CHAPTER 1: "59 Days Before"
Darkness. That was all there was. And maybe all there would ever be. This was it.
They'd come in the middle of the day, when his parents were at work. They had wanted Alko, but he wasn't there. Moments ago Mekil had told him that he'd seen a group of men cresting the hill, so Alko had lead the three youngest children behind the shed and into the woods to hide them. When the men found out Alko was gone, they grabbed the closest child, which happened to be Cyan.
He was crammed into a wagon behind one of the men's horses before he could ask what was happening. The wagon bumped along the road shaking the cart so violently that every jolt slammed Cyan's head against its roof.
There were rumors of this. Whispered tales murmured in the back alleys of the city market, but he'd had never thought them to be true. Especially not in this edge of Charn. Especially not to him. The stench of dust and his own sweat choked him with every breathe and he didn't know how much of this he could take. His slender fingers clutched the hem of his tattered shirt in the darkness while his eyes clenched shut in fear. His mother had taught him to breathe through trouble. No food today? Breathe. Cruel children in the market? Breathe. Guards stop you on the path? Breathe.
But this wasn't something he could just breathe through.
"Turn, boy. Are you deaf? Turn." Cyan lifts his head and rotates in a slow circle, careful to avoid making eye-contact with the old man in black, silken robes. "This is not the boy I asked for."
"No, sir," replies the soldier in the corner. "He was not there. We believe he was in hiding. This one seemed to be the strongest of the six at the house."
The robed man's lips curl into a scowl and his neck cranes forward. "Name?"
"Um…" Cyan's voice cracks and his thoughts slip away at the though of speaking.
"You must speak when you're spoken to, filthy urchin."
"Cyan."
"And how many summers?"
"Fifteen." The man's snarl grew before he waved a hand in the air that was followed by the clicking of wood on stone. Three women dressed in bright silk and gold beads surround Cyan and begin pulling him towards the door. The sound of clacking wood continues and it is what Cyan focuses on as he watches the floor, focusing only on the sound that he realizes is the sound of the girls' shoes as they lead him away.