The Charlatan

08. Splitting the Whistle

Ash.

There was no smoke, only the blackness of cold cinder.

Clara and Air stood in silence as they took in what they were seeing. Houses were burnt to the ground. The vibrant colours of Dehi were nowhere to be seen here. There was no one left to even clean up and properly honour the dead.

The dead. There are dead people everywhere.

This had been a merciless and silent slaughter. Clara seemed to be walking from one massive disaster to another. She could feel her fingers numbing, and she tried to stay her trembling legs. This was fear.

"Please help us!"

Clara recognized the Dehic language immediately, and she turned all her attention to the voice. She frantically scanned the charred remains of the town in front of her. Air suddenly gripped her arm and pointed out the source of the voice.

She was a young woman. She looked very panicked, and was awfully disheveled. She seemed familiar. Clara's head was spinning. The woman's arm was injured, was it bleeding? "Please, my sister is pinned under the scaffolding that collapsed on us. I can only use one arm and I cannot lift it by myself." Her voice was hoarse and it trembled as she called to Clara and Air.

"You... understand Dehic. Is she asking for help?" Air's voice was suddenly strange, and he turned to Clara as he asked the question.

Clara nodded and told Air to wait where he was. The damage had caused the bridges to collapse, and she had to deftly climb down a steep cliff to help the girl rescue her sister. "I'm Clara," she said when she neared the girl. "I will try to help you. What is your name?" She spoke in Dehic as she followed the girl around a large pile of broken stone and fractured wood that had once constituted a home.

"Safiya. My name is... is Safiya. My sister is Priyanka." The girl stuttered and seemed to be trying very hard to keep her composure.

Gently. Don't panic. You must speak to her gently, Clara. Don't panic. "Safiya," Clara repeated softly. "What happened here?"

Her question went unanswered as Safiya shook her head and promptly pointed a few paces in front of her. Clara followed her gaze and saw another girl, a copy of Safiya, a twin, lying under a wooden beam. She was breathing; Clara saw the rise and fall of her chest. Clara heaved protruding debris out of her way and knelt down next to Priyanka. She immediately noticed that the girl was conscious. "Priyanka," Clara called her name gently, "Your sister and I are going to lift this beam off of you. Are you able to move?" Priyanka slowly turned her head to look at Clara. Her eyes were red and tired, her lips dry. She shook her head. This is... This is truly Life's cruelty, Clara thought. She could feel the panic starting to settle in. I can't do this right now, I can't panic. Stop. Clara willed herself to feel nothing, if just for this moment. She called over to Safiya, instructing her to support the other end of the beam with the arm she could use while Clara lifted it up and away from her sister.

Clara breathed hard and tasted salt as she slowly raised the beam up and above her head before angling it away from Priyanka and throwing it onto the ground. She picked Priyanka up off the ground, who flinched when Clara touched her, and headed back to where she had left Air.

Some remarkable feats of athleticism later, the trio managed to get Priyanka up the cliff and onto Air's shoulders. Clara rummaged through some of the smaller piles of debris for supplies before rejoining her party, equipped with a few loose boards, rope, and some unsinged cloth. The group walked in silence until they came upon the forest from whence Clara and Air had come earlier. Clara motioned for the group to stop and camp for the night. She and Air improvised a shelter from the boards Clara had carried while Safiya tended to her injured sister. Clara gathered some plants she thought safe for eating and shared them with the group.

No one spoke.

Moonrise arrived quickly. Air helped Safiya move Priyanka under the shelter first. Air claimed a spot on the opposite edge of the tiny triangular refuge and immediately turned away from the group. Clara moved to enter after him, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Thank you for your help," Safiya said.

"Of course." Clara turned to face the taller woman.

"Forgive me if this be rude, especially after you helped save my sister, but I couldn't help but notice. You're Veltie."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "Yes, why?" Safiya was silent a moment as she gripped Clara's shoulder. When she spoke again, her eyes flickered with a repressed anger.

"Your people burned our entire family."

Clara hadn't any idea what to say. She was tired. All that was coming to her mind were looping curses and faint screaming. Her own panic projected into her mind? Perhaps, because Clara felt that she couldn't make a single sound aloud. She stood in front of Safiya awkwardly, blankly.

Safiya took a deep breath to calm herself and pushed stray hairs away from her face. She did not let go of Clara's shoulder when she spoke again, "My apologies. I know it was not you who single-handedly wiped out," her breath hitched, "...did... that." She was crying. "They came so suddenly, in a swarm, yelling something about a 'charlatan' and 'wanted outlaws...'" Clara flinched when Safiya mentioned the things she had been running from before. They had followed her a whole country over. "I don't know how it happened, but one moment we were in negotiations, and the next, my people were attacking the Veltie. I didn't know what was going on, but everyone was yelling about fraud and debt and treachery, and then," Safiya trailed off and looked away. She didn't have to say anything else. The armed forces from Clara's homeland, people Clara trusted with her safety, decided to silence the Dehic village in one sweep. Clara felt the world around her begin to crumble. The Citadel hadn't been wiped out after its bankruptcy. It looked like, instead, the army was trying to fell everyone else before they even had a chance to attack them.

"It was... just a disagreement. A heated fight, but not... It was just..." Safiya devolved into unintelligible sobs and Clara finally found her voice.

"I'm sorry."