“That’s enough, citizen. We are here to search the premises for illegal weapons. We will proceed with no further interference from you. Stand aside.”
“Just as you say, Sergeant. May I offer your men and horses some water? There’s a pump just out back.”
“Don’t patronize me. Stand aside!”
Gemma took one step to the left as the sergeant passed roughly by her.
“You men search the shed in the back. The rest of us will go inside.”
Zacharias sat in his rocking chair with the children surrounding him, rather than in the cellar as Gemma had instructed. He hummed a tune quietly to them. The twins, Hughie and Petal, were crying silently. Toby faced the soldiers with squared shoulders and defiance in his eyes. Daisy sat on Z’s lap, following Gemma with her eyes wherever she went.
“Good day, men. Come in, come in. I know you have a job to do.” Z’s voice was calm, though a little breathless. His face was red, with sweat glistening on his brow.
“You will rise in the presence of a Corsair, citizen.”
“Just so. Just so,” he groaned as he tried to raise himself from the chair. “You’re free to search the place, but the only thing I fight these days is getting out of this blasted chair.” He chuckled.
“If you tell us where the weapons are, it will go easier on you.”
“There are no weapons, Sergeant. I’ve told you. I fight nothing and no one.”
“We will see about that.”
At a nod from the sergeant, four Corsairs spread out through the house to begin the search. The group in the living room watched helplessly and listened as they knocked over every piece of furniture, ripped pictures from the walls, threw food out of the cupboards. There was no order or pattern to their search. They behaved more like tantrum-throwing children rather than adult men. Zacharias held himself back as the soldiers ransacked his house with everything of necessity and comfort flying through the air before it crashed to the ground.
“Sergeant, I found something!”
Gemma felt her stomach rising into her throat as she held Daisy and the twins close.
A young soldier, too young to even shave, came tromping down the stairs holding several books high above his head. “Books, Sergeant. He had them in a secret cabinet.”
The sergeant turned to face Zacharias. “So, old man. You’re hiding books. I’m sure that’s just the beginning. I’ll ask you again. Where are the weapons? We know you people have stolen them from a squad of Corsairs. You will tell us where they are!”
“I’ve already told you, I haven’t got any . . .”
The back of the sergeant’s hand flew across Z’s cheek, sending him reeling back into the chair. With that, the children could be kept in check no longer. Toby led the charge with a leap onto the sergeant’s shoulders, hitting him in the face as he clung to his neck. The twins hit the floor and attached themselves to the legs of running soldiers, bringing them down in a heap. Daisy ran straight into the sergeant’s gut, ramming him into the wall.
As Gemma tried to collect her senses in the scuffle, her veins were running with pride mixed with fear. She loved that the children were trying to defend Zacharias and their new home, but she knew this would all end badly. She couldn’t let them be taken away.
“Children! Children, please stop. Come here. Come to me now!”
Her words went unheeded as the melee continued. She saw with horror that one soldier was reaching for his whip as the sergeant was also fumbling for his gun. In a second, Gemma had wrenched the whip out of the young soldier’s hand and stood before the sergeant, who had aimed his gun at Toby, now lying sprawled on the floor.
“No, Sergeant, please. He’s just a boy. They were frightened and didn’t know what they were doing. Please, Sergeant. I beg you for mercy, sir. You’ve searched and not found the weapons you came for. Please have mercy on these children and old man.”
“Drop the whip and stand aside, woman!”
“I can’t do that. I can’t let you shoot that boy.”
“You can’t let me? You can’t let me,” he laughed. “You do know you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, don’t you?”
“I do. And you know the power over life or death today lies in your hands. But my question is, what will you do with that power? Did you enter the army to fight children and old men? Or did you join to try to bring a sense of order into a world of chaos? We’re told to stay the course with the Corsairs. Very well. We submitted to the search. And now I’m asking for mercy to be shown to these frightened children. Can you do that, Sergeant?”
Gemma looked in his eyes and saw his determination waiver. She knew he didn’t want to shoot a child. He rubbed his cheek where Toby had hit him, lowering his gun back into the holster.
“Very well.” The words released the tension in the room as quickly as a bubble bursting. Gemma dropped the whip, and the children corralled themselves around her and Zacharias, still sitting in the chair where he’d fallen.
“But I’ll be taking that boy with us.”
Gemma’s fists and shoulders tightened. “No, Sergeant, please. He’s just a child. He won’t survive prison.”
“Oh, I’m not taking him to prison. He’s going to be conscripted into the Corsairs. There will be no more discussion. Come here, boy.” Toby stepped forward. “What’s your name?”
Silence.
“The first thing you must learn is obedience. You will tell me your name, or I will force you to tell me.”
“His name is Toby,” Gemma offered.
The sergeant threw an angry look in her direction.
“Private, take this Toby and put him on a horse. We’re moving out. Now!”
The soldiers jumped at his command, leading Toby roughly out into the encroaching storm. No farewells, no ceremony. Gemma didn’t know if she’d ever see the boy again. She knew how upset Ethan would be at the loss of his friend as well. Standing in the doorway with the children, she looked through the sheets of rain to see him sitting with matted hair and dripping clothes in a saddle that dwarfed him. He looked like a man in miniature upon the large animal’s back as the soldiers rode away.
“Z, are you alright?” She finally turned back into the house. Zacharias sat in the chair, rubbing his aching head.
“I will be.”
“Oh, Z, what are we going to do?” She looked at the mess the soldiers had left behind, both in the room and on the faces of the children. “They bring destruction wherever they go.”
“We’re going to go about our lives and do what we can do.” Z got up, walking to the closet with the hidden door. The first door was off its hinges, the contents of the closet strewn about. But the inner door stood in place. They hadn’t seen the guns which stood behind it.
“And what’s that, exactly?” Gemma asked with anger in her voice as she tried to see to the children’s minor cuts and wounds.
“First, we’ll clean this up. Then we’ll make dinner. You’ll return home. And tomorrow, we’ll start all over again.”
“There has to be a reckoning, Z. They can’t continue to get away with things like this!”
“We have to keep our heads down for a while. Try not to draw their attention. They’ll be watching us after today’s events, expecting us to run for help. So for now, we lie low.”
“If we all just run and scurry to the corners to hide, how are we any better than the rats?”
“You know better than that question, Gemma. This is just your anger talking. But we can’t allow ourselves to be led by the flights of our feelings.”
“I am angry! That soldier had no right to hit you or take Toby. I could . . .”
“Now, that’s enough.” He held Gemma by the shoulders, letting his eyes wander to the children who stood watching her, ready to take her lead. “How can anyone ever really know who’s to blame for anything? He hit me because someone hit him. So and so did this because of that. And this person did that because of this. You can trace it back and back to Cain, who fi
rst killed his brother. Further than that to Eve, who ate the apple, introducing human failings. And further still to God, who placed the apple and told Eve not to eat. But to what end? Why blame someone else for an event or series of events when at the end of the day, each person is faced with the choice of how to react or how to let go? How do we move forward from here? And in that, every human being is exactly the same.”
“You’re right, Z. I know you’re right. It’s just so frustrating.” Gemma looked to the window where the shadows of branches mimicked sentries on patrol. She pulled Daisy and the twins to her, feeling their trembling bodies in her own shaking hands.
“I don’t like the storm,” Petal said. The first words she’d ever spoken to Gemma.
“Neither do I, sweetheart. But storms become flowers, and flowers become wishes, baby girl. You just remember that.”
Later that night after Gemma had gone, Daisy couldn’t sleep. She took a walk through the house, peeking in to check on the twins in their new room. They slept bundled together in the center of the bed. As she padded down the hall, she heard muffled crying coming from somewhere. Walking down the stairs, she moved slowly to avoid creaking the wood underfoot. Z’s room was on the main floor off the kitchen. Looking under his door, there was not even a sliver of light. The house was in complete darkness. But as she got closer to his room, she knew the old man was the one crying, his choking sobs muffled in the pillows. She wondered if she should go in and check on him but thought he wouldn’t like it. The sounds of a man crying scared her more than seeing Gemma so upset earlier, more than Toby being taken away. If the soldiers could make Zacharias cry, what would they do to her, she wondered.
* * * * *
The muggy summer afternoon stifled the square in Jesse’s Hollow, and yet Ethan stood uncomfortably close to Sam.
“What is it, boy?” he asked as they waited for the colonel to begin the meeting. “You’ve been quiet for days, and now you’re practically shaking in your boots. What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, Sam.”
“Are you not feeling well?”
“Yeah, that must be it.”
“We’ll go to the Council of Doctors after this, then. See what we can do about that.”
“I don’t think I need to. Really. I’ll be alright.”
“No arguments. I’m not taking chances.”
Ethan shoved his hands in his pockets, hiding his fear behind an angered brow and whispered defiance. “I’m alright.”
At the front of the crowd, the Corsairs began to file onto the platform. Sam was concerned to see them leading and pushing a group of people from Jesse’s Hollow, both men and women. It was obvious they had been beaten recently, and savagely, too. Several of them cradled broken arms. Others limped across the platform. All had cuts and bruises on their faces.
A colonel unknown to Sam stood to address the town. Sam wondered if the somewhat kinder Colonel Goodson would make an appearance today, and he found himself hoping for it.
“Citizens of Jesse’s Hollow! The Corsairs are here to protect you. We have found traitors among you, those you see here before you. Your leaders cannot allow their actions to go unpunished. The trash here on the stage with me were found impersonating Corsairs and stealing from the government’s farms and work camps. Stealing the very food out of your mouths!” He paused and waited for a reaction which was not to come. The townspeople stood silent and frozen on the summer day.
“We would remind you,” he continued undaunted, “it is required by law for any and all citizens to report knowledge of treacherous activities of this nature. If we all stand together in this difficult time, we will stay the course.”
“Stay the course,” came the mumbled response.
“Now, for your safety and for your remembrance, we have brought these traitors to face their punishment publicly.”
Sam looked frantically around the crowd for Gemma. She and Kyle stood near the front of the townspeople, and Sam saw that Kyle had a tight grip on Gemma’s arm, as she seemed to be struggling to pull away from him. In those actions, the story revealed itself to Sam. The people on the platform were members of the Watch, maybe even members of Gemma’s own squad. And he hoped Kyle would keep his grip on her.
Ethan looked at Sam, who would not meet his gaze but fixed his eyes rigidly on the ten citizens standing among the Corsairs on the platform. With a shouted command from the colonel, a squad of ten Corsairs shuffled quickly down the stairs to face the citizens on the platform. A captain stood to the right of them, shouting the orders. “Ready!”
Sam clenched his fists
“Aim!”
He took a step forward.
“Fire!”
A thud of bodies hit the wooden platform.
In the thick, moist shade of moss hanging from oaks, ten haggard, unarmed people were cut down with a volley of merciless bullets. Screams rang out like tolling bells through the town, pulled from throats trained to silence.
Something beyond consciousness sent Sam forward toward the platform as the colonel continued his speech. “Let this be a reminder to you all of who the real enemy is and where your loyalties should lie. Stay the course!”
Not one person responded, but the crowd dispersed with tearful faces turned to the ground. Sam felt a tight grip on his arm and thought it might be Kyle trying again to hold him back.
“Sam, isn’t it?” a brittle voice crinkled in Sam’s ears. He turned to see a general with his hand on his arm. On the shoulder of the man’s blue uniform, a silver snake swam in the confines of a triangle too small to hold it. It was the snake and star insignia of the Triumvirate. Sam had heard enough about the leader of the Corsairs to recognize Simeon Drape when he saw him. But he was unprepared for the strength he felt in him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, son.”
“Do what?”
“What you were about to do.”
“You have no idea what I was about to do.”
“So predictable. Look around you, boy. No one would have come to your aid. They would have watched you die just like they watched these other people die. And it would have been for nothing.” Sam stared at this strange man, not sure how to respond or if to respond at all.
“My son has told me a lot about you,” Simeon continued almost genially. “Walk with me for a minute, won’t you?” He kept his grip on Sam’s arm and held a whip in his other hand.
Sam considered for a moment before reluctantly following Simeon.
“Kyle tells me you’re a pacifist, that you don’t want to join the Watch. I hope this is true. I hope what you’ve seen here today reminds you of why this is the wisest course of action, to do nothing to interfere. It’s best to take care of number one, eh?”
Sam continued to stare in silence.
“Don’t have much to say, do you? You know what I think? I think my son is wrong, and that you’re not a pacifist after all. I’ve seen the look you have on your face right now too many times to mistake it. You see, we’re not that different, you and I.”
“I am nothing like you.”
“Oh no? Then ask yourself what your plan was to stop what was happening here today. Did it involve any kind of attack? Any violence?”
“I don’t enjoy violence as you obviously do.”
“No, the difference is that you think violence for your cause is justified, and you think violence for mine is not.”
“Those people today were killed in cold blood. They didn’t have to die. Where was the justice in that?”
“Of course they had to die! Someone always has to die in order for the rest of us to appreciate life. We live life in opposites, don’t we?”
“That’s bullshit. Fucking bullshit. You don’t appreciate life. You appreciate nothing,” Sam’s voice gurgled with simmering rage.
“Such language! What have you been reading, boy? No one from your village has used those words in more than twenty years. Find yourself some old books, did you?”
Sam’s
silence spoke his surprise.
“Oh, yes, I know you can read. And I know what you read. Perhaps Catcher in the Rye or Salem’s Lot? But you didn’t really like those because you didn’t take them with you . . . Did you really think we would leave something as important as the flow of information up to chance? You’re smarter than that, aren’t you? Now, I want you to remember today. Remember our little chat before you make any decisions in the future. Understood?”
Simeon walked away without waiting for an answer. From across the square, Sam heard him call out, “Goodson! You’re with me.” So the Colonel Goodson had been there after all and hadn’t stopped a thing. Maybe Simeon was right about one thing: No one was coming to help.
The perfumed sunset was assaulted by rifle smoke still hanging in the square.
As Sam and Ethan walked home in silence to Boswell and Sophie, they both tried not to think of the carnage they’d just witnessed. In the dimness of the waning moon above the sunset, the fire of the day meeting the night burned as coals.
“Why did you hide your face from that Corsair as we were leaving Jesse’s Hollow?” Sam finally asked.
“You saw that?”
“Obviously. What’s it about?”
“I didn’t want him to recognize me.”
“Recognize you from what?”
“Don’t get upset, okay?”
“Just tell me.”
“When I was carrying a message for the Watch a few days ago, he saw me in the woods. Chased me and this other kid for a few minutes. But we got away.”
Sam felt his lungs tighten and breathed out a long sigh to try to relax. “This is the type of thing I was worried would happen.”
“It won’t happen again, Sam. I’ll be more careful. Besides, I saw you today. You wanted to fight them too. I know you did.”
Sam stopped walking, kneeling down to look at Ethan face to face, and saw how much of a little boy he still was. He still had hope and sparkle in his eyes, even if they were clouded with a film of fear. “Of course I did. But that doesn’t mean it was the safest thing to do—for me, you, or Sophie. We have more to think about than just ourselves, son. Sophie loves you and is terrified of losing you. We have a responsibility to her, don’t we?”
A Light From the Ashes Page 31