Before her eyes even had a chance to drift open, before her sleepy thoughts could even properly register the pungent smell, she felt the warmth of Will's arm suddenly disappear and the bed dip beside her. Only a few moments later, his hand was back, resting on her shoulder with a gentleness that contrasted their situation starkly.
"Alyss, it's happened, it has to be Lewellyn. We need to go, now."
Even in the midst of another fire, Will still had time to be gentle with her.
His boots were already laced tightly on his feet and his cloak and weapons were slung into position. Alyss, exhausted from the hard riding and traveling of the previous days, staggered out of bed and slid her feet into her own boots, not bothering to lace them.
Meanwhile, Will was dashing back and forth across the room while the smoke got thicker and thicker. First, he grabbed all their bags and proceeded to throw them unceremoniously out the window, watching them fall to the cool grass below, a safe few feet away from the edge of the inn. Before Alyss could even say a word, he had sent both their cloaks over the window sill as well. He glanced back at her with an unspoken question in his eyes, and then, seeming to answer it himself, unslung his bow and quiver and threw them down as well.
Alyss heard everything hit the ground with a satisfying thunk. At least this way, if something happened to them, their documents and weapons would be safe. And the less flammable material they carried through the inferno, the better.
Thankfully, they had both slept with their traveling clothes on. The only person scrambling to cover themselves before escaping would be King Carr in the room above them. But one glance at Will, who was leading them down the smoky hallway towards the stairs, and she knew they weren't going to get the King. They wouldn't be able to go in and get anyone if the blaze kept spreading at this rate.
It had only been a few minutes at most, but the fire had progressed from a few tendrils of smoke to huge tongues of flame that licked at the edges stairs below them. Alyss gripped Will's hand in fear, and in the bright orange light she could see his ashen face, already smudged with sweat and soot. "Will! How do we get down?" she shouted through the roar of the flames.
He didn't answer immediately, staring transfixed in horror at the flames. She knew he must be reliving the other fires he had been stuck in, and if they were going to survive, she had to help him focus.
Stepping around him, she pulled on his hand and hoisted her skirts as high up as they would go, clutching them tightly to her thighs and hips, leaving only the riding leggings she wore underneath. Seeing the narrow path of safe wood they would have to follow, she led him down the rickety stairs, moving quickly and lightly on the balls of her feet like she had seen Will do for so many years.
She felt him follow her, and when she spared a moment to look back at him, he nodded to her, his eyes more clear and his face set with determination. They paused at the bottom of the stairs and he reached out, taking a handful of her skirts from her and ripping the edge quickly. He tore two handkerchief-sized pieces and pressed one over his mouth, handing the other to her. She squinted into the flames through the haze of smoke, her lungs already burning.
The damage upstairs was nothing compared to what had already transpired below. The inn's tavern was burning, and fast. The smoke rose quickly, ash and sparks flying through the air wherever the fire wasn't burning. Only a few patches of wood remained untouched still, leaving a tiny path to the door and windows that were wide open, spilling smoke out into the cool night air.
"That way," Will croaked, gesturing with his hand to the same path she had seen. They both dashed forward, leaping over piles of flaming wood, tables and chairs twisted and blackened, metal tankards shining in the flickering fire rolling across the floor under their feet as the charred, crispy floorboards tilted and groaned against the stone foundation underneath. The cloth over their faces didn't do much to hold out the smoke, and Alyss was starting to feel woozy. She felt Will's hand press against her back, pushing her onward, holding her up.
With a burst of speed, she staggered out the front door and fell to her knees on the grass a few meters away, heaving for breath. Will sat down beside her, his head hanging low and his hands dragging limply on the ground. "You alright?" he rasped through a dry, smoky throat. His face had smears of black soot all across it, and tear tracks trickled through the ash from the corners of both his eyes. She had no doubt she looked the same.
"I'm alright," she managed to say, swallowing hard to get the last vestiges of her saliva down her throat. Her breathing was slowing back down, her vision sharpening.
Will sat back on his heels, his hand resting on her shoulder, seeming to recover as well. "Just sit here, I'll bring water."
He got to his feet, stumbling a little, and left before Alyss could tell him to stay. As she glanced up to follow him with her eyes, she saw that King Carr had managed, miraculously, to escape. For a crotchety old man, he was very hard to kill. He wore only a blue silk nightgown, singed at the edges, and his hair and beard had been blackened on the ends. His eyes were wide, his hands shaking. He spoke into the darkness, alone in the haze. "I just wanted more wine to put me to sleep. That's all. More wine. If I hadn't gone to get my wine, I'd be dead. I'm never skipping my evening wine again."
She vaguely heard Will whistle for Tug, and it seemed like only a few seconds before the familiar thump of his hooves cut through the crackling of the inn.
A water skin was pressed to her lips. She drank.
They had escaped. They were free.
She blinked and her vision finally cleared, the haze leaving her mind. Will had gone over to the King, holding the skin for him to drink from. The King, crying and muttering incoherently, tried to push the skin away, but Will pressed it against his mouth with surprising force. The King gave in and drank, a tear trickling down his face. "Thank you, Athol. Thank you, my son," he sobbed as he finished, the King's gaze fixed on the dark trees beyond.
Will said nothing, just stepped away and came back toward Alyss, kneeling next to her again. "Have some more," he murmured, offering her the last of the water in his waterskin.
"You need some, you take it."
He shook his head. "I'm alright, you need it more than I. I'll find more water soon for myself."
She pushed his hand away. "It's yours."
Lacking the energy to disagree, he drank, letting the last drops trickle down into his mouth.
As he dropped the empty skin on the grass beside them, she leaned into his chest and wrapped her arms around him, so tightly she could feel every muscle and rib along his back and shoulders, reminding herself that they had escaped together in one piece.
She turned her face to the inn, where the bottom floor was just minutes from beginning to collapse. The flames had eaten up most of the furniture inside, and the walls were getting thinner and thinner, the support beams resembling toothpicks. Before long, the inn would implode on itself, an event that Alyss knew they didn't want to be too close to watch.
By now, the small town's entire population had awakened and gathered to watch the inn burn a short distance away. And judging from the yelling and loud shouts of the soldiers, the Redmont and Celtic men had realized what was going on from their camp in the woods a few hundred meters in. Sure enough, they came pouring out of the trees laden with buckets and began to try to control the fire. But every bucket of water they threw, every attempt to smother the flames, they only burned right through it, turning the liquid to steam in an instant and growing larger.
Will had been right. She hadn't properly seen the inside of the fire at Jenny's diner, and it hadn't burned as quickly. But this fire, this was unnatural.
She glanced up at Will, who was holding her close. "Are you alright, Will?"
He didn't move, his face stone. "I will be," he finally said.
She patted his arm absentmindedly as she gathered her legs under her, getting ready to stand. "Someone needs to go check on the King again, he isn't looking so good."
Will pushed her back down onto the grass. "I'll go. He might have injuries, and his men don't have the first aid supplies to treat a burn."
"I'll be here."
He left with one last kiss on the top of her head, a sweet gesture, even though all he probably got was a mouthful of soot.
She heard a familiar whinny and felt Tug's velvet nose brush against her dirty cheek. Are you alright? he seemed to ask.
"I'm alright, Tug. Just a little smoky, that's all." She stood, holding onto Tug's neck so she wouldn't fall.
It was then that she heard the screams begin.
Her head was wrenched up by some unseen force to the very top floor, where the screaming grew ever louder, and Alyss's heart dropped to her feet as a tiny hand reached out the window, covered in ash, but still very much alive. A face, tiny and round, with indistinguishable features in the shadowy flames and plumes of smoke, but there was no mistaking who or what it was.
It was a child.
A child trapped up there, waiting to die.
Without a second thought, without a single regret, all pain and discomfort gone, Alyss ran forward. She heard Tug's warning neigh, and felt his teeth clamp down on her skirt, but it ripped with ease, barely even slowing her down.
She dashed up to the inn and disappeared into the flames, the smoke swallowing her whole until there was nothing left.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alyss!"
Will felt his heart being wrenched from his chest as he whirled around at the sound of Tug's warning neigh. He only caught a glimpse of Alyss's skirt disappearing into the doorway, the haze of smoke immediately blocking her from view.
The door frame collapsed with a huge WHOOOMPFFF, sending sparks and ash up into the windless air like a geyser. Even if he had wanted to follow her in, he couldn't.
The cry torn from him was excruciating. He glanced around in wild panic, wondering what could have galvanized her to go back into those flames. Those killing, murderous flames.
"What happened? Why did she go back in? Alyss!"
"She saw something, just as you did," King Carr said, his voice breaking as he stared sadly at the door Alyss had disappeared through.
"Saw something? What?"
"Someone she loved enough to go back inside and save them."
Will shook his head, his hands trembling. "But it wasn't real."
The King only nodded, his face white in the light of the half-moon. "It wasn't, but Lewellyn wanted you to believe it was. And now she is doing the same thing to your wife."
Will's desperate eyes searched every floor, every window and door. Nothing. No one was there. He ran around the outside, looking in every window. But it was too hazy with the shifting smoke, and in half a dozen windows he could have sworn he saw someone. But he knew they probably weren't real.
He couldn't let Lewellyn lure him in, too.
"Alyss," he called out, his voice breaking each time. "Alyss! Alyss!"
She can't be gone. She can't be.
"Alyss! Alyss!"
He swiped his bow and quiver off the ground, slinging them onto his back, hardly wincing as they rubbed against his burn. The soldiers around him joined his cry, calling her name into every window and door, peering into the haze with no success.
After a few more fruitless seconds of searching, precious seconds of her life that dwindled away, Will felt the tears begin to fall, the ones he had been trying to hold back.
"Alyss," he whispered, his hands falling limply to his sides. The inn burned, the sky turned black, the light of the moon completely covered. Nothing moved inside the inn.
Alyss's scream pierced the blackness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alyss staggered over the threshold, leaping forward as the beams behind her collapsed. If I wanted to go out the way I came, my plans are ruined for good.
The air was hot, almost too hot to bear, and Alyss ducked away from the superheated flames on the far corners and sides of the room. She had almost made it to the base of the stairs when the scream came again, but this time, from behind her.
From behind her.
She turned, her face twisting in horror as her eyes met the tiny child's.
It was a young girl, a year old at most, sitting on the floor with a crocheted square of green yarn in her tiny hand, the same yarn Will had been planning for their first baby blanket. She had dark, curly brown hair, and dark brown eyes, just like Will's. Her face, so familiar to Alyss's own in complexion and features, was wet with tears, her eyes and lips twisted as she screamed and cried. Alyss couldn't see any burns on her, miraculously, and she surged forward to pick her up. All at once, the baby went up in a surge of flames, disappearing before her very eyes.
A scream was torn from Alyss's lips. She swiped at the empty space, finding nothing but air. Not even a pile of ash was left behind.
"Alyss."
She choked back tears at the familiar voice. "Will?"
He stepped out of the flames, his beautiful face clean and calm, a wonderful warmth glowing in his eyes. He reached out his right hand, palm up, beckoning her to come. "It's time to go, Alyss."
"Go... where? Will, I just want to go home. Please, I just want to go home..."
"We are going home, Alyss." He stepped closer to her, and the fire spread away from them, leaving an open circle of uncharred wood. Over Will's shoulder, Alyss could see the open windowsill. Freedom. But Will, he was here. He was here to get her and take her home, where it would be safe. He would take her and their child, their daughter, home.
She reached out towards his hand, her eyes locked on his.
As her gaze drifted to his palm, moments before she touched it, she noticed it.
He didn't have a scar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ranger, we've found her! She's there!"
"Alyss!" Will bolted around the side of the inn, shoving the soldier who had called him out of the way. Sure enough, as the smoke cleared further, he could see her kneeling on the floor in a circle of flames, untouched for now.
But he could also very clearly see Lewellyn standing only a few feet away from her, a hand extended towards her, palm up. He saw Alyss's lips mouth, "Will?"
She thinks it's me.
Lewellyn is tricking her.
"Alyss! It's not me! It's Lewellyn!"
He drew an arrow, notching it on the string, wincing as the tender skin on his burned shoulder stretched to accommodate the draw weight.
"It's not me!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're not him."
Alyss snapped her hand back, and in an instant, Will melted away like a mirage. In his place, with her hand extended, was Lewellyn, a twisted smile on her face.
"Esus makes you see who you want to see when you die, as a final blessing. He will get his sacrifice tonight," she said, a serene look spreading across her face even as the fire got hotter around her.
Lewellyn reached out and seized Alyss's hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will saw Lewellyn reach for Alyss. He pulled the arrow all the way back, groaning in pain, but forced himself to hold a proper form all the way through the release.
The arrow lept away, slithering out of his grasp and arcing the short distance over the windowsill, impaling itself into Lewellyn's back, squarely between her shoulder blades.
The druid made no sound, only stiffened as the arrow sunk deep into her flesh. A nerveless grip let Alyss's hand fall, and she staggered forward on drunken legs into the flames she had created.
With the flames still pulled back, Will reached desperately over the sill, grasping Alyss's hand in his own. "Alyss!" he screamed desperately as the flames began to creep closer as Lewellyn moved further across the room, her skirts catching fire as blood oozed down her back and chest where the arrow had gone clean through.
Alyss's eyes flashed with fear as she saw him. "Are you real?" she asked, sounding very small. Tears trickled down her cheeks, and Will felt his heart break.
"Yes, I'm real."
His scarred hand dragged her to the window sill, pulling her up and over until they both fell down onto the grass below. The beautifully cool damp grass.
They crawled and limped, with the help of the soldiers, back around to the front of the inn. "I'm so sorry, Will, she lied. She lied, I didn't know," Alyss rambled.
"I know, I know. It's alright now, she can't lie anymore." He kissed her forehead, holding her tightly against him, promising to himself that he would never let go again. "Where is she? The druid?" he asked to someone, to no one.
One of the Redmont men only pointed with a solemn finger. "We don't have to worry about her anymore, Ranger."
Will followed his finger, and saw the figure of Lewellyn, still impaled by his arrow, glowing with the fire alight on her clothes, staggering out through a gap in the trees towards the Solitary Planes. As he watched, her entire body became engulfed in flames, her clothes burning themselves into her skin until they were simply gone.
The entire time, she made no sound. Her glowing flickering form silently loped across the Planes, leaving a tiny trail of flames in her wake. Eventually, she collapsed like a rag doll, leaving only a tiny blaze that dimmed to nothing but a tendril of smoke trailing up into the sky.
In the darkness of the Planes, the wicker man had finally come to life, and Esus had gotten his sacrifice after all.
**************
A/N Epilogue is coming, so don't leave yet...
Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I can't express how much it means to me to have so many people enjoy my stories. Love you all.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top