to a cinder, but that can be repaired.'
'There is so much stone and timber in the surrounding forests, what is stopping us?' echoed another.
'We can build the hives again,' came a woman's voice.
'And clear the orchard,' said another.
And one by one, the slow grey moths discarded their heavy shrouds and began to salvage their community. Stronger new fences went up to replace those that had burned down. Then the collapsed roof of the Meeting House had been cleared away and a new one raised in its place. The huge arms of the water wheel were lovingly restored, and once again the harmonious splash and rumble could be heard across the village.
The only thing that had been left untouched was the Blessing Tree, and that had been saved by Colom as he protected it with shaft after shaft of poison-tipped arrows. Now it loomed over the village with a blaze of life, light, and beauty. An island of peace in a sea of chaos. Its vibrant ribbons shimmered with colour where everything else stood grey. The ground around it was fertile and lush, and its small, hard, scaly bits of bark represented the thousands of people who had stood by its side, seeking strength and asking for protection. It twisted up to the sky from a myriad of life-giving roots and hair-like tendrils. It breathed the air as the branches swayed and called people over to hang even more ribbons on its fingers, to count their blessings, and pray for the safe return of the boys. One by one the villagers heard the calling, and at any time of the day and night, at least one person could be seen immersed in their own private vigil and securing another ribbon on the Blessing Tree.
Winter was upon them now and they continued to put their village together whilst preparing for the coldest, most unforgiving season. Because while the haunting devastation of the General's wrath was still evident in quantities, life had to go on.
As time went by, the sluggish grey moths discovered that each of them had a tough colourful exterior; and a stronger, more imposing fort rose higher out of the ground than ever before.
The community had already gathered an abundance of wild food and preserved the meat and plants for the torturous winter months ahead. And yet there were still the menial tasks to do in the camp while the temperatures plummeted: string bows, fletch arrows, sharpen spears, gather firewood, milk the cows, feed the animals, and still find time to restore their fortress.
Whilst everyone took on the guise of some hideous monster draped in their heavy winter coats with oversized hats, and wore scarves that stuck to their faces, and shivered as the snow fell around them, Ajeya found herself thinking about Dainn and Rufus and wondering how they were faring in this freezing weather. Did they have enough clothing? Had they gotten enough food? She remembered that they had been taken with the lightest of garments and it had been still warm then. No, she must not overthink. She had to remain steadfast in thought. Of course, they were all right. They were strong with powerful totems looking after them. They were somewhere safe with a roof over their heads. They were warm. They were fed. T
hey were safe. Of course, they were all safe.
Chapter Thirty-Two
By spring, all hopes had risen. Faith had been restored. Trumpets of the earth heralded the return of this spectacular season, and the long fingers of the sun's rays fanned across the fields to open up an artist's palette of rich hues, blushed tones, and a blaze of colour. The sweet breath of a westerly wind flew in from the wings of the sun, and the pulse of the earth returned to camp. Birds, bees, butterflies, and dragonflies were increasing in numbers while trees released their buds, and flowers opened their blooms. Within the village, a brand-new fountain splashed, the restored waterwheel rumbled, and the gurgling stream under the bridge had been drained. Spring was always a turning point, and with new life pulsing through the earth, a community was considering its next move.
Ajeya had called a meeting and asked everyone to attend. The Meeting House had been carefully restored and proudly exposed an even bigger seating area with a wider platform for the speakers. The sun shone brightly through the shutters, and as the rays streamed in, they lit up a richly furnished chamber. Luxurious woven carpets now covered the floor instead of rush mats, and in one corner stood a small blessing tree, standing in an ornamental pot where its branches were trimmed and cut so it would not overshadow the stylish decor of the room. The walls were decorated with paintings and scenes of nature, and the banners of the Hill Fort Tribe stood proudly on display against the back wall. Ajeya stood strong, wearing a deep purple doublet. The figure of a golden hare had been embroidered on the breast; the handiwork of her mother, and she wore the garment with pride. She welcomed everyone in and then took her place on the raised dais.
'Firstly, I want to welcome everyone to our brand-new Meeting House, and what a Meeting House it is.' She gasped in awe at the workmanship and skill that had gone into this prestigious building. 'I want to thank each and every one of you. For despite overcoming such dreadful circumstances, you have pulled together and restored our fort to a scale that all but a few months ago could only be imagined.' She scanned around the room and invited the people to applaud with her.