The First Arch (Desertion).
…From this distance, the town looked like a thousand-diamond brooch in the moonlight, and Rayel shook her head in wonder. Home…she thought wistfully, and smiled over at Dima. She knew he was the same boy she had drawn blood with so long ago, but he had changed almost as much as she had since that day. Even physically he was a different person, tall and handsome in that typical tall, handsome way. She knew he would make some girl very happy, if only he would outgrow that swaggering arrogance. There is no trace of it at the moment, she thought briefly, somewhat amused.
"What is it now, little sister?" Dima asked, and the teasing glint was back in his dark eyes. Suddenly she was struck by the sense that she was not meant to be here. Dima…? she thought, staring at him with a frown. Ordinarily she would've launched into the usual banter, in which she reminded her brother that in fact she was several days his senior, but something seemed…wrong…to her. Dima was frowning now, and opened his mouth to speak, but Rayel ceased to listen, now distracted by a new noise. She was not the only one who heard it.
"Rayel, someone is coming," said one of the younger boys, trotting on light feet to her side. Rayel nodded and stepped forward tentatively, peering into the darkness. It was then that she became aware that she was wearing dark skirts. She frowned as she wondered why that seemed odd to her… "Rayel," Dima said from behind with a sigh, but she held up a hand for silence without even looking at him. She had more important worries than dresses and a brother's concern.
She swallowed the urge to call out into the darkness to whoever went there. She had heard stories of heroes who did such foolish things and lived – briefly – to regret it. Soon enough a figure came into her field of vision, struggling up the hill towards their perch. Gradually she caught clearer glimpses of the face, and although she did not recognize the man, she knew he was fleeing from something.
"You there," she said, stepping forward and loosening the knife in her belt in preparation. It was her father's knife…and she found herself wondering how she had come by it. Do not be ridiculous! she swore inwardly. Your seventeenth Naming Day, remember?! She forced her thoughts back to the strange man, all the while aware of Dima's frowning gaze on her. The strange man suddenly gave a yell and tripped over a root. Rayel was on him before he could begin to struggle upward again. She made sure he saw the knife, and then said, "What is the matter? Why are you fleeing?"
The man's eyes shone in the darkness as he twisted his head to look up at her, and he nodded hastily, unable to form words because he was out of breath. Rayel waited patiently, glancing briefly at Dima who had dropped into a crouch on the other side of the stranger. Eventually the man said, in barely more than a whisper, "Hunts…the women. Taken. Girls. Young…ones. White-cloak…dead."
"Can you decipher it?" Rayel asked Dima, annoyed that the stranger was not being clearer. Her brother shook his head. "It is a language I have never encountered, sister."
"Right." Rayel got to her feet and helped the stranger to his. "Go on if you want."
Be steadfast…
She frowned and thought, Oh, I will, although she did not know where the words had come from. For a split second she had no idea where she was. Then Dima placed his arm on her hand, forcing her to allow him to ask after her health this time. She smiled to hide her discomfort and began giving out orders. The company would continue on into town and investigate.
"You are not…going there?" the stranger spoke then, still standing where Rayel had left him. He regarded Rayel with wide eyes. "You do not…know. Take…my word. Run…while you can…"
"The way back will come but once," Rayel replied absent-mindedly, and the man blinked. Rayel frowned irritably, wondering where those words had come from. This is no time to be losing your mind!
"Why…yes, lady. The way back is not…that way," he insisted, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the town. He had caught his breath now and spoke easily. "This is your best chance to escape. Please make the most of it."
Rayel knew somehow that the words she had spoken had not been meant in that way, but she was not about to spend time explaining that to this man. She regarded him briefly before turning away. She saw him shaking his head from the corner of her eye, but soon forgot all about it. If there was trouble in town, and her sisters were there…
She did not need to look at Dima to know he was thinking along the same lines.
'*''*''*''*'
The sound grew steadily as they made their way in, and soon it had reached a level that Rayel could barely tolerate. Her head began to ache. The closer they got the more easily she was able to decipher certain sounds, and her heart dropped rapidly. There were many screams, the sounds of breaking things, the crackle of buildings on fire, and the steady clatter of hooves and hard-sole shoes on cobble-stone. There were smells too. Scents of smoke, sweat, blood and fear. Rayel knew that a good part of that last was coming from herself and those around her.
It soon became apparent that they would do well to go quietly and discretely. "My, what is happening?" Rayel murmured softly, reaching out blindly and grasping Dima's hand. She got no verbal answer, only a hand-squeeze, but she was too on edge to care.
The way back will come but once, the words came again, from an unknown location. Rayel wondered if she was going mad. She had wondered that quite often lately, and so it didn't seem unusual to her to do so now. It was not a comfortable thought though.
Be steadfast…
She hardly heard the voice now. Glancing this way and that, she happened to peer into an alley-way with a silvery-white arch at the end. She gasped and drew up short, her back as straight as a rod. "What is it?" Dima spoke into her ear, so close that she felt his breath on her. She shook her head and moved away, for the arch had disappeared. She didn't want to think about being insane…it was the last thing she needed at this moment.
No one spoke to them as they ventured deeper into town. Rayel headed instinctively for the town square, where the major events always took place. Perhaps she would find some clues there.
She started violently as a screaming woman raced past her, grubby hands pressed to her mouth. Tears had made pink tracks down her cheeks, and her eyes had a wild look in them. "Light!" Rayel gasped, and leapt out of the woman's path, turning to watch as she went past and wove an erratic line through the streets. "Madness," Dima muttered, and Rayel turned and began to run. Dima and a few of the others sped up to match her pace, following close behind her. Soon enough they had made it to the square.
"Blood and ashes…" someone had said by the time Rayel saw what had inspired the words. "Rayel, don't–"
She had started forward by now and it was too late. She went straight for the crowd surrounding a scaffold, on which a line of human figures stood on small stools. Each figure had a loop of rope around his or her neck. It was clear what was happening, but Rayel screamed one question inwardly, over and over: Why?!
Dima did try to stop her going forward, but she threatened to cut his hand off if he laid it on her again. She didn't see the hurt in his eyes, and nor did she notice when he continued to follow loyally, guarding her back against whatever threats crouched in the milling crowd.
What are they all doing here? Rayel wondered numbly, feeling quite nauseous. Do they really want to watch?!
She went as far forward as she could go, and then stood staring at the people lined up on the platform above the crowd. Some of them cried, and some closed their eyes. Others surveyed the crowd with a stomach-turning calmness. "Why…?" someone murmured, seeming to read Rayel's mind.
"They are traitors!" someone screamed, by way of answering. "The little one, she betrayed us to the Whitecloaks! She went and–"
"Aliah!" someone else yelled, and it appeared they'd been trying to get the fanatical woman's attention for some time. "Listen to me. I've already told you that it wasn't that way at all. The little one is innocent, and as for the rest–"
"You think me a fool, Endar?" the first woman shrieked, and Rayel's inner ears felt shredded. "That is the way they disguise themselves best! By taking the forms of children! Why, they could walk amongst us every day…"
She is but a child…Rayel whispered silently, shaking her head in quiet disbelief as she met the terrified gaze of the little one briefly. "Oh Light…" she began, but had the sense of mind not to say anything more. The people in this crowd seemed on the brink of snapping…and Rayel was not in the mood to make herself their scapegoat.
Beneath the screeching of the crowd was the steady drawl of the preacher up at the edge of the scaffold, standing beneath the noosed victim closest to him. The man was rattling off the crimes of those who were to be hung; Rayel didn't bother to listen, although the crowd seemed to get increasingly riled up doing so. Rayel swallowed and glanced back at Dima, the frantic feeling in her mirrored there in his dark eyes. What could they do…?
She let her gaze slip away, and suddenly she was looking at a gleaming silver arch. People passed by and it remained there. The way back will… This time Rayel was ready for it, and forced her mind away from the unwelcome words, which were starting to make her very uncomfortable. They seemed to come from some alien source rather than from inside her. They did not belong in this world. Her world.
She jerked her gaze back to the line of victims and must have nearly twisted Dima's hand off as she caught sight of one particular face, a face too familiar. The entire world seemed to lapse into silence in that moment, and breathing was difficult. Those eyes met Rayel's, the wide, blue eyes – the only clear thing about the girl. Eelsen…
Suddenly she was moving, feeling drawn inexplicably in a certain direction. Dima moved with her automatically, not bothering to question – or perhaps he did, and she didn't hear. All she knew was that soon she was standing directly below the figure balancing precariously on one of the rickety stools…and off to her left, gleaming softly in the smoky night air, was the same arch that had appeared to her before.
Rayel's heart squeezed painfully as the preacher's spiel reached a crescendo. She watched the frenzied crowd with wide eyes, wondering just what had led to this. They are animals, she thought, her stomach churning. The light from the arch seemed to pulse in the corner of her vision, making her intensely agitated.
"Eelsen," she murmured, and looked up again. She was standing right below her sister now. She saw the girl's lips move, mouthing her name in a whisper that was beyond Rayel's ability to hear. "We'll get her down," Rayel said.
Dima did not hesitate to agree, though she saw the doubt in his eyes, the same doubt that was in her heart. She didn't bother to answer the unspoken question: how?. She really had nothing to say.
She felt compelled to look to the left, and again found herself gazing at the silvery arch. Confused, she found herself thinking that inside that arch lay her destiny. Fool, she muttered, even as she took a couple of steps in that direction, away from her sister and Dima. Horror struck her heart as she understood what was required of her. Understanding did not mean she would accept it. She pressed her lips together and turned back, seeing Dima sneaking around to the back of the scaffold. Be steadfast.
She barely flinched at the words, and hastily went to follow her brother. She found that she was rooted to the ground. Dima turned to look at her and she lurched forward, hurrying to his side. She felt an unbearable tearing inside, the tearing of the woman whose duties were divided. Still she fought it, fought her destiny. Her eyes were now locked on the arch, and that was why she stumbled and ran into one of the armed guards, who shoved her back and went to strike her with his unsheathed sword. She gasped and staggered backwards, suddenly breaking for the arch, which now flickered in and out of existence. She felt panic grip her at the sight, knowing that somehow her fate was in the balance.
The way back will come but once…
She knew this time that the words were connected with the arch. Some mysterious force caused her legs to move her closer to the foreign object which seemed somehow so familiar to her…
"Rayel!" came a harsh cry from behind. She looked back involuntarily and saw him there, frozen on the spot. Dima…
And then the screaming began. Standing with her mouth agape, she glimpsed a sight out of pure nightmare; the second victim was shoved from the stool as the first writhed on the rope, now taut. Both figures were struggling feebly as their filthy faces darkened further. Blood and bloody… Rayel gasped inwardly, and bile rose in her throat. She began to weep as she struggled up from the earth. She was torn between keeping her eyes on the arch and looking back at the platform; she felt strung out like a criminal tied to four horses. Back or forward? Ahead or behind? Here or there? She screamed in agony and fury as she staggered a few more steps in the direction of the arch. Again she was forced to stop and throw a glance over her shoulder.
She begged the Light for tears to obscure her vision, to keep from her the sight of her dear brother, thunderstruck in the face of desertion, and the whites of Eelsen's eyes, which seemed to shine with a supernatural light, born of the purest terror. I would never desert my kin! Not in a million sunsets! And yet, here I am… The expression on Dima's face was evidence enough that she was little better than Shadowspawn. I am leaving them all behind…leaving my little sister to die, and him to pick up the pieces of everyone's shattered lives….What has become of the person I used to be…?
The whites of the girls' eyes pierced her cruelly, sending racking waves of pain through her. She knew she could not possibly see with such detail at this distance, but her heart squeezed painfully and her stomach roiled. Her legs would have given way if some cursed spirit were not keeping them strong for her, strong enough to propel her through the two silver lines of the arch almost against her will.
The Light consumed her, and she hoped to die and stay dead forever.
