The Belladonna

Chapter 48- Manor Garden

(As a peace offering in conjunction with the AN. Also, because it seems cruel after so long to not give you a chapter. As always; enjoy!)

It looked different from up here. Sky was perched precariously on top of the manor wall that ran around the two-story white building. From her vantage point she could see that the garden was set out in a symmetrical pattern. The small pergola acting as the middle axis had ivy growing up its white frame as if it were tentacles from the serpents of the deep her farther use to sing about. The flower beds branching away from it looked unkempt and overgrown. For the most part, it was the same as she remembered. As if no time at all had gone past. As if hundreds of people hadn't died. And Sky envied it. The delicate flowers rose from the earth and grew up towards the sun just as they always had. Though a little dishevelled, it didn't have any of the cracks in it that Sky thought it ought to. It was not damaged like the world that existed beyond the wall she had climbed. It looked like a painting. However, unlike a painting the garden was moving, or rather the people in it were. They seemed at odds with their surroundings, brutal and frantic.

Sky's eyes scanned the garden quickly. She was acutely aware of her visibility so high up. The back garden was not packed, but she counted at least twenty of them. Some, she watched, were dragging bodies and stacking them in a pile against the back wall. A small sense of pride flushed through Sky as she saw that the bodies wore red and blue. The pergola was occupied with a few officers also, who spoke in rough tones. Sky was too far away to hear them, but she could see from their dispositions that what she had said to Dustin applied to her also; If spotted she was dead.

The townspeople must have really put up a fight. Sky thought, looking at the disgruntled expressions on the men and small pile of corpses. Her smile was short lived however, when she realised that there was not nearly enough officers present. They must have returned to the ship? Or, she supposed, they could all be inside. That thought didn't give Sky much of a confidence boost.

Tuning her gaze from the men she inspected the manor. The windows were shuttered closed, just as the townspeople's had been and the front door to her left seemed ungraded. Sky wondered if she'd have to scale the manor wall. Along the outside of the manor was a type of shrubbery. Unlike the flowerbeds, the bushes would offer a much better cover and perhaps Sky could check each window she passed under it. The two guards posted at the gate payed her no mind as she was behind them. The men in the back garden would be the issue, however no one them seemed to look up. Will we all just keep looking down, oblivious to the world around us?

Something hard wacked Sky in the back of the head. Momentarily thrown off balance, she tilted dangerously over the flower bed below her before stabling herself with her hands on the wall in a crouch.

"What are you doing?!" A harsh frantic whisper came from behind and below. Dustin lifted his hand as his dagger dropped back towards him.

"What are you doing?" Sky snapped back. At his angry glare she ground her teeth. Too long, His look seemed to say, Get down. Sky faced away from him back to the manor. He was right, she needed to hurry, both to avoid being caught by the soldiers sitting on a wall and to actually get any information from the meeting. But how to get in?

There was moment out in the garden as a collection of officers began to face the manor. They seemed in accordance with one another as they moved from the pergola towards the back of the manor and inside. Several men turned to go around to the other side of the manor and some came towards Sky. She panicked.

Maybe... Sky's stomach twisted at the thought. If she could just get over there, she might be able to put it off. After all, who guarded the dead?