Tragedy (Forsaken Lands)

by Cooper, Sydney M.

  "How many?" Adreth's voice was tempered from its usual booming volume, but the timbre was so low that it still seemed loud. He stood next to her with his back against the wall, the two of them the only prisoners awake so late at night. Even the guards tended to nod off as the night turned to morning.

  "One hundred fifty exact," said Adria.

  Adreth's harsh exhalation could hardly be called a sigh. The contraction of his facial muscles made his temple shine. He shook his head.

  "It's too damned long. We have to get out of here this week. No more."

  "You think it's been long enough? Last time we tried was barely more than a month ago."

  Her brother's eyes narrowed. He raised one hand, grasping at ideas desperately. The hand made a fist. If she were anyone else, she might have flinched. He was six-foot-five and pure muscle, even if he had been stuck in a cell for near half a year.

  "Something's changed. I can feel it," he whispered. "Whatever the Celet were up to, it's coming down now. They've ramped up production in just the last few days. It's getting closer."

  Adria wrapped her hand around his. Though they were both dark-complexioned, his skin was just a bit richer than hers. She gave his hand a vice grip squeeze.

  His nostrils flared and his brow twitched in a way that signaled the Dangerous Look. He always got that look when he was about to do something potentially devastating, even when he was a child. She swore, letting go of his hand.

  "It's going to have to be me, isn't it?" the few shards of kelspar she had snuck from the workroom felt heavier against her breast-band. She self-consciously folded her arms.

  "Ultimately yes," he said in his giving-orders tone. "I will handle the communications."

  "Well doesn't that make me feel better."

  He raised one eyebrow slowly. "It should. There's a good chance that they'll take me out and you'll get to replace me as the leader of this -" he motioned around the cell, "Unit. It's not as easy as it looks."

  Adria ran a hand over her frazzled, untamed black hair. It would take weeks to work the tangles out of it once they cleared the prison. She glanced about their cell, their four companions fast asleep, spread between the bunk and the floor. The place was overcrowded between the combination of captured Justices and the general population of miscreants. Her eyes paused over young Ralla, curled up in the corner. He was barely seventeen, a promising officer before the incident.

  "Not all of us are going to make it out of here," she murmured.

  "If we don't try, none of us are going to make it out of here. Not ever." He glanced out into the darkness towards the center of the cellblock, where the guard station, workroom and elevator were located. At night it was all shadows, but in the daytime light from the spire filtered down so they could see. "They don't treat us like-"

  The sound of a boots on stone shut them up. Quickly and without making a sound, Adria and Adreth dropped to the floor as if they had always been asleep. From behind closed lids Adria could perceive the light of a kelspar torch as the footst sas a couldeps came closer, then paused.

  She could hear heavy breathing - hallmark of one of the new guards. Ever since Leniq took power over Nivenea, many of the Justices who previously roamed the block had been replaced by Followers. The Followers were brutal and handy with a sword, but they were not trained. They did not move quietly on the ground, nor did they respect their prisoners as humans. They were animals.

  Adria hated them all.

  * * *

  The sight of Colita in the distance was far from the comfort Teveres anticipated it would be. The small town lay at the feet of the hills, surrounded by farmland. Layvin's Embrace hovered just beyond the fog line across miles of plains. He imagined that there was a time when the farmland blossomed with life that sustained the people within the town.

  The square blocks of fields which should have been uniform were hazy on the edges. Weeds encroached on the boundaries. Stickergrass blanketed what was once rows of grain or corn, the soil left unattended for what had to be months.

  The four travelers paused at the edge of trail's peak. Teveres pressed a hand against Winter's side to force life into his numb fingers. Cold wind cut into his cheeks, the nip that came before the first snows. Beside him, Aia studied the scene.

  "There's no smoke," she said softly. "There should be fires in the hearths. It's freezing out here."

  Garren's hard face was grim. His hood was pulled back, free-flowing black hair curled over his shoulders. "We continue," he said simply.

  Teveres exchanged wary glances with the mercenary. They knew what they would find once they reached the town. There would be no warm bed, no inn for the night.

  At ground-level, Colita was no livelier than a mausoleum. The street which went through the center of the town was all broken shop fronts and dust. The houses creaked ominously in the wind. Garren squinted up at the sky, the sun's position obscured by clouds.

  No one wanted to say anything. Teveres dismounted with a sigh, stretching his stubborn muscles. Aia and Les had somehow gone paler than usual.

  "It looks like Colita fell to The Decline," Teveres announced, breaking the silence.

  Garren, too, dismounted to join Teveres. Between them was a silent understanding. "We should look for supplies. Nivenea is still many days away," said Garren.

  "Why didn't we hear about this?" Les asked. "In all the villages-"

  "This town has been dead a long time. Look at the fields," Garren motioned towards the once-fertile land. "They withered months ago, maybe a year. If this was news once it is history now."

  "How does this happen?" Aia was paralyzed with shock. She stared at the houses listlessly, her reflection in the window of a ne sind">"Harby house hollow with grief.

  You've never seen this before, Teveres thought out where she could hear, approaching her to offer a sympathetic hand. They were almost back to being friends again, after several long and heated knife sessions. It's alright. The first time is hard.

  I knew it could happen... but I've never seen...

  He gripped her hand tightly and guided her to the ground.

  "I heard about this happening north of Pelle," Les finally spoke up, "Etter was about the size of Colita. It was the blight, they said. Those that didn't run stayed and died. It was during the summer when we lost Fell Lake."

  Garren did not respond to Les's story, instead proceeding mechanically down the street. Teveres had the urge to grab him by the shoulder, but stopped short knowing that the man could break his hand in half.

  "This place bothers you." Teveres said, keeping a fair distance from Garren.

  "The Kaldari superstitions say that a town of ghosts is the birthplace of demons." Garren's pace was slow as he peered in each window they passed. The shops had long been cleaned out; not a single scrap of linen lined the shelves.

  "Do you believe that?"

  "If I believed it I would call it fact," Garren replied, nonchalantly kicking down a door. The sound made Teveres jump even though he was expecting it. "I still don't like places like this."

  Inside the building Garren opened there was a cash counter, numerous shelves, and a large, dented metal chest, apparently damaged by looters trying to pry it open. Teveres stood just behind Garren and blocked out the door when he saw the two corpses in the corner. One of them was the size of a young child. Remnants of dried flesh stretched over easily visible bones, all the soft tissues eaten away. Only the clothes hinted that the pair was a mother and child, the woman's tattered dress once a vibrant purple hue.

  Aia must have sensed his apprehension by the way she wrenched him from the door to get a better look. Where he expected shock and fear, he watched her transform. She was fascinated by the scene. Aia shoved past both Teveres to get a closer look at the bodies while Garren investigated the safe.

  When Les edged towards the door, Teveres gave him a withering look.

  "Do you enjoy looking at dead people?" Teveres asked pointedly.

  Les mouthed an 'ah,'
and cleared his throat. "I'll keep an eye on the... creatures... out here," he indicated the horses.

  "Good plan."

  Aia was on her knees next to the large, pooling bloodstain on the floor. Though she laced her fingers together, Teveres could see that she was itching to touch the bodies. To watch her fearless in the face of death was curious; he s cu fiknew that as healer she must have seen her share, but he had yet to see her so determined. Her disposition was morbidly impressive.

  It would be an incredibly inconvenient time to tell her that her soul was the most beautiful, incredible thing he'd ever had the privilege to watch work. Although his mistakes were piling at her feet, his feelings for her had only grown. After their conversation about her past and the revelation that they had been connected, somehow, for many years, he began to look at her with new eyes. She was far more complex than she appeared on the surface. Thoughts of her interrupted his moment, even in a town full of dead bodies.

  "This doesn't make sense," she mused almost exclusively to herself.

  "What doesn't?" Teveres moved closer, kneeling just behind her. Stay focused man.

  When he was down at eye-level with the slumped bodies, he saw what she meant. In the middle of each forehead was a circle bored through the skull. It didn't take study of anatomy to realize that the hole was out of place.

  "What is that?" He inquired.

  Aia shook her head, reaching a hand almost to touch the defect on the child's body. "I've never seen it before. No plague of any kind does this."

  The conversation apparently interested Garren, who loomed above them. He drew his sword, catching the tip against the hole in the child's skull to pull it into better view.

  "No weapon that I know does this either, unless it was a... death ritual," said Garren.

  Aia and Teveres shot glares at Garren.

  Garren snorted. "I was assuming it was one of your rituals. It is not one of ours."

  "Well it isn't," Aia snapped. Her eyes skimmed the shape of the bloodstain. Abandoning decorum, she touched the bodies, examining the front and back of each of the heads. "Something went completely through. There's entry and exit. It killed them, whatever it was."

  "If you do not know, looking at them will not change it." Garren handily clanged open the metal chest. He picked through the contents, pulling out a small coin bag. "There is little left in this place. It may be a waste of our time to search."

  "I say we keep looking." Aia rose and dusted off her knees. "Maybe we can find out what killed these people."

  "They are already dead," Garren countered.

  "If what killed is still out there, I want to know what it is."

  Teveres hid his smirk. Aia's steadfastness was almost out of character. Garren didn't seem to know how to react - so he didn't. With a scowl, Garren led them back out into the street to continue their trek through the empty town. Aia grew apprehensive as they walked.

  There isn't any kelspar in these buildings, she thought to him. Doesn't that seem strange?

  Looters were thorough.

  Those bodies have been there a year, maybe a little less. That's fast work for looters in a town this size. It's too clean.

  She was right - something about the entire demise of the town was off. Though ghost towns were not entirely uncommon since The Decline, the lack of any identifying items and the presence of the strange corpses raised Teveres's suspicions. Though he knew she did not read his mind outright, she responded as if she had.

  Should we show him that jewelry? The time pieces? Aia asked.

  He did not look up at her, instead idly fingering the metal piece deep in his pocket. There's no evidence of a connection.

  She gave him a conspicuous, alarmed look. I think you know that there is.

  Teveres said nothing.

  They checked several more buildings, each of them a near-identical scene to the one in the first. Occasionally the round wounds were found in parts of the body other than the heads. They were almost upon what appeared to be a medical clinic, the building Aia had been waiting for. Les had long gone quiet, errant thoughts of Pelle wafting off of him. The baron was terrified of whatever destroyed Colita finding its way to Pelle. Teveres could think of nothing to soothe his friend's fears. It was possible that whatever the Followers were doing, whatever killed the people in Colita, would find its way throughout Elseth's Lands.

  The better question was, if this could happen again, why hadn't it? Or were there other towns like Colita spread across the continent just waiting to be found? Who would hold such malice towards simple farmers, anyway?

  The door to the clinic creaked open. The smell hit him first. Where one or two dead bodies in a room were detectable, the stale, dusty stench of multiple skeletonized bodies rocked Teveres back a step. Inside the clinic was a single large room with a tall ceiling and many rows of beds. There were at least a dozen cots, each of them containing a body. Some of them were frozen where they tried to flee; they sprawled halfway onto the floor, slumped in death.

  With the exception of a handful of bodies, all of them had the characteristic holes through them. The work clothes of the clinic attendants hung on lifeless bones, their bodies lying on the floor where they fell.

  Aia barreled past Teveres with purpose, immediately approaching the healer's stations at the periphery of the room. The desks where the medicine men and women once worked were completely bare on top, not a single alembic or even a mortar sat where they might have made potions. She began tearing out the drawers, throwing them on the floor with abandon.

  Too afraid to touch her or speak, Teveres and Garren began following suit. There were seven separate desks, and all of them were empty. They found only the droppings of disappointed rodents. W sed . Shen the last desk was disassembled, Aia sat in its chair with her forehead rested on her palms.

  Teveres shrugged at Garren, who returned the gesture. They each could see that one of them needed to talk to her, but neither was ready or willing to make the move.

  Just as Teveres was about to take the initiative, Les poked his head through the door. The baron visibly leashed his alarm at the sight of so many corpses; a moment of shock passed over his face and was dismissed quickly as he averted his eyes. He proceeded directly to the desk were Aia sat, placing his hands on the surface to lean closer to her. Teveres nervously hovered over Les's shoulder, wishing he could be supportive but afraid that his tenuously mended relationship with Aia would not withstand such an emotionally charged moment.

  Aia's face jerked into view when Les's weight creaked against the desk. There were no tears in her eyes - only intensity.

  "I'm fine," she said. "There aren't any answers here."

  "Nothing?" Les spoke tacitly.

  "No. Nothing. The notes, the potions, everything is gone. We keep notes in my profession. We're diligent. It's what we're taught as healers. That one?" She pointed at one of the bodies dressed in healing robes. "That one was trained at the University; she wears our robes. She would have tomes of notes that wouldn't have been worth anything to anyone but a healer."

  "Why would they take the notes?"

  Teveres asked.

  "I haven't a clue," Aia laughed hollowly, "Quite literally, there are no clues."

  "Are you done here yet?" Garren said gruffly. One hand rested on his long blade. "There is nothing to gain here. These people have died, and it is regrettable, but we must move on. There will be wells on the edge of town."

  "If it was a plague, the water might not be safe," said Aia.

  "The blood and the holes are not plague. They are weapons. These people were killed by another, not by plague."

  "You can't know-"

  "I know enough." Garren disappeared out the door.

  Les raised an eyebrow at Aia. "He seems sure of himself."

  "He should be. This was the work of violence." Teveres motioned for Aia to join him as he walked back to the street. "We can't worry about this place. There's nothing we can do."

  Chapter 15r />
  The shadowy hills of Layvin's Embrace turned to thick darkness as they reached Aia's home. Her first glimpse of Nivenea with its shining spire and the lighted houses below brought Aia a fresh sense of relief. The city was a glistening symbol, untouched by t ved . gretthe radical changes made in her life. It would stand long after they all had died, and something about that fact was reassuring.

  Chloe grazed peacefully on her favorite hill next to Aia's house. Her small healer's garden was less vibrant than when she'd left almost a month ago, but everything else appeared much the same. From the edges of the curtains on her back window she could see a thin outline of light.

  Her heartbeat skipped when she jumped down into the grass. There were two people inside; Kyren and sleeping female. The female did not sound familiar, perhaps a patient? Kyren worked the asylums, so it would be odd for him to keep someone at her home unless it was an unusual circumstance. It didn't matter. Kyren was there, a familiar presence which she ached to feel. She didn't take the time to explain anything to her travel mates. They could care for themselves.

  She took to the front door at a jog and knocked lightly, taking care not to disturb the resting woman within. The flash of dark eyes between the front curtains unquestionably belonged to her friend. He unlatched the lock and opened the door quickly.

  His mind was brimming with questions, but in his eyes she saw the lifting of many worries. His clothes were of commons, all different shades of brown, his feet bare. With one finger to his lips requesting silence, he eased the door shut. As soon as the barrier between the two of them and the house was secure, he sighed deeply. His long arms wrapped around her.

  "Skies, Aia," he breathed, his hands clenched, "Where in the hell have you been?"

  She returned the embrace gratefully. "Didn't you get my note?"

  "A couple weeks you said," he stepped away, his demeanor sliding into simmering anger. "It's been close on a month now... and with everything that's going on... I thought something horrible had happened."