The Fall (The God Slayers Quartet) by David L. Dawson

Author:David L. Dawson [Dawson, David L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-01-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17 – Brother Willow

During the course of a long, tiring day, we locate and bury another ten dead bodies. That leaves a lot of House members still unaccounted for. Flynn can’t be found, and he’d been outside at the time of the attack. I desperately want to find him.

Uncle Rooster is still unconscious when night comes. His condition appears to be stable, which we’re thankful for. I start to believe that maybe he will pull through. I haven’t much hope left in me, but it forces me to carry on.

I arrive back early from gathering firewood to find Rooster’s eyes glaring at me in the dark. There is nobody else about and the sight causes me to drop my branches in surprise.

“Uncle?” I whisper.

He shushes me, and I run to him, almost falling over in my haste. I kneel down by him and take his hand. He coughs and then he offers me a big smile.

“How are you feeling?” I ask him.

“Where are the others?” he wonders. He sounds suspicious.

“We’re out collecting firewood but they should be back soon.” He shushes me again, and I start to feel that something is very wrong. He’s never acted like this before.

“What’s wrong?”

He says, voice trembling, “Something terrible happened.”

I sigh. He’s obviously taken a very bad knock to the head. I know it could be worse, but Uncle Rooster has a very distinct personality.

“The gods destroyed the House,” I say sadly. “There was nothing any of us could do about it.”

“I haven’t lost my mind,” Rooster snaps angrily. “I know what happened. It was what happened before the gods arrived that was terrible. I was in a state because Rosa had stayed behind with Phylida to help tend to Harold and so, when I awoke in the middle of the night to find she still hadn’t come back yet, I got up and headed for the infirmary to see what was going on.”

He starts to cry. All I can do is squeeze his hand to reassure him that I’m here for him and wait for him to continue.

“When I got there I found Phylida and Harold dead. They’d had their throats slit and left to bleed all over the floor. You should’ve seen all the blood.”

He has to be wrong. If there was a dispute, we solved it. Nothing had ever gotten that far before. But Rooster is scared, his eyes glazed over with a fear I’ve never seen on him.

“Is Rosa alright?” I ask.

“She wasn’t there,” he answers. “I rushed out to find her and then we heard the gods and the glass shattered and from then on it’s really a huge blur. I was sucked into the ground, I think.”

I tell him he had been, and he starts crying again. His two oldest friends have been butchered and his betrothed has gone missing. I know Rosa is most likely dead but don’t dare to voice my suspicions.

“Phylida was my first crush,” Rooster admits. “I loved her so much and then she married someone else.

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