for the first time he realized that his whole body was covered in little cuts and scrapes from the trees. Thoughts rushed through his mind as he tried to stay still and keep his body from shaking. This was unbelievable. He had seen a woman get killed. Her body had hit the ground right in front of him; he had stepped over her to get away—stepped over the body of a person he knew. As the scene played over and over again in his head he fought back the urge to vomit. He tasted bile in his mouth and swallowed hard. He would not be found covered in his own vomit, dead in the woods.
Whenever he had thought about someone getting killed it always seemed so different in his mind. He had never envisioned all the blood. Sure, there was some, but not like in real life. In real life there was a lot, more then he knew the body could hold. A chill ran down his back as he remembered Moleth’s last attempt at a scream and the look on her face. He tasted the bile again and tried to stare forward. There was sound coming from up ahead.
* * * * *
This was bad—real bad. Sasha felt her stress levels rising out of control, and a bead of sweet rolled down her back. Her palms were covered in sweat, too, and her heart was someplace around her chin. A few hours ago, townspeople had started coming to the shop telling Edis that Legon, Kovos, and Keither had assaulted three members of the royal guard after they witnessed the men kill Moleth. They also said that the men were looking for Legon. It was just too much. She couldn’t stand Moleth—the woman had been calling for her to be run out of town for as long as she could remember—but that didn’t mean that she wanted her dead. She was killed just to make a point, just because they could. After the fight, Legon and the other two had run into the woods to hide, and for all she knew it had worked, because nobody had seen anyone come out.
Sasha knew that Legon was good in the forest and he could probably evade them on his own, but with Kovos, and especially with Keither, she wasn’t sure. She still wasn’t sure she believed that Keither had tackled one of the soldiers. She felt so bad for him. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like watching someone get killed. She felt for Legon and Kovos too, but they had always been so tough and used to violence on a small level. But Keither…He didn’t leave the house, much less see fights or even watch an animal get killed. This must have been one of the boy’s first tastes of the cruel world where they lived.
She needed to clear her head. She didn’t have time for this right now. She needed to concentrate. Legon would be coming out of the mountains at some point, and when he did they needed to leave and leave fast. She had already packed two backpacks with clothes and other essentials. Her father had collected Legon’s knives and cleavers and her mother had put together a package of medicine and food.
There was one road in and out of the valley. At the edge of the valley it split three ways. All they had to do was make it to the crossroads and then the queen’s men would be
hard-pressed to follow. From there she didn’t know what to do; they could stay in the empire or they could make a run for the Elves, but either way they would need to be careful. Sasha knew that Brack and Margaret were doing the same thing for Kovos and Keither. They all needed to leave the town for at least a few years, if not for the rest of their lives. She knew that all of the citizens of Salmont would be more than willing to help them leave; after all, one of their own had been killed. She also knew that if the men hadn’t been royal guards they would have probably been killed by the townspeople, but they were royal guards. That meant you didn’t do anything in the open because that was treason. That also meant a whole lot more people would be killed. Sasha spent the remainder of her day preparing to leave home for possibly the last time in her life, and