Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth)

by Matthew Medina

  She heard the shouting from downstairs, coming from the other side of the house, and her senses snapped into awareness. She expanded her bubble beyond the room she was in, and took in everything she could from all around her, and the words came clearly to her ears.

  Someone was shouting “Hurry! Wake the Dane!”.

  Catelyn tried not to panic, but her plan was quickly going to the Void. She didn’t assume that she had been found out, for the voices and the commotion were coming from downstairs where she hadn’t even set foot, but the truth was that the alternatives were far worse. She couldn’t afford to stay any longer.

  She removed her foot from Dane Callum’s throat and dropped to her knees alongside the Dane, using her weight and momentum to land her elbow into Callum’s head, rendering him unconscious. She wanted to kill the man, but she’d made a promise to herself and to the spirits of her parents never to casually take a life, and since the Dane was not an immediate threat to her life, she intended to honor it. She got up to leave, and the chains rattled again, tiny hands clutching hers before she could scramble away and out the door.

  “Please. Don’t leave us here,” Elexia pleaded.

  Catelyn had almost forgotten about the girls; she had been so focused on the Dane, and they had been so quiet that they had blended into the background of her consciousness. Catelyn paused, thinking that she didn’t have time for rescuing two young girls, but also hearing the panic in those voices.

  Elexia and Sera.

  Catelyn had been not much older than these girls when her own parents had been taken from her. She hadn’t been able to help them then. She couldn’t even begin to count the number of nights she had awakened from that experience, replayed over and over again in her nightmares and each time, she was completely powerless to stop it. To do something.

  But she was older now. She was, for better or worse, directly in a position to help these girls now, and she knew from the things that her parents had taught her that this gave her a responsibility. She sighed and knelt down on the bed once more, patting the backs of the girls hands to reassure them.

  “Let’s get you out of here,” she said quietly.

  She reached out and searched along Dane Callum’s limp body, hoping to find that he kept the key to their restraints on him, but found out that as she had guessed, beneath the sheets the Dane was unclothed from head to toe.

  Sera must have figured out what she was doing, for she said in a timid, quiet voice “The key is in a panel of the headboard.”

  Catelyn thanked the girl and felt along the headboard, all the while listening to the growing commotion downstairs. She was surprised that no one had made it up to the Dane’s bedchamber yet, or had even seemingly made the attempt, and this further raised her hackles.

  What is going on down there?

  She located the swivel panel, pushed it in on its hinge and easily found the small key to the restraints, preparing to unshackle the two girls as quickly as she could. In the process she discovered that the two girls had been bound with tight leather collars at wrist and ankle, attached to the chains which ran to the floor. The girls whispered their thanks and Catelyn released them from their bonds.

  She knew the girls could hear the commotion and yelling coming from downstairs now too, and they were old enough to understand that she was their only hope. They seemed at most one or two sojourns younger than she had been when she’d been abandoned to the streets without her vision, and that gave her a feeling of kinship with them.

  Catelyn assessed her situation. She had accounted for the possibility of carrying one person, the Dane, out and onto the rooftops. Carrying two young girls, weighing roughly forty stone each, was not going to be possible, so her rooftop escape plan was now out. The only route left to her was going downstairs and out the front door. Right through the bulk of Dane Callum’s private cadre of thugs and guards, and straight towards the commotion. Catelyn blasphemed the Divines under her breath.

  She hadn’t planned this well at all.

  Chapter 8

  Catelyn gathered the girls at the foot of the bed and knelt before them, placing a hand on each of their shoulders, right then noticing that, like the Dane, both of them were stark naked.

  “Girls, do either of you have any clothing? Preferably something dark?”

  “No,” came the simple reply.

  Of course not, Catelyn fumed, her hatred for the Dane’s running deeply through her.

  “They brought us here from...somewhere else. We weren’t allowed to have any clothes.”

  Catelyn felt herself struggling with the urge she was having to make an end of Dane Callum, to simply stand up and climb up onto the bed to snap Callum’s neck, but she knew she couldn’t afford the time or the complications that would bring into her life. Not to mention her vow, which she was finding harder and harder to honor. She breathed deeply instead.

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” she told the girls again. “But in order to do this, I’ll need you both to listen to every word I say, and follow my directions, without question. Can you do that?”

  She felt both girls nodding and they each said a hushed “Yes, Catelyn”.

  She leapt to her feet and crossed the room to the wedged open door, with a girl clutching each hand. She had only been listening to the commotion outside and downstairs with half her attention before, and so she expanded her bubble to the hallway and the floor below.

  What she heard was complete and utter confusion. The Dane’s men were running back and forth, some engaged in combat, some simply smashing furniture or throwing themselves against doors in an apparent attempt to get out. And then at the distant edge of her senses, Catelyn’s worst fear was realized, as the pungent stench of acrid burning wood and billowing smoke reached her nose, ample evidence of exactly what she had come here this night to try and prevent. And her heart sank with the clear evidence that she had failed.

  The Purge had begun.

  The smells of burning she could detect were not yet close to where she stood, indicating that the Imperials must still be outside, probably barricading the doors of the surrounding buildings from the outside and throwing combustible material from one structure to the other.

  Catelyn cursed the Emperor for living up to his well renowned reputation for impatience and cruelty. Catelyn had hoped that she would have had time to stop this from happening, but she now knew that everything she had risked here tonight had been in vain.

  Though maybe, she thought. Maybe there is some redemption to be had after all.

  She felt the small hands tighten in fear around her own, and she knew that if it was the last thing she did in this life, she would not let this night end in disaster for these two girls. They would not go through another horrible day, if she had anything to say about it.

  But she needed to act quickly if she was going to save them.

  A singular voice in her head pleaded with her to leave them behind, and to save herself, but she refused to heed that call. Ironically, it was not the voice she had expected. That voice, the one who questioned her faith in the Divines, and put

  uncomfortable thoughts in her head, remained silent but she knew that it would approve of the decision she was making right now.

  She may have developed a thick skin and a more than healthy dose of self preservation over the long and hard sojourns of her life, but she could not and would not knowingly allow such innocents to die. Especially not this way.

  A stab of guilt penetrated her at that moment however, as she considered all the innocents she had already allowed to die at the hands of the Danes and their sadistic campaign as well as those who were about to die in this Purge. She supposed that sometimes upholding one’s ideals was more convenient at some times than others.

  But in this case, given the immediacy of the danger the three of them were in, Catelyn simply refused to leave these two girls to be devoured, whether by the conflagration of the Imperial Purge or by the twisted sexual appetites of the Danes.
Not tonight. Not ever.

  The realization that the Purge had begun made it clear why the occupants of the estate had not rushed upstairs to help their Dane. With the Empire on the doorstep, Purging anyone and anything in their sight, the choice was clear: Flee and have a chance to save themselves and their loved ones, or die for a man they owed nothing to, and who had brought this down upon their heads to begin with. It really must have been an easy choice for most, and Catelyn could hear that indeed most of the commotion was the sound of struggle as most of the Dane’s guards attempted to flee, while a handful tried to stop them.

  That meant that at least some of the Dane’s men would be standing between her and escape, but far fewer than if there had not been such confusion, and her chances of getting out with the two girls were looking up. She just had to move fast, while the Dane’s private guards were otherwise occupied and before the Empire focused all their attention on this building. Catelyn knew from her prior experience of a Purge, that they would first contain the entire perimeter that was to be Purged, then they would send in two squads of fifteen soldiers each. One would commence the burning and blockading, while the other would kill any who tried to escape, and these two teams would move from building to building, house to house, systematically torching and killing. The Empire had no care for who they killed or how many. A Purge was deliberately designed to punish those within the perimeter, and send a message to those outside of it, pure and simple. Obey.

  Catelyn no longer worried about stealth or hiding her identity in this situation, so she removed the kerchief from her head and the cloth from around her face, letting it fall to her chest. Upon revealing her shock of medium length red hair the girls, in spite of their dire situation, gasped in surprise and delight. These girls had likely never seen anyone with hair before.

  Catelyn knew her appearance would be a shock for anyone else as well, and hoped that perhaps it would even help buy her some small measure of distraction. She squeezed the girl’s hands, one in each of her own, and ran toward the stairs, vaulting down them two at a time, her bubble focused on each step, and slowly expanding it as she descended.

  “Ma’am,” the girl, Elexia said as they reached the landing.

  “Shush,” Catelyn hissed, more harshly than she had intended. She tried to make her voice softer and warmer. “Stop calling me ma’am, Elexia. I’m barely old enough to be your big sister. Call me Catelyn or Cat.”

  “OK. But Catelyn...”

  Catelyn cut the girl off with a tug, as her bubble told her that a guard was passing in the doorway just down the hall across from them. The words were yanked from the girl’s mouth, and Catelyn pressed them forward, smelling the inferno now strongly as she reached the lower level. The Imperials would be at the house shortly, if they weren’t already outside. It might already be too late.

  She heard the timbers of the building next door cracking in the heat, and the roar of the flames, and the screams of trapped innocents nearby. Catelyn’s pulse pounded in her ears, threatening to drown out the sounds around her. She stifled the fear and the shame she felt at having set off this chain of events, and padded towards what she thought must be the exit to the street. As she moved, her feet came into contact with a plush carpet, which was soaked in something wet and sticky.

  She moved her foot and sniffed the air, but whatever the substance was, she’d never smelled anything like it before. It was sharp, and burned her nose, and she could guess what it was. She knew that the Empire threw in containers of kerosene and other flammable liquids, and Catelyn gripped both girls’ hands tightly. That was when she heard voices.

  The words were muffled, coming from a room with two walls and what was most likely a door between her and the speakers, but as the fires began to rage, her bubble became harder and harder to interpret through the smoke and flames. She moved in the opposite direction, using her bubble to give her as much information as it could, but with the raging fires outside and the commotion all around, her mental map of the surroundings was quickly becoming sketchy at best, and she knew that the longer she stayed, the greater her risk.

  She wished she had been able to do more scouting of this building before hand, but her need had been great, and her time short. She knew she was in a large room, with carpeted floors throughout. From the feel of it under her toes, although it was plush, the threads were worn and old, and would hold a flame quite well. And it was coated in patches of the sticky substance. She wished to get it off her skin.

  She proceeded toward the wall away from the voices, then felt her way along it until she reached the corner, then moved along the perpendicular wall. Finally, as she had hoped, she found a window. The girls must have wondered before, but now that they knew she was blind, Catelyn expected them to question her and perhaps even abandon her to take their chances on their own. To their credit and to Catelyn’s surprise, rather than panic the girls took turns trying to help Catelyn out.

  “Catelyn this window doesn’t open,” said Sera.

  “Damn. I guess it was too much to hope for.” Catelyn sighed.

  “There’s a door to the next room about two paces to the left of the wall. It’s closed.”

  Catelyn smiled and squeezed Sera’s small hand.

  “How come you can’t see?” she asked. “And how come you don’t bump into all the walls?”

  Catelyn simply looked at her and smiled, and said “I’ll tell you all about it after we get out of here. OK?”

  “OK.”

  Catelyn marveled at the simple, unassuming innocence of childhood. Catelyn wondered how any parent could have sold their child, could have willingly let the monsters of this world try to take such a precious gift and corrupt it. Catelyn felt her heart hurt at the very idea.

  “Thank you,” she said instead, and together the three of them moved toward the door. Catelyn’s senses warned her that something was wrong.

  “Wait,” she said as she reached out and felt the wood of the door and the handle. Both were cool. She placed her hand on the knob and turned, and as she did, everything went to the Void.

  The first thing that went wrong was when she heard a door open to her left and the voices she had heard through the walls before rang out clear and strong. She shuffled the girls into the room beyond the door she had just opened, without fully knowing what lay behind. She couldn’t afford to do anything else, but it wasn’t enough. The voices shouted in alarm and Catelyn slammed the door shut behind her. She felt along the handle, but felt no locking mechanism.

  She burst out her bubble with everything she had, which allowed her a momentary sense of her surroundings in fine detail, then returned to the more abstract images she was used to. She likened it to the way a flash of lightning would reveal the objects in a darkened room, giving her an accurate picture of the room’s layout and everything in it, but only briefly before returning to darkness. She’d learned this trick by accident really, but it was handy in a pinch, especially when under pressure like she was now.

  She had sensed a chair a pace away, and grabbing it, she slammed it home under the handle, wedging the door shut. She heard the heavy footfalls of two men as they stomped across the room they had just left, and within a breath they were trying to open the door and force their way inside. One of the men was slamming his shoulder into it, but the chair held, for now.

  She heard the other stomp away, presumably to find another way around. She tightened her bubble to just the few paces within the room and combining that with the information she’d gleaned when she’d flashed her bubble before, she tried to determine a way out of her situation.

  She knew that she was in a small room, seemingly a place for the servants to hang coats and for guests to remove one’s muddy boots. There were two other chairs along one wall, and a coat rack. Unfortunately for Catelyn, she also confirmed that there was another door a few paces away. If he was even half aware, this would certainly be where the other man would approach.

  With the first door secured, she turned
and listened at the other. She didn’t want to wedge herself in on this side, or she would be dead for sure, trapped and burned alive when the Purge reached the Dane’s estate. Or the men would eventually break their way inside, that threat becoming more imminent with every breath. Her hearing told her the grim tale. The other man was rounding a corner and would soon be right outside the door. It was too late to try to run through. They were trapped.

  “Girls, get behind me,” she commanded.

  They did as she instructed, and Catelyn frantically tried to sense something that she could use as a weapon. The coat rack was tall, and too unwieldy to be effective in such a tight space. And Catelyn had no training when it came to fighting. She’d never needed to, although she wasn’t completely incapable of defending herself. Still, this was likely a man with more training and more strength than her, and she felt her stomach lurch at what was happening, and what was about to happen.

  Did everything end like this?

  She had no way out. No room to move. No room to jump. She was boxed in, and she knew she would have to confront her assailant. Before she knew it, it was happening.

  He was right outside the door now. His footfalls had stopped and she could hear his heavy breathing on the other side of the door. She grabbed the long wooden shaft of the coat rack with one hand, listening for the other man, and it sounded like he had given up trying to get in, but was still waiting, pressed against the door and listening. His breath sounded excited...he knew what was about to happen.

  “Hey girl,” the first thug hissed through the door she had wedged shut. “Time to die.”

  Catelyn began to wonder if he wasn’t right.

  Catelyn stood in the small room, frozen with fear, the two young girls trembling behind her, clutching the frayed ends of her tunic. Outside the house, Catelyn could hear the roaring of fire spreading, and knew it was only a matter of whispers before the building she was in would be engulfed in the Purge. Catelyn prepared herself to fight, something she preferred not to do, even when the odds weren’t stacked against her as they were now.