In The Name of Shadows - A Darklina Story

Chapter 14: The Massacre at Dawn

Publishing date: 04/01/2022

Warning: there is a lot of violence there. Please, proceed carefully.

The birds didn't sing at dawn in a country torn by war. They didn't sing in the country tormented by constant misfortunes, so after the night it came a deaf, disturbing silence.

When the new day was rising above Ravka's horizon, the world was for sure not coming to life, but it was moving to a new stage in pursuing a complicated war strategy of how to function to survive until tomorrow without the slightest loss.

It was going to be a sunny day, because the first thing Malyen Oretsev saw when he had opened his eyes was a gray sky, which had been already tinged slightly pink above the treetops. The sun was still low above the horizon, but the chill of the early autumn morning had been already giving way to a pleasant warmth.

What's going on? Thought the Tracker, feeling his stiff limbs go numb from stillness.

Then the boy's gaze went to his left thigh, and uninvited memories immediately filled his mind. Mal's entire trouser leg was brownish red and torn from hip to ankle. There were also small pools of blood on the ground around him, which had managed to slightly soak into the soil, dyeing the grass a dark red shade.

Drüskelle, thought Malyen Oretsev, immediately looking around for a potential threat.

And in search of Katya Nemerov.

But there was only a hostile silence all around him. Mal's gaze rested on a tiny female figure who was laying the remains of their provisions on her white horse. The girl also adjusted the saddle on the brown stallion of the Tracker, lightly patting the animal which was leaning over a tuft of grass on its shiny side.

Hundreds of scattered thoughts filled Malyen's mind. The boy was sure that he had lost his life, meanwhile, apart from the stiffness of his left leg, the young man seemed to be quite healthy and able to continue their journey. Watching Katya after experiencing their moment of weakness – which Mal considered as a mistake by no means – filled Malyen's heart with immense embarrassment.

The Tracker had gone way too far, and to make matters even worse, now he also owed his life to the Healer.

How am I going to talk to her about this? Malyen thought and he was about to start thinking about the thanks and apologies to his savior when Katya turned to face him and looked at him with tenderness and an unmistakable sadness written on her pretty face.

"Thanks to the Saints." Katya ran to Mal, and after a while she knelt beside him to examine a place in which his wound had been earlier placed. "I was worried that you didn't regain consciousness for so long, handsome. How's your leg? Are you still feeling some pain?" Her little fingers immediately began to move the bloodied material on the boy's thigh. Now Maylen was feeling a slight tingling under his skin.

Mal was feeling strange revealing such a large piece of his body to the Healer. At this point, the brown-haired boy was glad that he always remembered to put on his underwear.

"No, I'm fine." Malyen replied, feeling like a child rebuked by its mother. "My leg is just a little numb, but otherwise I feel great," he added, his gaze running over Katya Nemerov's slightly flushed face as she was gently pressing down on his oversensitive skin. "I can keep riding, really."

The Healer said nothing as she was also lacking for words. Her and the Tracker's relationship got very complicated, and Katya Nemerov prayed that they would never return to the awkward situation they both had found themselves in before drüskelle attack.