House of Winter

Chapter 22, Part 1

Ari was dreaming.

She could smell sea air. She could hear the cries of gulls, and she knew the briny taste of salt on the wind. She was sleeping on a matt that was certainly woven from stella material, something like she would sleep on when she lived with her grandmother. And there were voices above her. They sounded far away, but she could recognise their Vastien language. That's how she knew she was dreaming.

Ari stirred and tried to sit up. Her head was buzzing, and she thought she must have fallen over. She must have been chasing Bell, trying to stop her from doing something dangerous, and she must have tripped. Now she was lying on the beach. Soon her grandmother would come over, scolding Bell for getting in trouble.

Something big pushed against Ari's arm. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the headache from pounding at the front of her mind. Was that Bell, trying to get her to wake up?

"Okay, okay, I'm up," Ari said blearily. She opened her eyes, looking over to her sister.

But it wasn't her sister. It was a dragon.

Ari blinked again.

It was Warrah, pushing his great nose into her side to try to wake her up.

In a rush, Ari remembered that Bell wasn't here.

"Bell's dead," Ari whispered, and she found tears in her eyes.

"Darling daughter, you're alive!" someone said, in Vastien. "Those Kaio soldiers really did a number on you, but you're safe now. We've got you in the camp, and your dragon is here too. He's fine, he's been looking after you and making sure no one comes too close."

Ari blinked again, and found herself looking at an older woman.

She tried to speak, but realised that the Vastien words weren't forming on her tongue. She felt dizzy.

The woman gave her water, and Ari took a breath. "Where am I?" the words she spoke were in Starg, and then she repeated them in Vastien.

"We're in the camp," the woman said. "The soldiers brought you here. Did you flee from your island? Is your family seeking refuge here too? More Vastiens are arriving every day but the soldiers brought you here alone."

"What do you mean by camp?" Ari asked.

"The refugee camp," the woman said, sitting back on her heels and gesturing around her. "This is where the Kaio are keeping us, for now. It's not perfect, but it's all we can ask for."

The light of the suns was too bright, and Ari could barely take in the mismatched tents.

"Why are we in Kakaio?" Ari asked. "Why aren't we in Vastier?"

"You don't remember?" the woman said. "The Lombardians have invaded. We took what we could and fled once they started burning villages. Our island was lucky; we all got out alive. We haven't heard from the villages on Isla Zanvaleria."

Ari felt sick.

As she processed the words, she finally gathered the strength to sit up and look around her. The camp was basic but she could see the Vastiens had done what they could to make it homely. They had set up one tent but most people were sitting in the open. There were at least a hundred of them, with nothing to do but sit and wait. Ari noticed with a jolt there were fire soldiers on tigerback patrolling the perimeter of the tent.

"They won't let you leave?" Ari asked.

"They don't want us going into the town," the woman said. "It is humiliating and degrading. The Vastien people are strong, independent. We have lived for thousands of years on the sea. We never thought we would need to seek refuge here, but we were attacked by sea monsters in the water. We didn't have any starrlings or water dragons in our fleet to defend us. So now we are here, and we can't rely on the sea. We can only rely on the Kaio people. And they won't let us fish."

"They won't let you fish?" Ari asked, bewildered as she stared out at the sea. "So what have you been eating?"

"They bring us just enough food that we have been surviving for a few days," she said. "But we need to fish. They won't let us get back to our boats."

Ari felt a swelling of panic. She looked up at Warrah.

"We need to find Sanna and get out of here," she murmured to the dragon. But she felt a pang of guilt. These were her people, in a dirty refugee camp in Kakaio, with nothing to do but wait and hope that the Kaio people were generous enough to keep them alive while the war raged on their own land.

If Pythos Savvas were here he would be making a speech, and he would be doing something, anything, to raise up the condition of his people. They were only ords, but they were still Vastiens, and they didn't deserve this.

x

Hey starrlings! Thanks so much for your support on this book. I'd love it if you voted on this chapter by tapping the star button 💕

Thanks again for your support in helping me achieve my dreams of being a writer!

elle xx