Fallen Stars

Chapter 29

CATHERA

It pains to walk on the bumpy ground and the callouses on my feet weren't able to prevent the sharp edges of the rocks on the ground from giving me a hard time.

My neck and hands were shackled. The thickness of the iron wrapping my neck makes me unable to bow down. Its iron is the least I want touching the wound on the side of my throat. I didn't even dare move my infected arm as dark webs strung out from the wound like snakes coursing through my veins. I lowered my shoulders so I could slouch while walking slowly. The shackles were chained to horses in thick equipment in front of us, the accused.

All of us, the accused prisoners, are tied together, held in a single chain that bound the shackles in our hands.

"Walk faster," The guard behind me poked my back with a stick making me grunt in pain, walk faster, and form a wider gap between me and him.

It was a parade and I was in the limelight of the stunt. I was together with other people who were also accused of witchcraft, at the front of the line. The one who attacked me was also at the parade, the one I can confirm is a real witch. Many of the townsfolk were at the half end of the parade while hunters and soldiers were at the front. Two of the colour guards at the front held their white banners. We, the prisoners are in the middle of the parade as two horse riders are in front of the nine of us and another two in the back. It doesn't slip in my mind where we are heading though, knowing that I can't pay attention to where the sun went down.

I stared at the one that attacked me. She was looking at the ground wearing an expression that I couldn't understand anyhow; whether it was resentment, fear, pain, or regret. All I know is it was negative.

Looking at her for a while, she noticed me and stared back. We met eyes for a minute, somehow trying to speak with silence. Her eyebrows once leaning towards each other slowly leaned away the longer we stared. She looked back at the ground she was stepping towards and I remained looking at her.

I continued to stare at her for a while until I finally thought that she wouldn't stare back again. I also stared at the rocky ground I was stepping on.

I realised that we were heading to the town Shayne, Klaire, and I went before—the abandoned town of Helmin. The parade passed the opening with the dated slanted sign above the length of the parade. We continued walking to the plaza of the village. In the centre of it was a pile of burnt debris. We walked around it until the whole parade circled the centre with the colour guards facing the entrance.

The guards unchained us from the horses. One of them assigned for each of us, one to hold our chains. My guard was aggressively pulling mine to get me moving quickly. It didn't help. Only my wrist and neck were hurt with each pull. I walked slowly but steadily, waiting to fall to the ground as my feet were shaking softly. Each step I took was a piercing ache in my head. The guards fused all of our chains, the chain of the lady in the front was connected to a huge stone pillar, possibly the foundation of an old house. As one was pulled all of us came along in a line.

The parade came to an end as we circled the burnt debris, as I looked at it I realized it was a pile of burnt bodies of people, Their deformed figures all in black revealed their flesh fusing with their clothes as portions of their bones showed.

I squinted and stared at it until I noticed it was a pile of dead bodies. Bones, mainly the spine, protruded out of backs, being one of the few things that remained lighter than the charred skin and clothes.

Two tall standing beams were erected on each end of the pile and gallows as a knot was tied at another beam that was on top of the two.

I looked at it with horror, just like the rest of the townsfolk at the end of the parade.