My Willful flame

Chapter Six

Whatever had travelled through the night, had done so at such a speed, I hadn't managed to see what it was. One thing I knew for sure, it was big and a machine of a sort. If Aleron had constructed a new weapon to use against the South, the fight for the territories would be much deadlier than I expected.

As I stepped into the next village, a haunting silence greeted me and the aftermath of the destruction assaulted my senses. The air smelled of scorched wood and singed flesh, an acrid reminder of the fire's wrath. The once-vibrant houses now stood as hollow carcasses, blackened by the unforgiving flames. Bodies lay strewn across the road, their charred remains smouldering and casting an eerie cloud over the desolate street. From the balconies of what used to be a place of joy, the lifeless forms of men and women hung, swaying in the light breeze, their last moments frozen in a grim dance. Some of them bore the swan emblem. 

Soldiers. 

Aleron had killed his own men, probably the ones who refused to bend. I saw no children and very few women, maybe they fled. I could only hope.

I tugged the cloth around my neck over my mouth. The stench of death lingered and the ash drifted around me.

My hand found its way to my throat, and I felt the stones of the uneven path slide away under my boots. His touch had been pleasing at first. I bit my lip in shame. It was almost as if he had been there, replacing Lau in the very real memory.

But his eyes had looked at me with such care I had felt completely safe. I could almost still imagine how his voice rasped in my ear and tingled down my back. He had made me want him so intimately. I shook my head in disgust, trying to expel it from my mind.

The memory had been Lau. The pleasing touch was his hands tracing over my body, not Aleron's. It wasn't real.

It. Hadn't. Been. Real.

A stench had me cringe and stop. It smelled rotten and almost like...

I heard them first, the flies, buzzing around closely. I took a step. I would regret that decision for a while. Another step. It would burn into my mind, and I would remember it until I would die. A slow step and then I stopped. The hollow-out trench by the road wasn't so hollow anymore.

Faces, sleeping faces lay there piled up on top of each other. Some had their eyes and mouths open, screaming silently at me. This was where the women and children went. I sobbed and covered my mouth as tears started to drip from my cheeks. The smell of death. The rotten stench of flesh and blood. It was all so much. By the gods the children...

I turned the moment my gut expelled everything I had consumed.

I gasped for air and held my knees for support.

Why had he done this? Why had he turned on his own people? Was he afraid they would turn on him first? Or was he looking for me? Was I the reason for his madness?

I looked up. The tunnel was near, I thought, redirecting my focus. He had known about them? I started walking. I needed to get away from this scene. They were not done with them. The fire would come by nightfall and erase the crime that had been committed. They would cover this up.

I tugged on the light blue coat lined with white fur I had brought with me. In this heat, it pained me to bear it, but it hid me well and would be useful once I got to the great edge. I had no idea what I would find there.

I remembered my trial, how Aleron had boasted about killing every single traitor hiding in the tunnel. The terror that had surged through me the second he had said it had been paralyzing. I didn't want to believe it, but now I knew what I would find there. I just hoped I was wrong.