going to let me rot in here?”
Julian turned slightly, not quite looking at Spencer. “Only if you’re telling the truth. If you’re lying then I’m going to kill you myself.”
He walked from the cell and slammed the door shut, leaving Spencer in his own waste.
Chapter Three
The Stühocs destroyed the entire village. They had started by torching it with flaming arrows and when they were satisfied with that, they charged into the village square. It was a farm village with perhaps two hundred people. Three of the villagers managed to escape, and one of them barely had any life left in him. The three sat huddled in the mouth of a cold, damp cave in the hills above the village. As they shivered, they silently watched the smoke of the village fluttering serenely, almost mockingly in the setting sun. Most of the fire had already gone out because there hadn’t been much to burn.
Dink’s jaw clenched as he watched the Stühocs make camp among the ashes and dead bodies of the villagers. The foul Stühocs didn’t lose a single soldier in the conflict. Then again, it had hardly been a conflict at all. It was a massacre. Once the Stühocs had cut the number of survivors down to about fifty villagers, they started to round up the rest and tie them up with rope. Dink hadn’t been in Marenon for more than a few months, but he knew it wasn’t normal for the Stühocs to take so many prisoners. From what he had learned, the Stühocs desired mostly to kill. After watching, horrorstruck, as row-by-row, barred carriages passed through the smoldering village ruins, it seemed that they had been busy picking up prisoners all across the central region of Marenon. There were hundreds of carriages filled with prisoners. He wondered silently to himself what the foul Stühocs might be planning.
He held a canteen to Richard’s mouth, tilting it slightly until the last of the cool water was swallowed. Richard nodded his thanks and Dink took another long look at the arrow protruding from the man’s chest. The arrow must have missed the heart because Richard was still alive, but the blood seeped through enough to show that his time was limited.
“Don’t even think about trying to take it out,” Richard said.
Dink nodded and glanced at Emma who sat against the cave wall, staring blankly at the village. She had not been injured, but shock was apparent on her face. He turned his head back down to the dying man.
“What do you suppose we do?” he asked, knowing there wouldn’t be a good answer.
Richard started to sit up straighter, but the pain was too great. With a slight groan, he slumped back down and breathed slowly.
“You and Emma need to go north,” he said. “You’ll find safety there and you’ll be able to warn the northern villages. If you can make it to them, they won’t face the same fate as our own. They’ll at least be able to put up a fight.”
“There were hundreds of them,” Dink said, “maybe a thousand.”
“And if you don’t warn the villages, they will be taken by surprise,” the man let out a deep painful cough mixed with saliva and blood.
Dink watched him sadly, unable to help him in any way.
“It’s coming,” Richard said.
“What is?”
“It’s here.”
In that moment, Richard’s eyes went wide and his body began to shudder slightly. With one final breath, he reached out to Dink, but his hand dropped to his side as he closed his eyes and fell silently asleep, breathing no more.
Dink sat petrified. He had seen a hundred or more people die that day, but this had been the hardest. Richard had become a friend. The man had been the village leader, and all who lived there had looked to him for guidance in every aspect of their lives in Marenon. Losing him was surreal. Dink had only been in Marenon a few months, but he had found this village, just weeks after surviving the gauntlet in Canor, a sick game set up by the previous king. He had been searching for his wife and found her among the people of this village. She had been there for two years. Richard had taken her in and treated her like a daughter. When Dink showed up at the village, Richard called for a celebration feast, for they had heard many stories from Emma about Dink, and how much she wanted to be with him again. Fate had brought the two together.