“Probably two days now, and yes. The Nightmare shredded the mind of Yacobee, our leader.”
Her eyes glisten with tears and one revolts, slipping down leaving a white streak along her muddied face. “The huntsman rounded up some of the young ones with magic and bashed in the heads of the parents who fought to free them.”
She begins sobbing again and the sick feeling in my stomach returns. I haven’t witnessed this level of wickedness from King Euron in the other villages he ransacked. This feels different.
The question slips from my lips before I can stop,“Why did they come?”
Her face jerks to mine as she realizes I’m standing off to the side. From here, I can make out her sunken face and red rimmed eyes. She doesn’t answer right away and turns to the man who still kneels beside her.
“The Nightmare, he…he screamed and rampaged about finding the lost traitor.” Her words end in a cry. “He said that we’d be hiding him and demanded to know where he was.”
Kassiel sinks back onto his heels.
“When no one came forward, they began striping the women…”
Oh gods.
She continues, her voice detached, “Eventually they began branding us with pokers and the one you called Orlin…well he became enraged.”
Her sleeve makes its way to her nose and wipes the tears that have gathered there.
I crane my neck to hear her words which have become hushed and broken.
“He threw Yacobee down in front of all of us and tormented him with his demented visions. Yacobee laid there screaming and wailing for the goddess, and so Orlin grabbed a piked spear and…gods…he shoved it down his throat until it burst from his back.”
Bile rises in my throat and I cover my mouth. The image is barbaric, a viciousness I haven’t ever seen.
“That wasn’t even the worst part,” she closes her eyes and I watch her skin turn to a sickly pallor, “they undressed his body…goddess help him through the veil…”
She grabs her son’s body and brings him to her chest and covers his ears, as if she could protect him from the next words that croak from her lips. “They defiled his body. I can’t bring myself to say what atrocities, but they assaulted his dignity, even in death, and then left him to feed the wild hogs.”
I have to close my eyes. I don’t need to guess what they did. Orlin and Velroy threatened to do the same to my corpse.
Kassiel shifts, the mud squelching with his movement and my lids peel open. He’s stoic, his face stone and unnaturally hardened.
“I’ve been looking for my son since I sent him into hiding yesterday. When I saw my house burned, I assumed the worst. But I couldn’t find him in the ashes and held onto hope that he’d run to the woods to join the spirits. You know they won’t harm us.”
All The Devourer does is nod.
The woman makes a motion over her chest, moving her fist from the base of her chin, straight down to her abdomen, and in a half circle covering her heart. Kassiel copies her movement.
The gesture is unfamiliar to me, adding to the growing suspicion of this man before me.
The forlorn look in her eyes focuses on Kassiel’s inky band again, her tears drying on her face.
“What will you do?” I hear him whisper to her, his hands still on hers and the deceased boy.
“I can’t endure this.” The pain in her voice lacerates the air. This is devastation I will never understand. Losing Hanin was hard enough and I’ve barely survived it myself. The anguish she feels must be so much more powerful. My hurt pales in comparison.
He tilts his head and widens his eyes. “You will continue on, live for him, fight back.”
It almost sounds like Kassiel is counciling her, eager for her to move on from this heartbreak.
“There is nothing without him. I’m a widow, now childless. There is no happiness for me in this lifetime.”
Kassiel shakes his head. She squeezes his hand and her face dons an unreadable expression, hard and serious.
“You must do it.” She looks into his eyes. They’re solemn laced with an unspoken plea.
