Rigor Mortis

Chapter Fourteen: The Harvest

When I had gathered my wits, I realized that what I had perceived as a blaze was actually just a red glow coming from the window. I sprang from bed to see what was happening and peered down at the village common. There was a group of at least thirty men, all brandishing torches and circling Carlov's house. I felt my heart stop. Lunassah was in there! I turned to wake my friend but his bed was long since vacant and I nearly panicked. Granted, Carlov deserved anything that happened to him. One way or another, he had discovered Lunassah's secret power of 'making food'. She had called up the grain from the barren soil with the intention only to help her fellow villagers but her sodden father had sought to make a profit from it. The villagers were already at the end of their leash when we arrived...they had only required a catalyst.

"Moebius, you fool!" I muttered, "Not like this..."

I threw on my boots and flew down the stairs and out of the inn. It was impossible...idiotic... he wouldn't do such a ghastly thing as turn the village against Lunassah's father. I did not care if Carlov were to die, but there was too great of a risk of her getting killed as well. I would never forgive myself if something were to happen to her! I reached the mob and frantically demanded from one the location of Moebius. He shoved me away and resumed his mad cry along with the rest of them. They were getting closer and closer to the house and a few were beating on the door.

"Open up, Carlov! We know you're in there!" one shouted.

"We hear there's plenty enough to share!" another cried.

"You got another minute and then we're burning your damn house down. If we can't eat, neither can you!" another demanded.

"You can't do this! There's a little girl in there!" I screamed as loud as I could, but no one paid me any attention. I tried to pull one man aside but I was thrown to the ground. I felt an iron grip around my wrist and I was pulled to my feet and dragged behind a nearby house. It was Moebius and he signaled me to be quiet.

"What have you done?" I screamed, clutching the collar of his cloak. "What do you hope to achieve here? Lunassah's in danger! These people are ready to kill!"

"I know," was all he said.

"This is wrong!" I shouted.

"I know," he said again.

"Then why have you done this? I know it was you who rallied them!" I demanded.

"I did what you could not bear to do, Mortanius," he explained, "It was going to take a little push to get the Druid to join us. Now she will see that she needs to come with us in order to master her dangerous power. Now there will be no father to pine after, as wretched as he may be. Now there will be no guilt in your heart for what needed to be done. Everything will have worked out,"

"What are you saying, Moebius?" I cried.

"I'm saying I'm taking this burden on myself so you don't have to," he said solemnly, "Because you are my very dear friend and I could not stand to see you take on such a great sin. Don't you understand? I'm trying to save the cohesion of your pretty soul,"

"You are mad," I said. I released my hold and took a step away from him. He really believed that this was the only way? To manipulate the village to kill her father? He really believed that he was sparing me from the blame? I looked at him closely and could see that was true. His face was placid with the suffering of a saint and I could see that his eyes had finally become like mine, devoid of pupils and casting a silvery sheen. They reflected back at me like a nocturnal beast's and he smiled at me with all the serenity in the world.

"She will love you for this one day," he said and pointed to the roof of Carlov's house. I turned and saw that Lunassah had managed to clamber onto the highest point of the roof and was trying her best to talk to the angry, torch-bearing mob. Her father was still nowhere to be seen.

"I'll make plenty, I promise! I won't charge you either! Just calm down everyone!" she cried in futility. There was a crash as they kicked in the flimsy door and a stream of villagers poured into the little house. Soon, they had dragged out the corpulent form of Carlov, whether alive or dead I could not tell.

"Now for the witch!" I heard one of the villagers bellow and I knew that time was short. Time seemed to slow as I walked to the surrounded house. A complete stillness overtook me, cold and calm, and with all confidence I recited the ascending node. A chill breeze swept through the village and the torches flickered and snuffed out, according to my will. With grim satisfaction, I watched the misty forms take shape out of the darkness and with a crack of doom they completely manifested. Though they looked composed of shadowy mists they had all the substance as anything else and they tore through the crowd, pulling them away from the house and slashing at them when they ran too close to the doorway. At the wraiths' touch, many villagers fainted but enough allowed themselves to be herded away from the house. In no time at all, my creatures had parted the mob and what was once a dangerous and volatile thing was now cowed and frightened, watching me with sheep's eyes.

Wordlessly, I went into the house. I saw the blood covering the floor but paid it no mind. I found the ladder Lunassah used to gain access to the roof and climbed it.

"Lunassah," I said. She turned to me, her eyes wide with wonder. Wonder, bless her, and not fear. "Will you come with us? If you stay here, they'll hurt you,"

"Why?" she asked. I sighed and looked up at the sliver of a moon, as though for inspiration.

"I don't know," I answered after too long a time. She nodded and slipped her hand into mine. We descended to the ground floor and came out the way I had entered. The wraiths herding the crowd trembled as I walked by and I commanded them to dissipate. Even without their restraints, the villagers made no move to attack us. They only watched in mute fear as we left that place. I was dimly aware that Moebius was following us, but I did not care. Together we headed back out into the dusty wilderness, to the secret cave where we first met Lunassah. That was where we would rest and figure out a way home.

Soon enough, we arrived, and in it's silent shadowy depths I lay down. I didn't care that it was solid stone. I was too tired to protest. Lunassah said a few words that I didn't understand and those strange glowing fireflies began to twinkle in the air, giving off a calm blue light.

"Willywisps," she said and smiled.

"So you're going to come with us?" Moebius asked, trying to get one of the things to land on his finger.

"Yeah," she replied, "I don't know what happened but I don't want to go back home."

"You know why they did all that? Why they tried to hurt you?" Moebius asked. I shut my eyes more tightly, as though that would help to blot out his voice.

"No."

"Because they are farmers," Moebius explained, "Farmers are cowardly, untrustworthy and stupid. They say that they suffer and starve, yet they keep secret farms in the canyons. They hide much of their crops when it comes to be tax time and say they have hardly enough to give. They rob and kill travelers when they can get away with it. They lie and cheat and steal. Farmers are superstitious, craven, foolish and above all, they are weak,"

"But I'm a farmer! How can you say such a thing?" I heard Lunassah cry. Anger spiked in me and I was about to silence him for the night when he continued.

"Listen, child," Moebius said, "They are like that because of the highborn. The noble vampires who demand so much. They take the crops and money that the farmers work so hard to earn. They take their children as slaves and their daughters as concubines and food. They take and take and take...and when the farmers resist, they burn the village and kill them. That is why. It's a cruel cycle, isn't it?"

"I suppose," Lunassah said, "Why can't they both just stop being mean?"

"That's what we're trying to accomplish," Moebius replied. Mercifully, he became silent and I think he fell asleep. I tossed and turned, tired beyond all imagining but I could not rest. The Timestreamer's words kept buzzing in my head like pesty flies. I grew angry at what he had caused tonight and how he was already trying to fill the Druid's head with his propaganda.

"Mortanius?" I heard Lunassah whisper.

"Hmm?"

"We're gonna go see the crow-man tomorrow?"

"Janos? Yes, but it will be a long trip," I replied.

"Oh, okay. Your monsters were real neat," she muttered and I believe she fell asleep. After a time, I finally managed to doze off...and thankfully I did not dream.