Phoenix Heart: Episode 1: Ashes by Sarah K. L. Wilson

Author:Sarah K. L. Wilson [Wilson, Sarah K. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published: 2021-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

By the time the fires were put out, the lone raider who had survived in the upper floor of the inn dispatched, and the dead collected, it was nearly sunset.

There had been far too many dead.

Those of us still living huddled in the common room of the Hog’s Head Inn as the village head man of our town – Old Canvers – tried to form some kind of plan. The inn had stone walls, making it the sturdiest building in the town now that the forge was burned down. It shouldn’t have held everyone in town. It should have been far too small. We were all trying not to think about that.

The raiders – though they had retreated – were still on the shore. We could see their fires between our homes and buildings. And that meant they would return soon and what would we do then?

“We could flee,” Old Ferris suggested. “Take what horses are left and head into the hills.”

There were murmurs of agreement. It was the most popular suggestion among the seventy or so people who remained alive.

I reached into my pocket nervously and my hand hit the medallion. I felt my cheeks growing hot. This couldn’t be the ai’sletta that they wanted ... could it? What if I had it all along? What if I could have prevented this?

My heart hammered in my chest.

But no, I was panicking for no reason. Judicus had said this medallion would help find the ai’sletta, not that it was the thing he was searching for. I was too tired. It was addling my mind.

“Five,” Uncle Llynd said and then paused until everyone looked at him before he continued. “That’s all the horse we have. Five. And even if we use them as pack horses, they’ll barely carry enough supplies to get this many people to the next town down the coast. And that’s if we aren’t followed.”

Despairing looks flashed across our faces as we looked from one to another. There wasn’t a person left who wasn’t soot-marked. Not a single set of shoulders not drooping. We’d fought the fires until they were low enough not to spread again. We’d dragged the dead to the edge of town. There hadn’t been time yet to dig enough graves. But we would have to finish that, too.

To one side of the inn, Tyndale clutched Mally to him, her cheeks streaked with tracks of tears. He’d lost everything in that fire. His entire future. There would be no wedding now.

Aunt Danna’s head was wrapped with a long white bandage, her frizzled hair sticking out around its swaths. Her jaw was set grimly, and she kept stealing small glances at the bar where Fon should be ready to pour drinks for customers.

“All the children are in the rooms upstairs sleeping,” she said firmly, swiping a tear from her cheek.

The sound of little feet tapping out hurried rhythms belied those words, but no one bothered to correct her. We’d dug so many graves our hands

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