“And to you, Demon.”
Then he disappears. I wait a moment to make sure he’s really gone and then walk back to the house to get everyone ready.
It’s almost a relief to have something to do.
It takes up half of a human hour to get ready, and then Leaf opens one of his portals. I land heavily in a crouch with Mei beside me.
She bounces up, inhaling deeply, but the wind is blowing the wrong way. I don’t know why, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this, and I trust my gut. It has kept me alive all this time.
So, when she goes to move towards the village that we can’t see, I grab her wrist and pull her back.
“Wait, Mei, something’s wrong.”
When I turn to look at her, I realise she already knows. Her lips are white and turned down, and she’s stiff and tense, like she’s expecting a hit. The survivor and monster that she is has returned.
She is beautiful.
Knock it off, Canto.
I go first, and she follows behind, not close enough to be a hindrance if I need to move but in a spot that is just in the corner of my eye.
She moves silently while the rest of us make a little noise. Everything sounds so loud, and I realise that it’s because there are no birds singing. No insects buzzing. The world is silent. Where are the people?
I get this sudden sick feeling that I know what we are going to find, still I hope. It’s not a human condition, hope is for all creatures. I cling to it, begging for someone to be alive, for there to be a good explanation for this.
The road is dirt, and it’s covered in snow and ice that deepens as we drift closer to whatever is wrong. Leaf doesn’t seem to be enjoying the cold at all, but Mei moves through it like she’s had experience with it before.
It takes us an hour before we see the outskirts of the village. The huts are stone and thatched roofs, cobbled streets. Right now, there is no smoke coming from the huts, no sounds ofchildren or people talking. There isn’t a smell that could be food or drink. There is just an absence of life.
“Where are they?” Lirin asks, pulling at his jacket. His cheeks are red, and his eyes scan the surrounding forest warily.
I don’t answer him, instead pulling my sword as we pass the first house. I go into the fourth one. There’s a plate of food on the table, it’s frozen over. A chair has been knocked over. Whoever lived here left in a hurry. They tried, and they fought to survive.
But they were no match against whatever came for them.
My anger rises, and I try to smother it as I back out of the hut. We check every single house, there is no sign of anyone alive, but no sign of bodies either.
“Where do a hundred and fifty people disappear to in the middle of a blizzard?” Ronit snarls.
Mei’s attention is intently focused on something on the hut. I look at the long scratch marks on the outside wall, she can’t see it, but she clearly senses something.
“It could be nothing,” I say to her because I hope it isn’t what she’s thinking. I really do.
But my history, my knowledge, says otherwise. Everyone is still here…they just aren’t alive anymore.
So, where are they?
Mei wanders ahead of us, following the road out of the village. In front of us, a mountain looms, disappearing into low-lying clouds. The wind is freezing, and the temperature is dropping. We can’t stay here much longer.
“Mei,” I call out. “We have to go back.”
She ignores me, instead, she keeps walking, but she gets smaller. Not physically, although she curls in on herself, but something terrible clutches her, and she just…shrinks.
“Mei!” Leaf bellows and charges towards her.
That’s enough to break my frozen spell. I lunge forward, and because I’m closest, I’m able to reach her first, but as soon as I get close, I stop moving. All I can do is stare.
The foot hanging in front of my face is white. I look up and see a scene more grisly than anything I have ever seen in battle. People are hanging from trees by their wrists. Every single person is naked. Man, woman, child, young, and old. Their bodies are crystallizing with snow and ice.
