The Halo Of Vakh (BOOK 1)

THE WAR HAS BEGUN

⚠️VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN⚠️

The bolts slid away and her mother flung open the door, the gale outside, howling like a mad wolf, rushed in, blowing out the fires in the torches. Sapphire had just enough time to see the face of her father before they were plunged into complete darkness followed by the pained cry of her mother's voice. Sapphire shot the arrow in surprise. The shaft flew into the dark, above the heads of the people in the doorway.

"Take him in," Orion's voice sounded strained and muffled as if his mouth was full of food.

Sapphire lowered her bow as Joseryn hurried to light the torches with a lump of burning coal she held in a tong. A loud click came as her mother closed the door and chained it. There was shuffling and a loud thump as a body fell down on the floor. Somebody moved in front of her and into the kitchen, towards the dining table.

The morbid stench of blood wafted into her nose, leaving her to try and grasp what was happening in the inky blackness. She could hear the whispers of her family and the fingers of dread clasped her in the dark of the night. She stumbled to the wooden table, knocking against the edge of a chair. She did not feel the sting of it. She was numb with fear. It pooled into her stomach and spine like icy water, taking over each and every nerve.

The shadows of two people hovered beside the table while one kneeled on the floor. Vision returned to her as the torches flared to life. For a moment the orange brightness was too much and then when everything became clearer, a gasp left her mouth as her eyes fell upon the body of her brother, coloured crimson with blood.

His tunic had been torn open by her father and a long gash ran the length of his pale torso - from his ear to collar bone to his stomach. Blood as red as wine poured out, colouring the plains of his chest crimson. Bruises covered his arms like faded gems. She could see the red muscle stretching taut beneath the incision as red bubbled out rapidly. She turned away from the sight, her stomach churning, bile rising in her throat.

On the floor, her uncle lay unconscious in a heap, his leg bent at an odd angle. Orion was cleaning a wound on the old man's face. Orion's own face was swollen, one eye as blue as a ripe berry. It seemed as if he had turned into an orchard in full bloom. Small cuts adorned his hands. One of his sleeves hung by a thread to his tunic. An ugly colourful blotch bloomed on his bicep like a tropical fruit.

"Get some water and heat it up! Quick!" Calitha ordered sharply and Sapphire rushed to do as told.

Cygnus' wounds were cleaned with a diluted solution of vinegar. Though unconscious, Cygnus hissed lightly and thrashed a bit causing Sapphire to hold down the boy. Once he had stopped, she tended to an injury on Cygnus' neck behind his hair. Calitha took a highly folded bed sheet that had been torn into strips by Joseryn and held it on the abrasion, trying to staunch the continuous flow of blood as her father washed a needle with the vinegar water. Cygnus had to be held down as his father stitched up the wound. Sapphire tried not to look, tried to block out her brother's high whimpers and the few high screams that left his mouth every time the needle pierced the skin to make an incision and the thread stretched across the wound.

She hoped she never heard nor saw Cygnus in such a state again. She rubbed her fingers in soothing circles on her brother's cold sweaty cheek. Her mother took another strip and circled it around Cygnus' torso. Joseryn extended towards Sapphire, a cloth in which snow had been wrapped and then went to put tea in the hearth. Sapphire held it to the bruises.

"What caused this?" Calitha said with repressed anger, her voice shaking, as her hands pulled her son's hands towards her chest, lips caressing the knuckles lightly. "Who did this?"