The Seer (Blood & Fire Saga Book 1) Page 4

  Kaie screwed his eyes shut against the stinging tears that burned a path down his cheeks. How long? When did his mother start cooking with lavender and sage? When did they replace the wood of their home, saying the old was damaged by a storm and insects? How many times did they convince him to bring Sojun over for dinner with them, instead of eating with his friend’s family? How many years did they hide the truth from him?

  “You asked if I thought you should tell the tribe of your destiny,” the Lemme continued. “How should I answer? Your parents tried to protect you, and so built for you a cage to hold back what you are. Should I advise you to hold the bars of your prison tight around you as long as you can? I know better than any that you will always feel displaced there. No contentment will find you with part of yourself locked away. So should I tell you to break free? It will bring down so much more suffering than any soul should have to endure.”

  “What then?” Kaie croaked. “Tell me something. You have to give me something.”

  “I did,” she said softly. “I shared pieces of my vision with you, let you see what I have seen, knowing it would bring something of your own forward. I gave you the truth. That is all I have to give.”

  “It’s not enough,” he murmured.

  She dropped her head into her hands, as if to cry. “Oh Kaie, you do not know me. I realize this. But I know every facet of your soul better than if you were my own. I would spare you all of this if it were in my power to do so. Even knowing the good, I would protect you from the bad.”

  “Why?” He was not asking for her reasons. He was asking for the gods’ reasons.

  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.

  Four

  Seconds ticked by. Kaie stared at the door, almost convinced he just imagined it. He glanced over at the Lemme, expecting her to give answers to all his half–formed questions. 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 sadness. Now she was the Lemme in truth, a woman who saw the gods’ will. She wasn’t to be ignored.

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

  “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 worried about 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 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.

  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. The old laws set in place by the High King back when the Ancients ruled all of Elysium, protected his family. The Empire held to those, but they still came and asked his family to join them every two decades. 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.

  There were stories, ones the children weren’t supposed to hear. Ones about soldiers called Finders 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 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. It went up in a blast. A wave of heat slapped Kaie. That was the moment he understood. These were soldiers. And they didn’t care about the High King’s protection. They were here to destroy his home. To take his people and leave nothing but scorched, bloody earth behind them.

  There was more screaming now. He could hear nothing else. Not until a second hut exploded in a whoosh. He was blinded by the sudden burst of light. Reaching behind him for the wall, 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. 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. He 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 mouthed 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 saying, he had to do something. 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 protection 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 something 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 that he could almost reach. Jumping was hard. He tried a second time. Cau
ght 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 see the whole village from that vantage. The fire reached from one end of the village to the other. It could only be magic. Nothing else could keep it burning so high.

  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.

  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 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.

  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. He couldn’t stop what was happening, 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 of fire. Then he turned back to where it all started. The Lemme’s hut.

  Her door cracked open. Inside was only darkness. His heart, hammering pell–mell since 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 had happened to the Lemme it certainly was. He had been 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, but the soldiers seemed to be gone. He slipped around the back. The Lemme was crouched there, only partially concealed in a small elderberry bush like a dragon hiding behind an elm tree.

  Breathing a small sigh of relief at finding her unharmed, he knelt close enough that they could speak over the roar of the fire. “We need to get you out of here!”

  She shook her head, her eyes wide and darting, looking like those of a cornered animal. She murmured something too quietly for him to hear. There was no time to sort out her objections. They couldn’t stay there. The bush didn’t conceal her, and there was nowhere else to hide.

  Kaie reached into the bush and, gripping her unburned arm tight, yanked her out. She fought him for a minute, as he pulled her 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 was tensed for discovery. When they reached the first trees, he let her rest just long enough to catch her breath. The forest was dangerous; it offered far better cover for the men who might be hunting them. And there was no end of roots, vines, or branches waiting to entangle their feet. So he let their pace slow far more than he liked.

  Once they were far past the tree line, Kaie turned 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. After more hacking, much of the phlegm worked its way out of them. That made it easier to breathe. He hoped the distance meant they were out of sight. 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 frequently. It was surreal, standing in a part of his home completely untouched by the devastation. He could almost believe it was all a nightmare standing there, if it weren’t for the orange light still flickering between the trees.

  The Lemme dropped down 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.

  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 another second. He was in no shape to fight, but they couldn’t run. The woods would slow them nearly as much as the Lemme’s health. Two options that weren’t options, and one that was almost as bad. But it was the best he had.

  He yanked the Lemme to her feet, ignoring her grimace of pain. “You have to keep going,” 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 before the weight hit him.

  All his plans were gone in an instant. The attacker hit him hard and the two toppled backwards. The rock slipped out of his fingers. He lost before the battle even started. He closed his eyes, waiting for 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 wanted us to match.”

  Kaie snorted. 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 crumbling in an instant. His parents, his home, Amorette. They were still so close. He wanted to go to them, to fight with whatever he could find. Anything. He would be cut down in a minute, but it wouldn’t matter. Just so long as he got one good hit in, one small retribution for everything the men were taking.

  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.”

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

  Sojun’s eyes went wide, the brown there looking black with the fire’s light behind him. “Kaie, we
can’t disturb the dead!”

  He swallowed his grimace and smiled. 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 ticked by. Sojun was never going to agree to his plan. But the boy would follow. Into the fire or into the vault, Jun would follow. He turned back to the Lemme.

  “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 was taking too long. Everything in him was screaming to run, but Kaie held back. He was unsteady and the Lemme was tired. Eventually he turned them east again. There was no way to be sure of their position. Kaie’s internal map had gotten confused. When they finally reached the big clearing again, they were further north than he hoped. They were outside the village, but still a good ways from their hill. There was no cover.

  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 air slapped at him, and he saw nothing. It didn’t last long. It couldn’t.