Burning alive never got easier.
It should have by now. Kylo had participated in fifteen burnings. Eleven had been at the stake, and the other four had been regrettably more impromptu in nature.
Each one haunted him worst than the last, but today's had been particularly brutal.
"She had been so young."
His horse lived up to its name and didn't so much as twitch an ear. Kylo swallowed and reached out to stoke his mane before stopping himself. He may not have had blood literally on his hands but touching another living thing at this moment felt like yet another crime. Another stain on a tarnished soul.
Instead, he softly clicked his tongue and Silence picked up the pace. The poor animal hated the snow and last night's storm had dropped nearly a man's height in the lowest places. Now drifts obscured the path ahead and often touched the toes of Kylo's boots as he guided their way back to the Abbey. In the evening the fog would come and bring with it every manner of hungry beast and spirit. Dire wolves, witches, perhaps even the spirits of the dead. If they got lost or caught out- well, deep down Kylo couldn't argue he didn't deserve it.
"The Supreme Leader is wise. He knows what is best, even if his ways are… are..."
There was no "correct" way to finish that sentence. Kylo shifted, rolling his shoulders and trying to dispel the creeping tension knotting between them. The Supreme Leader's ways were law. They were not to be questioned. He and he alone had a direct converse with the gods themselves. If Snoke said that Ainsley Darris, daughter of Helme and Honora Darris, sister to Kane, was guilty of the most heinous of crimes, then she was guilty pure and simple.
But why the trial then? Fifteen trials. Fifteen condemnations. Why the pomp and show of it? That was what Kylo struggled with the most. Helme and Honora had been there. They had pleaded her case. Pleaded and begged and wept that their daughter was not a witch. Snoke had listened, his countenance as stoic as ever, and then ordered Kylo to light and place the torch.
The girl couldn't have even been fifteen. She had been the youngest of the burnings and her screams the loudest.
A branch cracked ahead and Silence stuttered to a stop. Kylo frowned, so distracted by the echoes that for a moment he worried he might have walked right into a fae trap. Fae were wicked creatures. Nearly as cunning as elves and perhaps even more treacherous than the streghe witches.
Silence. Not his horse, but a true silence. The woods were as still as the snow was deep. Any trace of the trail had long since disappeared under the whiteness but that wasn't unexpected. The Supreme Leader and the rest would stay at the Hall tonight. Kylo, as always after a burning, was returning alone to the abbey to find peace in the solitude of his thoughts.
"Just a branch breaking under the weight of the snow." He reached then and patted the top of his horse's coal black head. "Let's hurry on, boy. The shadows of daylight grow long."
Silence took three tongue clicks and a light tap of the heels before he reluctantly resumed their trek. Kylo had only had this horse for a year but in that short time he had bonded deeply with the huge beast. Normally steady as a rock, Silence was becoming increasingly skittish as they headed into this deepest part of the woods. It wasn't their usual trial, but no fool would dare attack them. Not Kylo, the head Knight of the Order, and it was too bright still for the worst of the woods to come out. Clearly the animal must be sensing his master's mood and had fallen to unease.
Another deep, shuddering breath and Kylo forced himself to try and focus. Think about the tasks he had tomorrow. The weekend of prayer that loomed in two day's time. Think about anything but- but-
But a young girl who was burned alive and the scent of her ashes still clung to his cloak. Her blood stained his clean hands so deeply Kylo knew it would never truly come off.
Nor should it. There was one thing… he shouldn't even think it. Even the thought was bordering on betrayal.
But Snoke had told him to have the fire ready. Told him to have his things with him so he could seek solace in the abbey tonight.
The trials were to find justice. To make sure that the accused had committed her maleficence knowingly and that she had not in some manner been forced or held thrall under a sinister power.
So why would Snoke tell him to make ready to burn her before the trail had even began? It didn't-
A loud whistle shot through the air. The arrow missed him by scant inches and only Silence's sudden rearing up had prevented it from lodging in his left shoulder.
Kylo drew his saber and Silence reared again, nearly throwing him off.
"Who goes there?!" he shouted, struggling to control his bucking steed. "Show yourselves!"
The forest was narrower here. The path empty both ahead and behind, but tall slopes rose on either sides. Not only was he stupidly lost, but this was a terribly perfect place for an ambush.
A second arrow flew past, this time burying itself into the trunk of a white elm just ahead of them. It exploded less than a blink later, showering both of them in the foul smelling reek of gunpowder.
"Woah! Easy!"
Silence reared up again, this time so forcefully Kylo had no choice but to roll along with the movement and leap off the saddle. Better that than let the spooked animal fling him head first against a tree or fall underfoot.
The snow softened the worst of the impact. Kylo rolled to his feet in one smooth if not effortless sweep. And then cursed grandly under his breath as Silence raced away, fleeing at a breakneck back the way they had come.
There was a massive silver fir next to a thinner patch of snow and Kylo leapt to it and pressed his back flush. Icy cold pierced through the layers of his vest and cloak, but the heat of impending battle kept his focus sharp.
"I know you are nearby," he called out. "Show yourself, coward. Let me see who dares confront a Knight of the Order."
The second arrow had come from the right, up a steep and rocky frozen creek bed. Kylo closed his eyes and focused his attention that way. Pulled the Force in and let it show him-
Yes. There. A racing heartbeat. Erratic. Filled with adrenaline and a rage that took Kylo's next breath in its sheer fury.
His attacker was alone. Alone and had ambushed him with a bow of all things. If he'd had a gun, he would have used it. The small explosion must have been a trick to frighten his horse to buck, and it had worked infuriatingly well.
One man with a bow and here Kylo was, cowering under the snow weighted bows of a fir. Ridiculous.
He straightened himself and stepped out. Strode forward with purpose, stomping his way right in the direction of that racing coward's heart. Knights fear no one. They are fear itself. As it should be and always was.
A hundred paces up the hill and his assailant stepped down from the ledge he had been waiting. It was a good spot. Perfect view of the path Kylo had been on, but well hidden enough that Kylo would have nearly been on him before he would have been seen.
"Do you know who I am, oh good Knight?"
The man held a drawn bow and arrow in his hands, but bowed with great theater. Kylo readied his saber and closed the distance until he could see him clearly.
No. Not a man. Or only very barely. A youth only a few years older than the girl who'd just been burned alive. He was dressed in peasants clothes and the only thing sharper than his fear was the all consuming hatred that glared insolently up at Kylo. It was in that moment when their eyes met that Kylo knew exactly what this was about.
"You are Kendrick, son of Smith Weston. Ainsley was your heart's choice intended."
Kendrick's face ad been frozen in a cruel grimace until the girl's name had been spoken. Then it broke out into an open snarl and the man strode forward, closing the distance until he was just an arm's span away.
Kylo stood tall. Let the fool try it now. He'd separate his arm from his bow before he had even raised it to the height of his shoulders.
"Ainsley was my wife. We married last night under the full moon before her so-called trial today. Don't you dare speak her name or it will be the last thing your cursed tongue utters."
Kylo couldn't help ibut laugh. "Cursed tongue? You fool, I am a man of the gods. The fate of your child bride is regrettable, but the trial had proven that she was guilty of maleficence. Justice was done."
"Shut up."
The boy- the man- stepped back. He raised his bow and Kylo rolled his eyes. "Drop your arrow, you fool. Walk away and I'll let you live out of the god's mercy, but try and strike down a Knight and I swear your next breath will never come."
The man cocked his head. His grimace fell, replaced instead by a grim smirk. But he shouldered his bow and raised his empty hands as he stepped back.
"I won't strike you" he said.
Kylo raised an eyebrow. The man's smile was bordering on manic.
"Wish choice."
"I won't, but he will."
A second passed. Less than a second. A single blink.
Then Kylo turned, spinning around a moment too late to stop the handle of the other man's axe from slamming into his temple and plunging him into darkness.
Fire was all around him.
It filled his vision, burning his eyes blind. Spilled into his lungs and the icy grasp of it dragged out his final breath in a shuddering gasp.
"He's awake."
The voice was distant. Kylo's ears rang with the crackle of snow. His skin froze everywhere the fire touched him.
A rough hand fisted itself into his hair and forced his head back. Forced him to open his eyes and see-
See the evening light. The brilliant flames of the setting sun blazed across the snow, making it seem like the forest was a single candle that spread for miles.
Kendrick stood behind the man holding him down. No, not holding him. Just his head. The rest of Kylo's body was chained tight and fast to a tree, his saber long gone and has fingers so frozen he was hardly sure they were still attached.
"Kane," Kylo spat.
The brother of the late Ainsley regarded him silently. While Kendrick was a chaos of pure feeling, Kane's mind was as silent as the dead of night. No heartbeat either.
Then Kylo saw it. The gold circles around Kane's eyes. They were subtle. If it weren't' for the sunset making everything spark he would never have seen them and the other man could have passed for human.
"You're a fae."
It was a fact. Kane didn't deny it, but he stepped back and let Kylo's head fall back against the rough bark of the tree.
He pulled out a long dagger but Kylo's eyes never wandered from his face. When he spoke it was with an eerily finality.
"One eight of a fae," Ainsley's brother said as he drew back. "Weak enough that my only powers are simple. To hide myself, not leave tracks, not-"
"Have no heartbeat."
"Have no heartbeat. Well, that's not true. I have a heart, just one I can silence when I need to. Unlike you. Unlike my sister." his expression flickered to something unreadable,
"You've brought me here to kill me then?"
Kylo flexed his arms, testing his bonds. The chains didn't give an inch and his hands were too frozen to be of use anyhow.
"Tell me how she died."
Kane stepped forward. The two men stood shoulder to shoulder now. Kylo regarded them both before speaking.
"You know how she died," he said. "Or at least you would if you had held the decency to come to her trail and plead her case."
Cowards. Both of them. Their absence hadn't made a difference, but it had been noted regardless.
Kylo squirmed, shifting his numb fingers towards his back pocket where he-
"Looking for this?"
Kane dropped the satchel on the packed snow ground and Kylo pushed down the first moment of real fear.
"How did she die?" he repeated. "Did she scream? Did she suffer? Do you still hear my wife's voice ringing in your head like I will for the rest of my life?"
Kylo fell silent. The rest of his life was going to be very short indeed, he just needed a way to get out. A way to channel the force. But first he needed to distract them just long enough.
"And what of you?" he turned to Kendrick. "This man calls your departed sister his wife. Surely you aren't willing to send yourself to the gallows along with a man who violated a child in such a way?"
Oh how Kylo wished he could read the half-fae's mind. Or at least get the slightest hint of how his temperament was holding. All he needed was a chance, a single moment to take advantage.
Instead, Kendrick knelt in front of him, glaring at him eye to eye.
"How I felt about my sister's heart's choice hardly matters anymore, does it? What's done is done. We hold only a slightest note of fae blood. Nothing to change our nature, but yet more than enough to condemn her to a horrible death. More than enough for you to follow her tonight."
He stood then and offered Kendrick the dagger. When Kylo sensed him, the strongest emotion was now determination.
"You're really going to do this, then? You would kill a man of the gods?"
Kendrick made to speak, but Kane rested a hand on his shoulder. "You can pray to your "gods" as you await death, good knight. But know that it wont be by our hand. That would be far too kind for the likes of you."
Before Kylo could say anything the half-fae leapt forward and plunged the dagger deeply into his side. He croaked a pained gasp, bucking uselessly against the iron chains holding him down.
Then the dagger was yanked our, sending a shower of blood spilling across the fading glow of the snow.
"Do you think that's enough, brother?"
Kendrick laughed. It was as cold and cruel a sound as Kylo had ever heard.
"Plenty, brother. I can almost hear the wolves salivating as we speak." He knelt then, fisting Kylo's head and dragging his other hand first across the bleeding wound then streaking it down Kylo's face.
"Just for good measure," he spat. The he stood and clapped his ally around the back.
"Sunset will be in an hour, good knight. Plenty of time to make peace with the gods before the dire wolves come out to feast."
The horror came even quicker than the wound had sliced.
"You-you would leave me for them then?!" Kylo struggled uselessly, but already he was growing weaker from the blood lost.
It was Ainsley's brother that answered, though the sound rang hollowly in Kylo's ears.
"A fitting justice, isn't it? My sister was burned alive, and so you shall be eaten by the creatures of the night woods. There's symmetry in that. Perhaps your gods shall be kind to you and have the beasts rip out your throat first before they begin their meal in earnest."
The men turned to leave. Kylo lashed out, kicking uselessly at their legs.
"You shall pay for this! Both of you! The gods will remember what you have done today!"
They stopped then. Kylo blinked, his head ringing as the horizon seemed to shift.
Perhaps they said something else. Perhaps not. Unconsciousness beckoned and Kylo didn't hesitate to run to it.
(somewhere quite nearby but still far enough away)
"What in all the blazes!"
Rey leapt out of the way, spilling half her bundle of herbs on the snow behind her as the black horse raced past. The crazed animal would have trampled her if her dog hadn't bit her sleeve and dragged her out of the way at the very last moment.
"Bebe, where did the hells did that thing even come from?"
Her guard dog- an adorable mixed mutt that more often than not didn't live up to his assigned task- licked her face then started to dig in the drift. Rey tsked and helped him, quickly retrieving all the spilled acrus root she had just bargain for from the elves. It would have taken her months to gather it all by herself, and with the onset of winter showing up early she was sure that many a villager would be seeking her out for the healing properties of the tinctures it could make.
"I do wonder what that was all about though, really? A large warhorse like that. Surely it wasn't from any of the villages, and if it was from the city how could it get all the way out here?" Not many would talk to her, so talking to Bebe had become as comfortable as a warm fire on a cold night. Her dog would listen, too, or at least Rey quite liked to think that he did.
Speak of the devil, Rey had just finished bundling the delicate acrus back into its satchel when Bebe began to bark wildly. She clicked her tongue, eager to get back to her cabin before nightfall, but the animal took off in a flash.
"Bebe! Get back- oh for the love of the gods what do you have there?"
Evening was rapidly fading to twilight. Rey frowned as she trudged her way through the deep drifts to an area now flattened by footsteps. No one should be out here, especially not at this time, but the tracks looked too fresh to have been from the morning.
Bebe had been digging deep into a pile of snow. He must have found something and Rey stooped to pull it out of his mouth.
She dropped the bloody dagger with a gasp. Cold terror gripped her, shocking her into indecision.
"Be- Bebe, we need to go."
Maybe it was just a hunter. A hunter who got lucky and killed and skinned a hare and- and then left his knife behind hidden deep in a drift of snow.
Instinct alone told Rey that wasn't the case. She reached out to grasp Bebe's collar and drag them both away but the troublesome animal leapt out of her reach.
"Bebe. Bebe no."
She kept her voice low. Twilight was nearly upon them. There weren't many things Rey feared, but wolves and humans were at the top of the list. They needed to get out of here and forget all about this.
Bebe had other thoughts in mind though, apparently. Rey cursed grandly under her breath as her companion took off, racing at breakneck speeds towards a frozen creek bed in the distance.
Author's note:
Don't worry. Studly McMuffin's going to get rescued next chapter. He'll be FINE. Ditto with the horse. "Did the horse live"? Yes, yes Silence lived. But I want to touch on two different points. First, the whole idea for this story came from an awesome outline from ceciliasheplin . She had a story idea and was hoping someone would write it. I read it and it really spoke to me. Love at first concept you might say! So a HUGE thanks to her for giving me the plot and letting me run with it! Second thing is that one of the main themes in this story is this concept of religion vs. witches during the middle ages. For those interest, i heartily recommend the (free!) course learn/magic-middle-ages it gave me a lot of great ideas and was just really fun to learn about. However, to keep things neutral, I'm not having any real religion mentioned. This is a fantasy universe with witches, elves, dire wolves, and the religion is "the gods", the Order, the Supreme Leader, etc etc. Just a generic fantasy religion concept, nothing too specific :)