She bid him a good night and headed out of the pub. Jonathan’s was the last place she wanted to go; the bitterness towards their decision still soured her insides. Only one place and one person would calm her: Obrae. With the full moon lighting her way, she sauntered down the quiet path out of the square. Nothing stirred, not even the wind. An uneasy feeling grew, and while she tried to tell herself that it was just nerves fueled by exhaustion, she couldn’t help but pick up her pace.
A soft and steady sound began to capture her ears. As the pulsing grew into pounds and thuds, she wandered into the underbrush and hid while the footsteps of a large, marching crowd was complemented with the flickering of torches shinning ahead of her. There was still no talking to be heard. Something was without a doubt wrong. As the crowd came closer, the noise indicated a group of people too large for the Traitors in Srift. Blaze clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle a cry.
The Urlifican troop with crossbows drawn encircled the Traitors, marching them like a herd of cattle toward town. Seth and his family, Tawnya and her parents, and Mark and his father passed in silent submission. Tawnya quietly cried, clutching Mark for support.
“Ooo, young Traitor, watcha got here?” Ryan yanked Tawnya away from Mark. The Traitor nearly attacked the rat, but his father held him back as the group came to a halt. A small scream squeezed out of Tawnya as pure terror blanched her face.
“Hum, she’s a purdy one, in’t she?” The torches lit up his eyes as they weighed her friend. A lustful grin played his lips. “I can get first watch tonight, right?” Tawnya cringed and tried to escape from the grasp of her captor.
They were so close; with one leap, her dagger would sink into the abhorrent pig.
However, Blaze was frozen to the spot. With crossbows, everyone’s chances of staying alive were slim if events swung out of the Urlificans’ control. She ground her teeth, and her hands shook in pure rage. Hadn’t she trained her whole life to be able to stop terrors like this from happening?
“Ryan! Let the girl go and get these Traitors moving!” Burdock demanded as he stomped from the front.
Ryan let Tawnya go and held his hands in the air. “I’s just wonderin’. We done so good tonight; I thought we could get some use outa the pretty smacker before sendin’ her swingin’. Grand General Kent got to kill that ungrateful Traitor, and I thought I could enjoy the spoil, too.” He grinned hungrily at Tawnya who was being hidden by Kevin, Mark, and Rick.
“You will do as ordered. Now move!” Burdock barked.
The troop and Traitors started moving again, leaving Blaze terrified. Jonathan wasn’t with the group.
Silently making her way through the woods, Blaze rushed back to her home, dreading what she would see there. Images from a nightmare played in her mind: a cohe killing her mother, and arrow killing her father and Tray. Soon nerves pushed her forward with abandon, not caring if there were any Urlificans left to find her. Fear blinded her as she forsook the protection of the woods for the open path. Smoke tainted the air, and as the path pointed toward Jonathan’s cabin, the glow of fire erupted before her.
Everything blazed with destruction: the cabin, the barn, and all of his gardens. “Jonathan!” Blaze screamed over the roar of the fire. Smoke clouded her sight and choked her, and the flames threw the heat of the sun upon her. “Jonathan!” Between coughs, she shouted as loud as she could, sprinting towards the cabin. Flames consumed the roof, and the windows spewed thick black smoke. An open gap into the inferno remained where the door had been.
Ignoring the instinct to stay back, Blaze threw herself into the burning cabin, screaming his name over and over again. Smoke and heat took the air out of her lungs as her tearing eyes scanned the living room. Disintegrating wood creaked and screamed, threatening to collapse at any time. Jonathan’s door was closed, but as she approached it, thick burning beams fell and bared her way.
She screamed in defiance and searched for a way through, but there was none. Her survival instincts finally took control, and she turned to leave and try the back door. She froze in place as her world shattered. Sitting beside the doorway with a stab wound in his chest was Obrae. His hand gripped his arming sword, and his head lulled against the wall.
The fire didn’t exist around Blaze as she crept toward her late mentor. Her heart burst with agony as a scream from the past ripped out of her charred throat. Collapsing at his outstretch feet, she reached out to touch his hand. It was warm and relaxed, but the strength the hand once empowered was gone. She looked up to his face as his closed eyes made death appear like a peaceful rest.
A loud explosion shook Blaze out of her hysterics as Jonathan’s bedroom collapsed. Ash, embers, and debris blasted toward her as the rest of the cabin started to shriek and sway. Obrae wouldn’t want her to die; he would want her to fight on. He trained her with the very sword at his side, and she would use it to avenge him.
The strength of rage empowered her as she grabbed his sword. Throwing herself out of the doorway, Blaze crawled down the path; anger, grief, and smoke burning her insides. One last pop emitted from the cabin, and she watched her home collapse on top of her guardian and mentor.
Chapter 4
Blaze woke up coughing, each rattling blast a punch to her raw throat. Jolting up into a sitting position, something rammed her in the ribs, expelling even more precious air. Nose running and eyes burning, she grabbed the metal item to hurl it. However, mid-throw, she realized that it was Obrae’s sword. While she gained control over her cough and panic, the night’s terrors bombarded her. Tawnya and the Traitors were captured by the Urlificans; Jonathan and Obrae were dead.
The Urlificans were going to pay.
As she rose, another coughing fit doubled her over. Straightening back up, she stumbled through the smoky haze wafting from what used to be her home. The gardens were black scars on the earth, the barn and cabin nothing more than fallen bodies of smoldering ash. Like a ghost of soot, she stumbled and weaved her way toward the stream, her mentor’s sword cradled in her arms. The first rays of morning streaked from behind the tree line.
Greedily inhaling the crisp water, Blaze plotted the Urlificans’ punishment. They needed to erect a gallows before the executions began, which would take most of the day. To revel in their victory and torture the Traitors until the very end, the execution would most likely occur at sundown.
Urlifec’s murderers were going to pay dearly.
She washed the soot off of her face, picked up the sword, and headed down the path, leaving the carcass of Jonathan’s paradise behind. Blaze wondered if the Urlificans were searching for her. They must know she was living with Jonathan and would want to jail her with the others. The monsters were impartial about whether the person they killed was Traitor or not. If any association was made with Traitors, they bore the right to kill the guilty party. Burdock warned her of that.
But, Blaze didn’t care if they found her. If they did, she would kill them. The blood of her parents, Tray, Jonathan, and Obrae dripped from the cursed king’s hands. It was her right to cut those hands off. Urlifec was worried about Traitors turning his kingdom against him, but Blaze would give him tenfold that terror. She was no longer the broken girl on the side of the road; she would become a devilish cohe out for his blood.
The rising sun revealed Obrae’s farm to be a haven untouched by the night’s events. Fog rose off of the grazing fields spotted with sleeping cottony sheep. Whisps of smoke exited the chimney, and a song bird left its roost to welcome the morning. Despite her surroundings, Blaze wasn’t comforted. This farm was dead to her, the stillness only a reflection of its owner. She hesitated at the door. Heart speeding to a gallop, her breath stuck in her throat as a tremble made her hands useless. The wooden door she’d knocked on uncountable times blurred.
Suddenly, flames screamed around her again as Obrae’s body lay propped against wood. With a raging shout, she threw her foot forward, breaking the illusion and causing the door to crash against the inside wall and off of
its hinges. The embers in the fireplace left the quiet cabin smelling charred. Grabbing her spare clothes from the storage cabinets, she headed outside toward the barn to grab a sheath and belt, cleaning leathers, flint, and a bag.
Blaze rushed forward toward the fireleaf cave. Soot matted her hair and dried her skin like a film of death. Instead of being buried, her emotions buffeted, whirled, and built upon the power of each other. And all converged on one thought: making Urlifec and his scum regret what they’d done to her. That was the only purpose of her life. Over and over again, she imagined each Urlifican in the troop dying by Obrae’s blade.
In no time, the cave’s mouth yawning in front of her on the other bank of the stream. She dropped her supplies along with her leather shoes onto the mossy shore and plunged into the deep refreshing waters, clothes and all. Eyes closed, she hung suspended in the cool liquid with no sound, sight, or feeling save for the gentle current and sharpening chill. Tears warmed her eyes and disappeared in the stream’s waters. Her heart softened from the cold stone she was trying to make it as the ghosts of her loved ones haunted her. Obrae wouldn’t want her to kill those men. On their last training day, he had argued for mercy.
But what mercy had they shown him?
Blaze broke the surface and gulped air into her burning lungs. While swimming, she shed her soiled shirt and skirt, letting them drift downstream as she floated in her undergarments. She had to save the Traitors, and the only way was to kill the Urlificans. Obrae had been disillusioned; they all had. Srift was a small haven where the Traitors walked freely and she pretended to beat Urlifec. The Urlificans came and destroyed that place. They knew nothing of mercy or kindness, and they did whatever they pleased, be it for their pleasure or other’s pain. Mercy was weakness to them. The only way to make them respect and fear her was to hurt them worse. Pain was their language for negotiation.
With purpose, she pulled herself out of the stream. Blaze sat on the mossy bank opposite the cave, letting the warm sunlight dry her. A sigh released some of the tension within her. Rage gave her power, but it clouded her judgment, a favorite lesson of Obrae’s. She must rely on her mind over her muscles. Running in with Obrae’s sword swinging wasn’t going to save Tawnya. There were too many Urlificans and, under their leadership, too many townspeople still loyal to Urlifec. She had to be subtle, coy, and quick. The Traitors presented a difficult obstacle on heir own. The group was too large to simply disappear. Rage clouded her mind for a moment as she remembered her last encounter with them, their idiotic arguments for continuing with the Dinner. They may argue against escaping, saying it was the True King’s will that they be docile.
Blaze looked into the cave and concluded that there was no avoiding it; she needed to kill the Urlificans to save her friend’s life. The conclusion excited her; however, Obrae’s call for a steady hand still knocked at the back of her mind. “I’m sorry, Obrae,” she spoke into the cave. “I’m going to have to kill them. I can avenge you and my loved ones while also saving the Traitors’ lives. Doesn’t that justify it?” She gathered her things, putting on the fresh black dress and tightening her sandals. She needed fireleaf. Taking the bag with her, Blaze walked across a fallen tree and headed into the cave.
The porous nature of the cave allowed just enough light for visibility. After a short walk, the roaring of the fireleaf cave’s waterfall soon filled her ears as a rotten stench seared her nose. Sunlight beamed through the waterfall’s hole while the red and orange fireleaf covered the rock like an ignited blanket; it’s jagged, slender leaves bouncing in the mist. Blaze breathed in as little of the foul air as possible while putting her hands on the inside of the bag, grabbing fistfuls of the plant. It wouldn’t take much to be lethal, not when she planned to brew a tea directly from the whole plant. The taste would be bitter, but if mixed with ale, fireleaf poison would be undetectable and even more effective. Once she had enough, Blaze turned the bag inside out, ensuring that the fireleaf never touched her skin.
As she exited the cave, time became her enemy as she found the sun already closing in on its zenith. The Urlificans were more than likely close to finishing the gallows, and she started to doubt her prediction of events. What if they decided to start the executions early? The thought sickened her, and she jogged all of the way back to Obrae’s farm.
Upon reaching the farm, Blaze froze in disbelief. Tears flooded her eyes and a small laugh burst from her mouth. There, grazing happily in the field, saddled and bridled, was Lily. Blaze collapsed to her knees in amazement, overwhelmed by loss and joy. Lily somehow survived the night, and her return into Blaze’s life was almost too much to bear. Steadying her shaky breathing, she called the mare with the special whistle. Lily threw her head up from the grass and honed her ears in Blaze’s direction. She repeated the whistle, and the mare tossed her head in excitement as she trotted towards Blaze.
“Lily, what are you doing here?” she asked while getting up and grabbing hold of the mare’s reins. Lily nudged her chest, like always, looking for a treat. Blaze patted the creature, happy to have one friend left, and lead her toward the barn.
********
Tawnya shook uncontrollably. She stood upon the large, elevated platform with her fellow Traitors, waiting for the Urlificans to begin. Her stomach twisted as she watched all of Srift show up for their...she couldn’t think it. Betrayal shrank her heart as the crowd formed around the circle of Urlificans. She grew up with these people, talked and laughed with them, helped her mother and father serve them.
Evan’s large form protruded from the back, starring at her without hope. Had she not gone to his pub as a little girl and helped him mix brews and clean? She had many memories of riding on his strong shoulders and reaching the top shelves for him. She also cherished how gentle he had been when they thought she ruined his famous summer ale.
Fisher and Glenda stood side by side, next to Evan. The two were like grandparents to her; she listened to so many of his stories and been taught all she knew of sewing by Glenda.
Bark and his gang stood up front along with Ezel, Martha, and Sue, sneering and calling out insults.
“Ha! Look at the kaffing Wilden! Where is your True King now?” Bark’s croons added other insults with that one.
“He’s probably withered in a cave somewhere like a coward...”
“...He abandoned you because you are such kaffing worms...”
“Look at them, they’re like quaking rat spawn...”
“Ha! Mark, don’t you wish you had gotten with your Traitor smacker while you had the chance?”
Bark’s younger brother, Dash, coupled his insult with an obscene gesture that sent the crowd and some Urlificans into hysterics.
Why did they hate her people so?
As the sun sank behind Bear Mountain, hiding its face from the heart-breaking scene, the crowd began to tense up with anticipation. The time had come. Tawnya’s vision blurred and her world wobbled as the Junior Officer and Grand General climbed onto the platform, facing them. Mark’s steady hand grasped her’s tightly.
“Truest King, have mercy upon us,” Mark whispered, and all of the Traitors responded with breaths of “Faith!” as the Junior Officer began.
“Traitors.” His face was controlled, but Tawnya could hear the disgust in his voice. “We all stand here today to witness the punishment of your treachery to this land, these people, and the highest of lords, King Urlifec, may his reign be eternal!”
“Eternal reign!” The Urlificans and villagers exclaimed and cheered.
The Grand General silently glared at them; a steady scowl burning his enemies.
My Highest King, please watch over Blaze.
Her sister friend was nowhere to be found, and Tawnya couldn’t imagine how her scarred companion was fairing. Blaze became so on edge when the Urlificans arrived, and the True King only knew what state of mind she was in now. Tawnya didn’t know what happened to Blaze before Obrae brought her to Srift, but the event hurt Blaze beyond her body. Blaze refu
sed to let go of her anger and hate, and Tawnya would not be there any more to help her remember the good.
“Traitors.” the Junior Officer continued, and the crowd drowned itself in silence. “Your fate stands with witnesses. Are there any witnesses who stand against the charges?”
Bark grinned, Evan paled, and Fisher and Glenda clutched each other, but all remained silent.
“My Grand General. Do you condone their actions?”
The man’s cold eyes pierced each of them with hate. Then, his grimace blended with passion as he beat his chest with a fist and shouted. “To the all powerful...”
“To King Urlifec!” The entire square erupted with the declaration of loyalty and the thud of fist on chest. Only the Traitors stood silently still in their huddle.
The Grand General folded his arms and glared at them. All were silent as he waited for anyone to forsake her king and pledge loyalty to Urlifec.
Oh! True King! Please do not forget us!
“I do not condone them,” he finally growled.
“Traitors. The punishment for such practices is death by hanging. May your beliefs hang with you.” The Junior Officer grabbed the noose. Its coarse fibers went taunt as he tugged to make sure it was secure. Then, he held out his hand to Tawnya. “You first...” he jeered.
“I propose a toast!”
The voice rang through the square like a crack of lightning. All whirled around in shock as Blaze made her way through the crowd, carrying a tray of ale mugs. Her long brown hair shifted and twitched as she sauntered to the circle of Urlificans. A crooked smirk dug into her face, and her hard-set eyes never stopped boring into Tawnya. When the Urlificans wouldn’t let her through, her gaze finally shifted to the Grand General. “I propose a toast to those who have finally freed us from the tyranny of these Traitors.” With the word “Traitors,” she spat toward them.
Tawnya died inside. Every bit of betrayal and pain radiated from her cry as she crumbled to the ground. Her vision dissipated, and while Mark cradled her in his arms, she wailed in agony.
Traitors (The Traitor King Saga Book 1) Page 7
