Elloven crashed to her knees in the mud. She bowled forward, her palms sliding through the mud as she fought to remain upright. No one touched her. They’d stopped talking to her like she was a petulant child because now they’d seen who she was and what she could do, and they’d never talk to her like that ever again.
She watched, wheezing and winking in and out of awareness, as the rain eroded the flames until there was nothing except the choking haze of charred ruin.
A scream came from somewhere ahead. More joined it. They’d lock her away, the witch who had called down the skies, and she no longer cared. There were few truths that mattered as much as the unthinkable one she’d never accept, a loss deeper than the sea.
Through the smog, she made out the outline of a man and a woman. A child ran ahead of them, and a smaller one held the man’s hand.
Elloven watched them come into focus. As details stitched into form, her throat locked. She tried to shove herself from the mud but only slid forward.
Jesstin. He was smothered in black soot and favoring his left foot, but he never let go of the little boy. The woman broke free and ran toward the waiting crowd. Daire arrived next, and he ushered the older child toward him, but the younger one was shaking her head and clinging to Jesstin. He knelt before the girl, who kept shaking her head until Jesstin clasped her face and said something that convinced her to go with Daire. He waved once at the girl. The girl waved back.
And then Jesstin was gone. She blinked, and he was gone. Where he’d just been standing was only a blank space.
“Come, come,” Sesto said. He looped both arms under one of hers and pulled her to her feet. “We need to leave. Daire’s waiting in the carriage.”
“He was there... He was just there.” She tried so hard, but the words came out jumbled and wrong, not half of what she needed to say.
“He’ll be fine, but we have to get you and the children out of here before the lawmen show up.”
“Why?” Elloven gaped over her shoulder as Sesto led her to the carriage. She was relieved to see Gertrude safe with the rest of the staff. They were alive but homeless. She’d come back and help her, help them all.
“I’ll explain in the carriage.”
“What about Jesstin? He’s not coming?”
“No, not with us.”
“Sesto!”
He spoke sternly. “Have you ever seen the skeletal remains of a man? If enough of it is still intact, sometimes they can determine if he died by violence. The evidence persists. If we leave now, it was just a terrible fire. We stay, we give them a reason to investigate further. And if they do, do you want to wager the odds they find Castien died by blade and not flame? That it was no accident at all but a carefully orchestrated execution?”
Castien’s lifeless body came back to her, details she had not comprehended in her shock. His throat had been cut from ear to ear, and his head was no longer in alignment with his body. It might not even have been attached at all. She didn’t know much about warfare, but she knew it took a great deal of force to relieve a man of his head.
Elloven surveyed the brutal scene as Sesto helped her into the carriage. “We have to come back for the others. They have nowhere to go.”
“I’m sending word to Asterin straightaway. They’ll have somewhere to go, I promise you.”
“My horse, Frankie...”
“We’ve already seen to him, Elloven. Just relax now.”
She pressed her cheek to the glass as they rolled away.
Once the horrors faded into the horizon, she finally closed her eyes.
It was morning before she opened them again. She climbed out of a bed she’d never been in, in a room she didn’t recognize, and padded into a hall just as foreign. She followed the scent of jasmine tea until she reached a small sitting area with a table and two benches. Sesto sat upon one, nursing his tea, and another had been placed directly across from him.
“For me?” Elloven asked.
“No one else,” he answered with a tired smile. “Are you feeling well?”
“Well enough,” she answered.
“Good. Then go on, drink. We need to talk.”
She frowned and climbed over her bench, settling in. “No one ever says that when it’s good news. Is it Jesstin?” She looked around. “Where are we?”
“At the Hermitage. Asterin took us in last night. He’s already seen to the refugees at the Edevane manor. You’ll be pleased to know everyone made it out.”
