Burnt (5 page)

She didn’t hear the depth of his question, though. She took it at face value. “Because you will have both incredible joy and unimaginable pain. But always in unequal amounts.”

Bitter words were poised on Kaie’s tongue, ready to spill past his lips, but they were lost in an instant as a blood-chilling scream sliced through the silence of the sleeping village.

Seconds ticked by. Kaie stared at the door, half convinced he just imagined it. He glanced over at the Lemme, expecting her to give answers to all his half-formed questions. She saw the future. Shouldn’t she know what was going on?

She wasn’t watching the door though. She wasn’t watching the fire either. Her eyes were locked on him. “Decide.”

She didn’t sound like she was dying anymore, and there was no trace of the sad sister mother from a moment before. Now she was the Lemme in truth, a woman who saw the gods’ will and saw it out within the people. She wasn’t to be taken lightly. His heart was already lodged firmly in his throat, but it still managed to terrify him.

“What?” He wanted to obey. But, for the life of him, Kaie couldn’t figure out what she was demanding of him.

“You must decide. Will you allow your friends to sacrifice themselves for you?”

The scream came again. Not his imagination. He pushed himself to his feet, too panicked by what might be happening outside to spare the old woman another thought.

He didn’t get one step toward the door when a hand burst through the flames to wrap around his forearm. He stared at it, trying to figure out what was happening. Her arm was right in the middle of the fire, and she wasn’t trying to move it. Kaie gagged as the disgustingly mouth-watering scent of cooking flesh filled the room.

“What are you doing? Let me go!”

“Decide!” Her voice was dangerous, and he heard no sign she felt the pain of her burning skin. There was no ignoring her command this time. He would decide, or she would hold him until they both burnt to nothing. He saw the truth of it written in her eyes.

So he decided.

He opened his mouth to tell her, but she was already letting him go and slinking back into the darkness. A third scream cut through his indecision. He gave one more backward glance at the Lemme’s apparent disinterest, and then Kaie was pushing through the door and back into the cool night.

Even with all the Lemme’s warnings, Kaie wasn’t prepared for what was happening in the darkness.

There were strangers everywhere. He wasn’t born the last time there were outsiders in the village. His mother spoke with them two years before he was born. He always expected to be at her side when she spoke to them again in his nineteenth year, when the Urazin Empire sent their representative. The old laws set in place by the High King back when the Ancients ruled all of Elysium, protected his family. That was part of the oath, just as much as the role the Lemme saw for him. The Empire held to those old laws but they still came and asked his family to join them. It was his mother’s job – the leader’s job – to say no without offending them.

These strangers weren’t representatives. Or, maybe they were. But they weren’t asking anyone to join them. He saw the hulking figures clad in armor, heard the clank of metal as they moved, but he could not sort out what the foreigners were doing running through the spaces between the huts of his village. Not at first. They couldn’t be Finders. Those kept to the woods, targeting people on their own. Everyone knew that. It was why they hunted in groups of five and were never so far apart that a shout would not bring help in moments.

There were stories, ones the children weren’t supposed to hear. Ones about soldiers descending on villages of the Free People like locusts, destroying everything they touched then disappearing along with all the people who lived there. He and Sojun would listen, excited and fascinated as the adults spoke in hushed tones and never noticed the two boys in their hiding places. Amorette refused to join them, saying she didn’t like being scared, but the two of them never were. They were safe, protected. The old laws said so and no one would dare go against the High King. Even the Empress knew to fear his wrath.

The first hut to go was at the far west edge of the village, just inside the tree line. I
t went up in a blast so intense that a wave of heat slapped Kaie all the way at the Lemme’s door. That was the moment he understood. These were soldiers. And, if they knew about the High King’s protection, they didn’t care. They were here to destroy his home. To take his people and leave nothing but scorched, bloody earth behind them.

His legs were moving, propelling him forward, but Kaie didn’t know where he was going. There were t
oo many people to save. He was fast but his family was too big for one boy to rescue from this terror.

There was more screaming now. So much that he could hear nothing else. Not until a second hut exploded in a whoosh. He skidded to a stop, blind from the sudden burst of light. Reaching behind him for the wall he just
passed, Kaie stumbled backward. When his vision cleared a moment later he bit back a shout of surprise. Not five feet away, a soldier was dragging Navin, one of his father’s friends down the road by the hair. He was hidden in the shadow cast by the wall. If he moved even an inch the soldier would see him too.

Kaie sucked in several deep breaths in the second he took to think. The soldier wasn’t dressed in the shiny metal armor from the stories, but the leather substitute looked plenty tough. And the silver sword in the man’s free hand was already red with the blood of his family
. But he couldn’t just sit here watching as his father’s friend was hauled off into the darkness. The only chance was if he attacked the man’s back. Under the circumstances it didn’t seem nearly as cowardly as it used to. He just hoped surprise was enough to make a difference.

He tensed, waiting for his moment as the soldier trudged past.
Just as he was about to spring Navin’s eyes met his. The man’s head shook and he was mouthing something. Kaie couldn’t make out the words but he knew what the gesture meant. He hesitated. He decided it didn’t matter what Navin was trying to say, he needed to try. But his moment was past. The distraction had cost him his chance.

There wasn’t a second to mourn. Now
Kaie knew where he needed to go and there was no time to spare. He offered up a whispered plea for forgiveness as he ducked behind the next hut. There weren’t any soldiers on that side so he dropped his head and ran as hard as he could.

The world erupted around his feet, sending him toppling backward like a leaf caught by a strong wind. His arm struck s
omething hard. An instant later his head did, too. He hit the ground rolling, dirt filling his mouth and nose and eyes. Gasping for air, his throbbing head made it hard to tell if he was moving or not as Kaie struggled to climb to his hands and knees.

Where moments
ago there were huts and trees and gardens, now there was nothing but fire. A wall of it. He struggled to catch his breath, waiting for it to fade or die down but it only grew higher. Stumbling to his feet and blinking against the heat Kaie careened forward again, all sense of balance or direction lost in the explosion.

He collided with
something tall and unmoving. A tree. He knew that tree. Didn’t he? His fingers roved over a knot in the trunk, finding the crack just beneath it where Amorette used to hide acorns and pretty rocks when they were little. Her treasures.

Kaie rested his head against the trunk for a moment, trying to remember where
this tree sat in the village, trying not to think about whom the screams might belong to. It was next to Delia’s house. Which meant he needed to go…through the fire.

His knees threatened to buckle. He choked on the sob in his throat. No time for that. There was a branch, thick and solid, that he could almost reach. Jumping was hard. He tried a second time. Caught it. He hung there for a while, arms shaking from the effort, legs swinging. Couldn’t fall. He didn’t think he could get up again.

He managed to catch one of his feet on the trunk. With a lot of scrambling, Kaie got himself up on the branch. He could go higher. Maybe. But there was no need. He could see the whole village from that vantage and understood why the soldiers were running around in the dark before the first hut was lit. The fire reached from one end of the village to the other. It could only be magic, keeping it burning so high and so constant.

He would never reach his parents. He was on the wrong side of the wall, tossed back just a few feet from the home he was born in. There wasn’t anything left of it now. He did nothing but stare. For a minute. For ten. Maybe for an hour. Time was meaningless.

At some point, he noticed the curve in the blaze. The burning wall was no straight line, dividing the village in two. It was a loop. He wasn’t high enough to see but he was sick with certainty. Not just his parents. Amorette’s family home deep in the center of the village would be ensnared by this fire. And Sojun.

Gods! Sojun! How could he leave Sojun behind? Sleeping alone, in a part of the village that was almost entirely vacant, waiting for children to enter adulthood and move in. Did the screams that alerted him even wake his friend? Was his heart’s brother burnt to ash underneath the rubble of his home? He needed to follow the curve of the wall back to the southern end, find how far it went. Maybe Sojun was ok. Maybe he needed help.

His home, his parents, his friends. They were taking everything, and he was helpless. He couldn’t even stop one man from taking Navin.

Navin. Pleading with him.

The man’s words struck him suddenly. He cursed the soldiers, the gods, himself. He needed to go help Sojun. Except…

“Save the Lemme.”

That’s what Navin was telling him. That’s what was more important than the man’s own life, more important than any other life in the entire village. She was the tribe. Without her the Zetowan were dead. With her, they lived. He was on the north side of the wall along with a handful of huts, all marked by blood smears and wreckage suggesting the soldiers came and went already. If he didn’t save her there was every chance no one else would.

Climbing down from the tree was significantly easier than getting up. Also a lot more painful. But Kaie was long past caring about scraped knees or broken fingers.
It was all because of him, because he drew Kosa’s eye to their village. He couldn’t stop it, couldn’t even see a way to slow it. But he would not let his people die. Not like this.

“I’m sorry Jun,
” he whispered to the wall. Then he turned back to where it all started. The Lemme’s hut.

The Lemme’s door cracked open. Inside was only darkness. His heart, hammering pell-mell since the he first caught sight of the soldiers, stopped beating entirely. Whatever was happening to the rest of the family
might
be his fault, but if anything happened to the Lemme certainly was. He was with her and he left her. “Please, gods…”

“
Here!” The call came from somewhere behind the hut and it made him jump in surprise. Kaie shot a quick glance around looking for soldiers responding to her outburst, but they seemed to be gone. Satisfied they were relatively safe for the moment, he slipped around the back. The Lemme was crouched there, only partially concealed in a smaller elderberry bush like an elephant hiding behind an elm tree. She was breathing hard but there didn’t seem to be a scratch on her.

Breathing a small sigh of relief at finding her unharmed, he knelt close enough that they could speak quietly.
They got lucky with her shout going unheard but he knew they weren’t alone. He was still terrified his voice would carry over the roar of the fire and bring the locusts down on the two of them. “We need to get you out of here!”

She shook her head,
her eyes wide and darting, looking more like a cornered animal’s than the spiritual leader of the tribe. She murmured something too quietly for him to hear. There was no time to sort out her objections. No matter what she might see for the plan forming in his mind, they couldn’t stay there. The bush barely concealed her, and there was nowhere else to hide. Worse, they were in a spot where the earth dipped just enough to drastically limit his sight of the surroundings. Anyone could sneak up with very little effort.

Kaie reached into the bush and
, gripping her unburned left arm tight, yanked her out. She fought him for a minute, as he pulled her southwest, toward the woods that circled their village, but it was feeble and ended quickly. It didn’t slow them much.

Kaie dragged her through the long shadows, his every muscle tensed for discovery. When th
ey reached the first trees he let her rest behind it just long enough to catch her breath. The forest was dangerous; it offered far better cover for the fit, trained men who might be hunting them. And there was no end of root, vine or branch waiting to entangle their feet. It was not such a hazard when walking, but at run that could lead to a broken ankle. That was not something they could afford. So he let their pace slow far more than he liked.

Once they were deep
inside Kaie turned more south. By that time the fire itself was hidden, though the light of it still filtered through the trees. There was a lot less smoke and after another few rounds of hacking, much of the bile worked its way out of them. That made it easier to breathe. He hoped the distance meant they were out of sight. Encouraged by that and that they weren’t revealing themselves with the coughing fits that plagued the earlier part of their flight, Kaie let the pace slow more. The Lemme didn’t say anything, but he got the sense she was grateful.

Ten
or fifteen minutes into their escape they pushed into a small clearing. The hunters used it frequently to pool supplies and agree on territories before heading out deeper in the woods. It was surreal, standing in a part of his home completely untouched by the devastation not half a mile away. He could almost believe it was all a nightmare standing there, if it weren’t for the flickering orange light still flickering between the trees.

He stopped next to a large, flat rock.
He had a hard time not thinking about all the time he and Amorette wasted there while they waited for the others to sort out who they would follow that day. Those thoughts were dangerous. He couldn’t keep moving if he let them in.

The Lemme dropped down onto the rock with a wheeze. Kaie took the opportunity to lean against a tree. Among the list of things he was trying his best not to think about was his increasingly insistent dizziness. Whatever was wrong, there was no time for it. He could be a mess later. Just the same, it was good to have a minute or two while he worked to make the world stop spinning.

At first, he thought the sound of cracking branches was just his imagination. Then he was certain it was just the noise of the inferno. But the noise kept getting closer.

Kaie didn’t waste a second. He was in no shape to battle an armed, armored man. But they couldn’t expect to run. The woods would slow them nearly as much as the Lemme’s health. Neither of which would pose nearly the same obstacle to a man with a sword. Two options that weren’t
options and one that was almost as bad. But it was the only one available.

He yanked the Lemme to her feet, ignoring her grimace of pain. “You have to keep going south,” he hissed. “Fast as you can. I’ll win you as much time as I can.”

She stared up at him, her yellow eyes showing no hint of understanding.

He wanted to shake her, get the agreement out. If he was going to give up his life for hers, he would be damned if she threw it away staring instead of running. But there wasn’t even time for that. Either she understood, and he might save her, or she didn’t and they would both die. He shoved her away, hoping the momentum would get her moving in the right direction. His heart dropped. She went exactly as far
as the tree line and then sat. Peering back at him. Waiting.

There was no time to shout at her, no time to regret his decision. Kaie got exactly enough time to reach down to pick up a rock – the only weapon available – before the weight hit him.

All his plans, everything he was hoping to accomplish, were gone in an instant. The attacker hit him hard and the two toppled backwards. Kaie was down without one second of fight, the rock slipping out of his fingers and gone. He lost before the battle even started. He closed his eyes, waiting death.

“Rosy?” His eyes fluttered open again.

Sojun’s face was dark with soot and streaked with blood. It was the most amazing sight of his life. They laughed and embraced and for a few moments nothing else mattered.

Sojun got up and offered him a hand. It was necessary. Kaie’s legs didn’t want to work. The bones turned to gel and he almost collapsed. Jun caught him before he could topple face-first.

“You’re hurt.”

Kaie gestured to the dried blood. “You too.”

Sojun shrugged and gave him half a smile. “I was dressing to match.”

In spite of everything, or maybe because of it, Kaie snorted. Then his gaze drifted over
to the rock again. For a second he dared to hope. “Amorette?”

His friend’s face clouded with a pain so sharp it shattered something deep in Kaie’s heart. It was more than answer enough. “I tried. Gods forgive me, I tried.
But the fire and the soldiers…There was no way through.”

“Kosa take me.” He slumped back against the tree again, everything that kept him moving drying up in an instant. His parents, his home, Amorette. They were still so close to the so
ldiers. He wanted to go to them, to throw his rock or his fists. Anything. He would be cut down in a minute, he knew that full well, but it wouldn’t matter. Just so long as he got one good hit in, one small retribution for everything the men were taking.

Except if he went
Sojun would follow. He knew his heart’s brother wouldn’t let him go charging off to death by himself. Kaie wouldn’t either, if the situation were reversed. They couldn’t leave the Lemme alone out here. She would be found soon enough. And when that happened the family would truly be lost. “Jun, we have to get her somewhere safe,” he said.

“Where?”
Sojun asked. “They’ve got nearly the whole village surrounded by that crazy fire. And there are soldiers everywhere…There’s nowhere to hide. Not even if it were just the two of us.”

He suspected that already, when he saw the curve to the fire, but hearing it was different. But
he couldn’t think about it now. Couldn’t imagine Amorette’s face as she and her family fled only to come up against the wall of fire. Lemme first. Then he could fall apart.

“The burial vault, on the other side of our hill.”

Sojun’s eyes went impossibly wide, the brown there looking golden in the fire’s light. “Kaie, we can’t disturb the dead!”

He grinned instead of the grimace he felt. He shared Jun’s sentiment. They chose their hill because it was far from the village, but still inside the clearing. And because it made them feel daring, sitting so close to the spirits of their ancestors. But
even in their boldest moments they never considered opening those great stone doors. “Our hill keeps it out of sight until you’re right on top of it. There’s a good chance we won’t be found there. And if we are, maybe the soldiers won’t want to disturb the dead either.”

“There’s a reason! What if a spirit didn’t find its way to the Abyss?”

“Jun, what else is there?”

Precious seconds, ones they couldn’t spare, ticked by. Kaie realized Sojun was never going to agree to his plan. But
he would follow. Into the fire or into the vault, Jun would follow. So he turned back to the Lemme and where she was waiting for him by the tree line.

“Am I right?” Kaie murmured as he helped her back to her feet. “Will we be safe there?”

Her voice was little more than a whisper. “For a time.”

It was assurance enough. Better than anything waiting for them in the woods. So he took her hand in his and started pushing south again.

There wasn’t far to go, but it took too long. Everything in him was screaming to run but Kaie held back. He was unsteady and the Lemme was tired. And they would all need their energy. Sojun followed.

Eventually
he turned them east again. There was no way to be sure of their position. Even with the smaller clearing for a guide, Kaie’s internal map was sketchy. When they finally reached the big clearing again, they were further north than he hoped. Outside the village, thank the gods, but still a good ways from their hill. There was no cover. The mostly empty huts, or what was left of them, seemed to be free of soldiers. But he wasn’t ready to deem it safe.

He tightened his hold on the Lemme’s arm, gritted his teeth
, and charged into the clearing. For a few moments he ran as fast as he could. The world blurred around him, all streaks of orange and black, the hot air slapped at him, and he saw nothing. It didn’t last long. It couldn’t.

More and more, the weight on his arm slowed his mad dash for safety. The Lemme was old. She was sick. She never left her hut. She couldn’t keep up with a small sixteen year old boy. Not even a dizzy one. Her breathing was thick and labored. He slow
ed, but it wasn’t enough. She stopped moving, dropping her hands onto her knees and gasping for air.

Sojun was at his side in an instant. Kaie met his friend’s
eyes. Jun wasn’t as fast as him, not even when he was dizzy. But the other boy was so damn strong. He wanted desperately to be the one to save the Lemme, because all of this might be his fault for being what he was. But now wasn’t the time for redemption or pride. “You have to carry her!” Kaie said.

Jun looked surprised. “I won’t be able to fight. If they come for us…”

Kaie shook his head. “If they do, we’re dead. You can’t fight steel with flesh. One of us has to carry her and we both know I’m not strong enough!”

Sojun gave him a strange look,
one he didn’t recognize. But, whatever else it might signify, it meant an end to their briefly shouted argument. Jun scooped up the Lemme in one smooth movement, making her look no heavier than Amorette.

They were moving again, albeit slower than before. He longed to stretch his legs again, to taste the freedom of those minutes, but Kaie would not leave his heart’s brother behind. Not again.

They reached the path fast enough. It was the same one he walked with his friends earlier that day, but Kaie wouldn’t recognize it if he weren’t searching the ground for any sign. His whole world cracked right down the center and one side slid out of place. Nothing was familiar anymore. Momentary relief washed through him when he spotted it. He pointed for Sojun and then they headed up.

As they passed over the spot where they were laying hours ago, he heard voices that would mean an end to their escape.

“… thought he said there wasn’t anything out this far.”

“Maybe not. But it doesn’t hurt to look, does it?”

“It will hurt, if the Cat thinks we’re wasting time.”

He and Sojun exchanged a glance, neither one of them looking around to find the men talking. With a burst of pure adrenaline, both boys surged forward over the hill.

His foot slipped, just as those stone doors came into view. Kaie’s mouth flew open in a silent shout as he tumbled. His body curled into something resembling a ball and he rolled. Dirt and grass hit his tongue and rocks hit his body. Once again, the world was a blur, but this time there was no comfort in it. He wasn’t in control and that made all the difference.

Kaie hit hard. For a moment, a precious, expensive moment, he could do
nothing but gasp for a breath that wouldn’t come and stare at glittering lights dancing behind his eyes. He felt a hand wrap itself around his wrist, and then he was sliding. He nearly cried out as the movement scraped his back and bounced his battered head against the earth.