The Tellanon

19. The blowing leafs

Still the Miners tried to get her to answer their questions, squabbling over who went first, or who was right, or who was being ridiculous. Emyra just stared out into the dark night beyond the window, unable, for the moment, to raise the alarm. Bodies. Actual bodies, of men, women and even children, just being blown by the window. How windy it must be out there, how cold. How bloody. Her breath quickened. She gulped in air, trying not to throw up when a pregnant woman passed by, her belly cut open to reveal the foetus inside. She sat down heavily against the doors and gulped, still trying to subdue her stomach.

At that moment, a Miner shouted at her. “Answer, girl, don’t just sit there!” He was a harsh-looking man, originally from Valharis by the looks of him. She raised her head and pointed at the window, still unable to speak a word in the face of the dead leafs. The man ignored his pointing finger, but a woman- presumably his wife- looked, and tugged at his sleeve. All of a sudden, all of the miners were staring out of the window in horror. None of them said anything and only a few threw up. Most just stood there, crying, or staying still. It was a powerful sight, all those people looking at dead people they knew or at least felt some connection to. They were a clan, and though Emyra could not imagine what that was like, she figured it was like a small city- one knew about one fifth of the people, but felt connected to all the others as well. In Merrón it was always each family for itself,  but in the villages, it was all one big cooperating family. These people saw their comrades floating by with their guts falling out of their bellies, their skulls cloven in two. These people saw a proper siege of their own city, and mourned. They all stood up, and touched their heart, before touching the stone ground.

The man in his sixties who had introduced the Miners of the clan of Morthid to Emyra, the man who she assumed was their leader, shook the whole room awake with his powerful voice.

“To arms!” He shouted, and stepped onto a table. “Meo, take the older men to the armoury and lead them to the mountaintop, make sure some of your men are stationed at the sickroom.. Cain, take the younger ones and lead them through the crypt up to the Ridge of  Shin. Yda, take the women and children to the towerhouse. Didiane, wake the bladesworn women and lead them up to the Ridge of Shin after Cain,” he gulped for air and thought for a minute, then turned to two girls. “Insha, Umai, gather some of the children and bring supplies to the towerhouse. Haida, you go with them and wake the cows, drive them to the towerhouse. We may be under siege, and I do not want to starve. Leonic, take another scout and find out what we’re up against. Everybody, go, go, go!”

Emyra got up quickly and opened the doors while the Miners rushed to do what they were told. The man called Leonic, a scout, was in a discussion with a man who refused to come with him.  The younger men, lead by a lean man with an enormous nose who she presumed was Cain, were already on their way to the armoury before Emyra had even begun to wonder what she had to do. She was not a Miner, or a fighter, but she didn’t want to hide out with the women and children, and she was shaking all over, and really afraid, but not afraid enough to run. She wanted to fight, but knew she couldn’t, however much Berren and Serin had trained her.

At that moment, a distraction walked in through the door, a distraction in the form of a rather beaten-up Serin. Her sword was shiny red with blood of someone or other, and she was panting. She had found Ash, though. The dog jumped up against Emyra and liked her face, which was rather unfortunate as his tongue, too, was bloody. Emyra wiped the slimy saliva and blood off her face and stood up to face Serin, who was leaning against the door.

“There is,” She started, still panting and wiping blood off pretty much everything she owned. “a slight problem,” she panted “With some other clan,” She looked out over the room and saw the action that was going on, with all the men flocking around others, and the people running around, and the corpses still drifting by. “but from the looks of it, you already noticed.”