Reign of Ruin

1- When the Calendulas Bloomed

Note* This book is still a work in progress, so please tell me what you think in a comment!

[PART ONE]

 The fabric of his tunic clung to his skin, and Tomas lifted his eyes to the approaching storm clouds. The sound of distant thunder rumbled through the forest, and he ran through the untrodden ground. Dirt crept in-between his toes because he unwisely chose to wear his sandals that morning. A flash of lightning blinded him, and Saoirse ran up beside him in the next second. She leaped over a rough patch of rocks and twigs because she was barefoot.  

"We're late. Hurry up," Tomas warned when the cottage came into view, and he noticed the dark cloud of smoke filling the air.

"What should we tell him? He's started the fire, so we'll be in for it," Saoirse grumbled. They slowed and strode across the cobblestone pathway. The flowers were cowering from the storm, and Tomas felt a raindrop slide down the base of his neck. He recoiled and swiped at it. Remi packed his garden with almost every herbal plant in their region -chamomile, mint, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm. And others that Remi taught them about over the past six seasons. It was mid-summer, and thunderstorms kept coming. Tomas called it the rainy season, and Remi said the rain was a warning from the gods. Remi wasn't a superstitious man, but he believed in something greater than himself. It was often a topic of conversation, but Tomas wasn't sure what he thought. There was another crack of thunder, and Tomas filched. When he turned to Saoirse, she was scowling, and he realized she had been talking.

"What do think? Should we tell him?" she repeated.

Tomas arched an eyebrow. "About what we saw? or we couldn't find the ginseng again?"

"We got the Calendula, but the soldiers could have just been patrolling, or something-" Saoirse said as the door opened. Remi stood in the doorway; his dark eyes scanned them with calculative judgment.

"You're late," he scolded, and they walked past him into the house that engulfed him in warmth. Tomas removed the satchel from his shoulder and handed it to Remi.

"Shoes and feet" Remi pointed a stern finger to his muddy sandals, and Tomas discarded them at the doorway. Saoirse dipped a rag into the basin of water on the window sill and cleaned the bottoms of her feet.

"We could only find the calendula. There wasn't any ginseng root," Saoirse explained, and Remi paused his extraction of the flowers.

"There should have been some east of the river, near the bank," he said, not speaking directly to him, but Tomas answered anyway.

"We searched for an hour, and then the storm started to roll in" Tomas took the handle of the wooden spoon and filled his bowl with fishbone stew seasoned with peppers, lemon, and salt. Saoirse took a sip, and her eyes darted between him and Remi with silent urgency that made Remi scowl. Tomas heard the soft vibration of her knee bouncing with nervous energy. Taking Tomas's silence as her opening Saoirse set down her bowl and leaned forward.

"We could only get past the Knox River because the further east we went, the more soldiers we saw."

Remi froze; his usually steady hands fumbled and spilled some of his stew on the table. The cottage floor trembled from a boom of thunder, and Tomas's hand clenched tightly around his spoon.

"Soldiers?"

Saoirse nodded. "There were hundreds of them all in their maroon uniforms. What...what do you think they're doing this far from wall Ana?" Tomas set the spoon down and shut his eyes until the thunder subsided.

"I've been distracted. They shouldn't be this far from wall Ana. There aren't any villages this close to the border anymore," Remi said with frustration, not directed toward them, but Tomas knew it was about them. They were a distraction, but a distraction to what? In the past six seasons together, Remi never spoke of his life before.