Fire Angels

Chapter 4 Part 1 Into Moria

Chapter 4

We left Cardun the following morning, while the sky was still pink. It had rained before dawn and it promised to do so again. Bell birds were tinkling out their dawn songs in the tall sweet oil trees and a tremendous feeling of sadness came over me as I pulled the door of the hut closed. I stood at the door with a lump in my throat.

"Come on Dion," cried Tomas. "The day's a wasting."

Hamel put his arm round my shoulders and drew me towards the waiting horses. It was surprising how quickly our relationship had become this easy.

"Sorry little sister?"

"Aye," I said. "I feel as if I will never see this place again."

Tomas snorted. "Well since you've no talent for foretelling that probably means you'll be home within the month." He pinched my chin. "Did you think of that? Now up with you."

The quickest route over the border was through the forest and over the river, but it was a very stealthy route, not entirely legal and Tomas had decided against it.

"The border will be crawling with patrols at the moment. Everybody will be on edge because of the war. We are certain to get picked up going through the hills. It's the smugglers natural path and that will only look doubly suspicious. It's best if we go respectably along the main road."

This plan had the added advantage of disguising our movements from my parishioners. More than the usual number of people were hanging or working round the village street that morning and the fields by the road side seemed very busy too. Everywhere people waved cheerful farewells, but their eyes were curious.

Only after midmorning when we were well into the next parish, did we stop seeing people I knew. I was glad. I could see only trouble stemming from Cardun coming to know that their village healer had not taken the safe turn towards the city of Gallia, but the illegal and highly dangerous route into Moria instead.

Every now and then soft rain fell and the air was chill. I leaned against Tomas' back and tried to relax, but I was unused to riding pillion and by midday when we reached the crossroads, I was saddle sore and looking forward to getting down.

"There's Parrus," Tomas called back to me.

Parrus was sitting on the ground beside the shrine to Tansa. He was dressed in the sober blue robes of a Borgonese merchant. It had been agreed, (not by me of course, because I hadn't been consulted) that he should call himself Ren Parrus Latrides, making me Enna Dion Latrides.

He greeted us with relieved pleasure. When I got down from the saddle and could finally see more than Tomas' back I realized why he was so relieved.

On the other side of the crossroad sheltered by the trees sat a big group of Wanderers. There must have been 30 or 40 of them, just sitting or lying on the grass by the road.

"What are they doing here?" said Tomas.

"How should I know?" said Parrus defensively. "They were here when I got here. Just sitting about. Give me the creeps. Damned Moonies."

"Parrus!" I said. Moonies was a pretty common term of abuse for Wanderers, a reference to their moon white skin and pale hair, but I'd never liked it and now knowing what I did about my own family, I was ashamed to hear it in front of my brothers.

Tomas just shrugged. "Well you should have asked them, you fool. They don't bite, you know."

He had turned on his heel and was crossing the road before Parrus had time to let out an outraged noise.

"Well, to hell with you too," muttered Parrus at his back.

"A word of advice, Parrus," said Hamel gravely. "There's a lot of Wanderer blood in our family as there is in a lot of Morians." Then he turned and followed Tomas.