The Colorless Land

Chapter 5: The Fate of the Hostages

Like cattle the people of Rivertown stood rounded up, herded together in a narrow glade, jostling and swarming around each other like bees, searching for their friends and families. All around them the Colorless soldiers stood, blank-faced and motionless like statues, and yet close enough to keep them all trapped in a net, scaring away even the faintest thought of escape.

"What is this?" voices shouted over and over again, loud and clear amid the frantic name-yelling from all directions. "What's happening?"

The question was repeated over and over and over, but no answer came. The Colorless around them remained silent. They only drew in closer, pushing in the villagers until it was impossible to even walk a single step.

It was cold around them, freezing despite standing so close together, the thick white fog around them swallowing up the outside world. Few of them were still sure where they were. The fog ate up all sense of direction like it ate up everything else.

There had been too many of them, too many to resist. Countless soldiers of the Colorless Land, pale white and empty-faced, armed to the teeth, had gathered around the village and led them all out until it was completely deserted, rounding up even the fishers and shepherds on the river and fields outside. They had spoken no word but threatened them, using every weapon they had; and in the cold, discolored fog few of them had found the courage to fight back. The ones who had tried had been quickly disarmed, tied up and brought here with everyone else.

"Jo!" Nellary's voice rang out from the opposite end of the crowd. "Jo!"

Maithea pushed through the villagers, trying to get to her wife, but it was impossible. They stood too closely packed, unable to move a single inch. Panicked shouts reached her ears, yells, wails. Some of the children were crying. And still she could not hear her own child. Wherever her daughter was, she wasn't answering.

"Jolette!" she yelled, trying to be louder than the crowd, but her voice was weaker than Nellary's, and her shouts were swallowed by the noise. "Jolette, where are you? Answer me!"

Nothing. A dozen voices rang in her ears, but not a single one was her daughter's.

Dread caught her, closing its icy hand around her chest and clawing at her heart. Where was her daughter? Was she not here? Had she escaped the Colorless soldiers? Or had they caught her too, holding her in a separate place somewhere, to do what, Maithea could not fathom?

"Jolette!" she yelled again. "Jolette!"

No answer. Nothing to see. If only Nellary was closer. She would know how to find her. She would know what to do.

"Nellary!" she shouted instead, hoping against hope that her voice would reach her. "Nell, can you hear me?"

"Honey?"

Maithea's breath hitched. "Nell!" she called over the crowd. "Have you seen Jolette anywhere?"

"Not since—"

From one second to the other, everything fell silent.

Maithea opened her mouth, trying to say something, but no sound came out. The fog in the air seemed to thicken, creeping into her mouth, her throat, leaving everything numb. Her hands were shaking, but she stood frozen, unable to speak a single word.

"Have you found him?" a cold, monotone voice reached her ear from one side, a voice that sounded more like the unfeeling imitation of a human speaking.

A second voice answered in the same tone. "No, Commander."

"Checked everything?"

"Yes, Commander."