Kingdoms of Caelum; Autumn of the War Queen

Chapter 42

Groggily, Katla forced her eyes to open. It was very dark. Bane had squeezed her shoulder to wake her and she felt the weight of his hand against her mouth.

"Something is amiss," he whispered, and in the blackness he placed her weapons on her lap.

"What is it?"

"Two men creeping in the moonlight and a man not far behind them, passed here a few moments ago."

They stayed silent, watching the empty street and waiting for any sign of movement. Suddenly there was a muffled crash down the street, and a deathly scream that echoed through the air.

"That came from the Inn!" Bane said pulling himself up, "Stay here and I'll go look."

"No Bane! The Rakshasha, remember? Masters of illusion?"

The thought of them creeping through the night and finding her was too much, and of course she was right. Bane nodded. They drew their weapons, pulled over their hoods and stepped quietly down the sides of the houses, heading towards the Inn. It wasn't long before Bane saw a man stood nearby, the same man that had followed the others.

"Who goes there?" Bane barked.

The man stepped towards them, a large bear fur coat bulking up a thin frame. He smiled showing a row of white teeth that gleamed through the darkness.

"That is not your concern warrior."

It took a second for his voice to register with Katla, and as it did, a dizzy, warm feeling engulfed her body.

"Ragan!" she hissed.

His thin smile fell from his face as he looked at Katla, but he could not see her face through the shadows of the red hood.

"Who are you girl?" he snapped and Bane's skin prickled with hate, for the core of all his anguish stood before him.

"That is not your concern," Bane warned.

Distracting them all, a flash of orange and smash of glass suddenly erupted from the second storey window of the inn, as a haunting roar followed. Shart, the white tiger, hit the ground below. She had leapt from the window. Bane grabbed Katla and pulled her to one side as fire screamed through the inn. Ragan also jumped beside them both, into the shadows where the tiger could not see. Shart roared furiously as hot flames spread, and a chorus of yells began to float above the fire from inside. The door of the inn opened and the two men emerged, it was clear they were Thurlstone Knights. Straight away, Shart leapt for them, and from the side of the street Bane, Katla and Ragan watched. The fall had broken some of the tiger's ribs and she was slow and clumsy, but rage saw her swing round to face the men, and in one gruesome moment she pounced for the first who was clumsy and ill-trained with his sword. Shart ripped his head clean off. The broadsword fell to the floor along with its torso, and behind them the other man began to scream for Ragan, his voice was muffled with the fury of the flames, but it had been loud enough for Bane to hear.

"You have manipulated all this!" Bane screamed over the fire to Ragan, "What have you done?" Flames caught on surrounding houses and began to lap at them as Ragan turned to him with an evil smile.

"Soon, warrior, you will have me to thank for the destruction of the Rakshasha. War will ravage all of Caelum once more, for the greater good. Gazena will die tonight."

The tiger wasted no time as it leapt on the other man, tearing him to pieces before their eyes; there was no sign of Gazena. An arrow flew into the tigers hind, Shart snarled and roared in fury and pain. The arrow had come from a villager, one of many that had gathered to watch amid screams and crashes, as the thatched roof collapsed into itself.