The Raven Lord | Book I

XXVIII. The End, Part I

I reached the foothills by dawn. 

My lungs screamed and my mouth tasted of copper and iron. My feet were torn and blistered and I had taken several falls which did not help my aching body. I ran through the foothills where snow mixed with ash, making for the display of army tents atop the hill. 

I knew Silas followed me, keeping his distance, unable or unwilling to make his presence known. 

When I reached the tents swarming with soldiers and nurses and confused and dying people, I kept going. I ran past the crowds and screams of the injured, past the tents which might hold more answers than where I intended to go. 

Reaching the outcrop, I stopped. Below, the Stygian front sprawled, bundles of fire burning brightly as men made their ways through the field, looking for survivors, burning what was not. I was thoroughly numb.

I did not hear his approach, but I knew it was him before he spoke. 

"Kaira."

I turned to find Lex, his armor battered and flecked in inky black and scarlet blood. He wore no helmet, but the rest of him looked as though he had just walked from the battlefield. I faced the ruin again. 

"How...when did they come?" I asked, my voice hoarse and soft, hardly a whisper.

He was at my side now. I looked up and met his face: wan and exhausted, but still Lex.

"Come, let's-"

"Are they okay? Is everyone-"

"Yes." He breathed deeply. "Ciel took the worst of it but, he'll live."

Something loosed in my chest and for a moment, I could breathe. 

"Let's get you warm," he murmured. 

I happily obliged. 

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I slept for what felt like days.

Lex had given me a fair sized tent, split in the middle by a flap which allotted one side for the fur sleeping palette and the other for a copper tub, which was now being filled with steaming water by the bucket full. 

I gladly undressed and stepped in, welcoming the sting against my scrapes and bruises. The steam kissed my cheeks, the nape of my neck, curling the stray hairs around my face. I leaned back and shut my eyes against all other thoughts, soaking away the dirt and numbness that had come with the Pass. 

A small knock came and I drew my knees to my chest as Lex entered, a pile of furs in his arms. 

"Apologies," he muttered. 

"It's okay." 

He glanced at me a moment before striding to the tub and dropping the furs beside it. "For when you've finished." 

"Thank you." 

He nodded, but did not move. His armor was gone now, but the blood and grime remained. He had dawned a warm looking tunic and pants, his sword still strapped at his hip: clothes too casual for a battlefield. 

He shook his head, "I'm sorry, I just don't-" He stopped himself and looked to me. I nodded in understanding, so he sat on an ottoman a few feet from the basin. He was silent before saying, "They've taken Aurus." 

My veins went cold despite the warmth of the water. "What?"

He nodded. "They came here two days ago, but not four days now have they had Aurus." He examined my face as if knowing he could only tell me this in parts. "We were able to get the people out just before. Ciel had a suspicion."