The Webbing Blade

DAWN'S SIREN

LOU FELT his mind ebbing away inside his skull. He felt his thoughts rush and draw. He tried to get a grip on his thoughts again, but they kept spinning away from him, slipping from his grasp.

Herimyre was dead.

He’d slipped the Webbing Blade into his chest himself.

While Herimyre had been sleeping.

He was gone.

He must, then, be mistaken in his assumption, that this wasn’t the Captain of the Royal Guards at all, and this time he did look to Hildie. Her eyes met his and then he knew for sure.

He had killed someone else.

Before Lou had the chance to get things straight, Hildie glared at him then said, “Get them out, get your people out!”

Lou looked over the prisoners, all of them gawping at Herimyre, standing up there on that open corridor that led to the bedroom of the man he’d killed, and then Lou barked the order to them.

They all followed him, snapping out of their daze.

Hildie stood firm as the prisoners rushed about her, and Lou, the last of them to escape, looked to her. She met his eye briefly, and then reached out and took his hand in hers. She gave it a light squeeze, gave him the hint of a smile, and then said, “Meet me out at the forest. If I’m not there by sundown then do what you can.”

Do what you can?

Lou thought that to himself several times over.

If they got out there, out on the plains, and the sunset caught them, then they’d be mincemeat. The cursed animals would see them off. Even if he did have the Webbing Blade.

He knew that at most he might be able to see off a cursed sheep, but a pack of bears or wolves, that would be a different matter.

Without Hildie those cursed crows would’ve pecked him to death.

But he put his concerns to one side for the time being and he sprinted after the others, quickly retreating from the palace, heading out through the busted gate, and into Ilsnare.

* * *

The gate alongside the palace, which led out onto the plains, was unguarded.

Lou knew that the toil at the palace must’ve taken its toll with the watchmen, and now he knew that he hadn’t killed Herimyre he knew that the remaining Royal Guards, the ones that Hildie hadn’t killed in their beds, had been roused from whatever post they were manning and ordered back to the palace.

In the early morning light, the mist rising off the land, and the threat of cursed animal attacks slipping away to nothing for another twelve hours, Lou ran his way to the head of the group and he led them on, through the long grasses, keeping a fair distance from the walls of Ilsnare so that any remaining guards on the walls wouldn’t see them.

About twenty minutes later he heard a roar of what he imagined to be a stiff breeze kicking up on their heels.

When Lou looked round, though, he saw an almighty jet of fire bursting into the sky, almost eclipsing the sun.

All of them stopped to marvel at the sight. And Lou could feel the heat of it against his cheek, just watching on. That ash carried on the boiling wind, and then, as the flames descended and the sunlight regained its dominion, he led his people onwards, across the plains.

Once they’d got a safe distance away, he slowed the pace, allowed his people to have their rest. And they trudged their way around the city, and into the midday sun without pause.