Naomi

Naomi dashed towards the rising smoke, even though she didn’t have a clue what she was going to do when she got there. It would have been nice if Esar had taught her how to do something useful before their first encounter with a construct. Maybe she could get it stuck in a rock, somehow?

That construct was the same bird that she’d raced to the chasm, she was sure of that, but it hadn’t attacked her then, only watched. Why? Was someone using it like a remote-controlled drone? Was that even possible?

Naomi passed the remains of a farmhouse that had burned down a long time ago, with weeds growing in the fields. Always to her right was the golden wall of mist that divided Elorhe from the Asprai realm. She was still quite curious about that, though it obviously was a poor time to ask questions. She’d left Esar, Kelsam and Jason far behind in her rush, and now she scanned the sky as she approached the village where a fire was still burning. The black clouds grew as she got closer, and the smell of smoke got stronger, but she saw no sign of the construct bird.

What she did see looked like soldiers, coming her way.

There were about twenty of them, carrying swords and wearing beige-colored armor made of the ceram stuff that Adrin worked with, each with a dark green ribbon stretched from the shoulder to the wrist of one arm. That should have been a good sign. The Elorhan military wasn’t trained to handle constructs—that was the purview of the Ethereal Guard—but surely they were better than nothing.

But something didn’t seem right. They were walking away from the village, leaving behind a raging fire. It didn’t seem like a panicked retreat from a lost battle but an orderly progress of soldiers that stood tall and confident. As they came closer, Naomi could see the intricate designs carved into the armor they wore. A few ash stains marred what was obviously expensive gear, both the armor and the clothing beneath it.

Naomi slowed her steps. There was nowhere to hide, she was in the open between the misty wall and a field full of crops that grew no higher than her waist. They’d already seen her, anyway, and now they were coming at her with purpose, and she wasn’t the boy in her vision, able to open a chasm between herself and the approaching soldiers.

“You! Stop there,” the leader addressed her. “We need to ask you some questions.”

“What?” Naomi said, shaking her head. “There’s—there’s a fire—”

“Don’t worry about that right now.” The leader rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, though he didn’t draw it. He wasn’t much taller than Naomi, but he moved like he was accustomed to wearing armor and using a sword. That armor was smeared with soot, and on the others as well, Naomi noticed as they began to form a circle around her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“We’re exterminators, looking for some rats,” said a woman to Naomi’s right. “Heard they were nesting in your village, but it seems that they slipped away before we got here.”

“It’s not my village,” Naomi said. “I just—I saw the smoke, I thought I could help put out the fire—”

A few of the soldiers laughed.

“You from the Sanctuary, girl?” the leader asked. He stepped closer, and Naomi looked down at his boots, hoping that he wouldn’t look too closely at her eyes. She wasn’t sure if she wanted Esar and Kelsam to come and get her out of this situation, or if she wanted them to stay far away from these soldiers.

“I—yeah.” It wasn’t quite a lie, she had come from a Sanctuary. Sort of.

“Any new visitors show up there lately?”

“Not that I know of.” Also true.

“Look at me when you’re talking, girl.”

Naomi gritted her teeth and looked up, just a little, letting her hair screen her eyes. Hopefully that would be enough to hide their color. She kept her mouth shut, afraid to say anything that would mark her as out of the ordinary—and therefore suspicious.

“Don’t lie to me,” he said. “If you’re not a rat yourself, you’ve got nothing to gain from hiding them—and everything to lose.” He glanced over his shoulder with a slight nod as flecks of ash drifted past. He dressed like a knight, but he sounded like a mob boss. Maybe there wasn’t much of a difference between the two.

“If they made it all the way to Rhadasy, we can’t go in after them . . . ” a man said from behind Naomi. He sounded uncertain.

“Don’t be a coward,” the leader snapped. “We don’t answer to Elorhan law anymore, only to our king.”

What king? That didn’t make any sense. A murmur went through the assembled soldiers. The man who’d spoken up wasn’t the only one uncomfortable about the idea of invading a Sanctuary. The woman who’d introduced the squad as exterminators had a brief, quiet conference with the leader, and then they stepped apart, and the leader addressed Naomi again.

“Take a message back to the Devoted for me, then. Rhadasy is in the kingdom of Galibasti now, and they’re all subjects of King Norsyff. Any fugitives who played any role in the uprising must be turned over to the Knights of Galibasti to face the king’s justice. He will not take kindly to those who harbor traitors, no matter what kind of belts they wear.” That brought another uncomfortable murmur from his crew, but he silenced it with a glare. “No harm will come to those who obey our orders and turn over the rebels. I, Sir Salgiar Amontel, will come to Rhadasy tomorrow to collect the prisoners and conduct a search. In the meantime, we’ll secure the perimeter. Any rats who try to slip out in the dead of night will not like what they find. You got all that, girl?”

“Ah—” Naomi began, heart pounding. She wanted to remember it all—it was so important that she should—but all the unfamiliar names and her confusion at the situation made it impossible to fix the information in her brain. She knew the name Norsyff from Adrin, though not as a king, but as the father of the current lord of Nalla-Bidharac.

“I heard your message, Sir Salgiar Amontel. I will even deliver it to Rhadasy for you, if you do not wish to reconsider it,” said a familiar voice from behind Naomi. She turned with great relief to see that Esar and Kelsam had arrived. Jason hadn’t caught up to them, yet, fortunately for him.