Theurgy: The Journey's Dawn (Book One)

Chapter 24 Work of a Bloody Hand

 The last few days for Massia Opal had been somewhat of a blur. She remembers the knights found her amidst those dead bodies, hiding in a ball and muttering incoherently. Her eyes were wide with fright and horror, signifying how little she has witnessed any real battle. Who knows the condition that this girl had to suffer within that box. Those were words she heard them say as they loaded her on a horse with the female Arkoudan knight and took her to the nearest city to question her further. All her time within that box, she never truly felt broken. She had hoped that she would find a way out, or someone would come to save her. Well, someone has. And if all things do go well, she may be on her way home. But she did not think about such hopeful topics. Her mind was still on the blood and carnage. Even when she tried to focus on anything else, it was always just outside her memory of that young man falling before her, blood pooling under his dead eyes that stared blankly through her; they got her something to drink and eat, asking her all the while for anything lending to who these hooded men and women were. She could only tell them where she was from and what they had said, which wasn't much to go off.

She feared that Garath would find her. From the fierceness and tenacity that he showed even to the most minor of offenses she made, she also feared that he would indeed do justice to those promises. This did not permeate her mind as much as thoughts of death, but it made her skin crawl, thinking of a hulking bear crashing through the hills like a dreadnaught accompanied by soulless pale skin warriors with curved sabers in hand. Not even the splendors of a city, the first city she has ever seen with her very own eyes, could pull her from her thoughts, nor shake her closed composure. There was pity and understanding in the Knight's eyes as they rode, as she did not pry too much, promising that she would ask the harder questions once they arrived at the Knight's quarters in Vulben. Vulben was a strange city to encounter when exiting the rocky hills of the Arkoudan countryside. The woods and forest once again took root as the mountains became more prevalent and present. One of the smaller ones, the one the people called Vulben as well, was rich with silver and coal mines, which was the main reason the city exists in the first place.

The town was low and sturdy, not many buildings peaking the skies and staying mostly under a few stories high. Even guild houses stuck to their neighbors' wooden and thatched styles, and courts made from the polished stone mined straight from the mountain. Everything has that sturdiness like they were built in case of some major event or earthquake. The only exception was the taller tower, square-shaped and with a circular slapped roof. This resembles more of a defense tower than a building, With an archer's nest built on the very top and various levels. The orange tiles stood out from the crisp blue sky, stone and wooden exterior called a presence to itself unrivaled. This was indeed the Knight's quarters, a station for knights to meet and trade information to other such locations throughout the clans, also providing a place of rest in the place of an inn. The people themselves resembled the buildings, men and women with thick arms and legs, years of labor and hard work, mining and forging and lifting and pulling. Most worked only in trousers and pants with shirts tied around sweaty foreheads.

However, the constant motion was halted as people stopped and stared at a train of soldiers, most they saw leave the city but a few days ago return bloody and dazed, half their numbers and seemingly shaken. Even the Knight seemed out of it, staring ahead and not even taking the time to greet any of them. They just went straight to the knight's quarters with a dirty and disheveled girl on a horse with hands practically tied to those reins. One or two knights did come out to see them approach but did nothing till they arrived. The soldiers soon dispersed, carrying that solemn stare with them throughout the city, most simply parking near the stables silently. One of the knights, a decently built man near his older years, walked up to the women.

"What happened?" he asked. "Where are Inscanus and the others."

The knight unmounted. "We ran into traffickers. They were trying to smuggle this girl here into Arkouda. Things turned bloody rather quickly. I've never seen anything like it. Although we had nearly ten times the men they did, they fought with equal footing. Inscanus has taken troops to track them down, captain."