Forgotten Embers

62. Escape

Fire, ash, smoke, death... the city was in flames, as were its people. Screams pierced the night with the red tones of danger and death which pervaded the seemingly endless darkness. Men and women fled from their homes and scattered families ran panicked through the streets seeking for sanctuary, but there was none to be found from the children of darkness and their monstrous fiends as they assailed what remained of the city in violence. Blackness gripped the night, the moon red like the blood of the streets, and a single word was spoken her: "Escape."

Dorcus woke up in a sweat with her heart beating rapidly and the images of blood and flames still fresh in her mind. The scent and sound of burning wood still haunted her, as real as it had been only moments before her eyes opened. She sat up suddenly, breathing heavily, and leaned herself forward to catch her breath. 'Escape...'

"Go now. Tell Eliezer what things you have seen. Go up to Damascus. Take Jordan with you," a voice whispered the command.

"Right..." she replied softly, throwing the blankets down off of her and sliding to the edge of the bed. "Eliezer..." She placed her hands on her face, covering her eyes, and sighed. Her hands fell together, stretching her skin, and coming together until her chin rested on her thumbs and her index fingers gently crossed her lips. "Why aren't you here?" she breathed in barely a whisper. It was not so much a question as it was a lament.

She arose, lighting an oil lamp to carry with her and grabbing a white satin robe from the closet, tying it around her simple cotton night dress before opening the door. She made her way quietly down the hall, her bare feet landing lightly on the cool wooden floor, and she stopped when she came to the room where the ambassador slept.

The door was closed, and she paused, touching her hand to the finished wood with a soft smile.

'Good of you to close the door for me,' she silently assured him before closing her hand to knock, 'but that also means you're asleep, then, doesn't it?'

"Eliezer!" she called out delicately, trying to wake him. "Eliezer, please, answer me!" she called again with increased urgency as she continued knocking on the door emphatically.

There was a faint sound of rustling she could hear coming from the room, and the door opened to the sight of her friend dressed in cotton garments fit for rest with his hair a mess and weary eyes blinking as they slowly adjusted to the light of the lamp which she held.

"Dorcus... what's the matter? What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Eliezer, there's trouble. Bring Jordan. We must go. Please, up to Damascus," she told him.

"Trouble..." he said again, still trying to wake up fully. His eyes squinted, trying desperately to focus. "What sort of trouble?"

"Trouble, Eliezer!" she said again, stressing the entirety of her statement. "The trouble!" She paused, calming herself. Her hand, still clenched from knocking, had pleaded with him, still shaking as if to knock against the air in front of him. "All of it," she said in a much quieter tone, meeting his eyes with hers, and she opened her palm in front of him before collecting it again, dropping her hand to the side.

"Wait just a moment here for me. I know what the trouble is," he told her softly, lightly shaking a finger before disappearing again behind the door. He quickly returned, dressed in one of Jordan's crimson robes and carefully adjusting his newly found glasses. "There," he said with a voice of satisfaction, "now I can see you." He paused as his eyes met hers with an increased clarity of view, and he smiled at her. There was a tender fondness in his expression which caused her to be like affected, and she felt the light smile as it spread across her face before developing into a small grin. "Now, my dear," he spoke to her delicately, his voice soft and caring, "what would this trouble be?"