Of course, the knights didn’t see them. They weren’t looking, either. They were focused on the man they had in their grip.
“What are they going to do to him?” Alyss whispered.
Varren didn’t answer her. The knights did.
They took the man to the main gate of town, threw him to the ground, and while one began to kick and beat him, the other walked away. Eira felt every strike as if it were on her own skin. The hands of the Pillars were still upon her. Brutalizing her. She could feel blow after blow.
When the man was barely recognizable, the other knight returned with a length of rope. He threw the loops over the top of the main entrance of the town—two posts that were connected at their tops, stretching over the road. The first knight tied the rope to the man’s ankles and then helped his comrade pull.
The man was hoisted into the air, barely moving. One of the knights pulled a long rod of metal and held onto the wooden part. With nothing more than a shift of his thumb, and the flashof runes, the man was blown away. A bloody hollow where a chest once was oozed onto the ground.
Noelle flinched at the sudden burst of noise, a whimper escaping her lips. Alyss looked on with a hardened stare. She had a stomach of iron from working with the clerics in Solarin.
Eira had seen cruelty in the hands of the Pillars. She’d seen what blind loyalty could drive men and women to do. The danger that came of one individual—a very mortal and flawed individual—defining what morality was for the group.
“What was that weapon?” Yonlin had a hard stare. “It was like a small hand cannon.”
“I saw one on the island, though not in use. I think it’s called a flashfire,” Eira said. “But I know nothing else about it.”
“Carsovia was always clever with their weapons of war,” Yonlin said grimly.
“Flashfires arm Commons with the power of sorcerers,” Lavette said in a slightly detached, matter-of-fact tone. “They’re loaded with small flash beads and can be triggered even by someone who has no inherent magic due to a rune-infused ring, usually worn on the thumb. A small hand cannon is an apt name for it.”
“More importantly, what did that man do?” Cullen whispered, horror deepening his words. “What crime did he commit to warrant such a punishment?”
“It’s hard to say.” Varren wasn’t even looking down at the town anymore. He lay on his back, staring up at the sky. “Perhaps the man spoke out against the empress…or they just perceived he did. Perhaps he sold them a bad fruit.”
“A bad fruit?” Cullen echoed.
“And they claimed he was trying to poison the knights of the empress for it.”
“No…surely it was more. Surely…” Cullen trailed off. Eira looked over her shoulder to see his eyes were locked with Varren’s haunted stare.
“No. It was nothing more. It never was. And it never will be.”
They didn’t end up going into town after all. They pressed on, through the woods, continuing until well after the sun set. One place was as good to sleep as any other, so they just picked a point where exhaustion had settled on enough of their shoulders that it warranted trying to sleep.
At Varren’s suggestion, they all took watches. There were enough of them that no one had to be up too long at any point in the night. The timing was roughly estimated by moonlight, as none of them had a timepiece.
Eira was woken third of the group, taking over from Noelle.
“Hey, your turn,” Noelle said softly as she shook Eira awake.
Eira roused quickly. It was hard to get that deep of a sleep in their current circumstances. “Any problems?”
Noelle shook her head. “All quiet. I think I saw a fox in the distance.”
“Then let’s hope Varren is right and there aren’t morphi in the employ of this empress.” Eira sat and stretched. Sleeping on the ground, especially after the comfort of a hammock on a gently rocking ship for weeks on end, was rough.
“Let’s hope.” Noelle stared off into the darkness that surrounded them. She had a haunted look on her face, the circles under her eyes made darker in the moonlight.
“What is it?” Eira rested her hand on her friend’s forearm.
“I keep thinking about him.”
“Who?”
“The man from earlier… Should we have done something? Should I have stepped in?”
