Chapter Four: The Other Fire

The sound of screams and the smell of heavy smoke had awoken Kya after only an hour or two of sleep.

Farris had been quicker to react. He had already jumped to his feet and was hurrying off to investigate while Kya was left half-dazed, blinking sleep from her eyes as she struggled to collect her thoughts.

“Fire!” Someone had screamed. That had been enough to **** Kya to her feet, curiosity driving her to investigate.

She remembered pondering the cause, her first thoughts being that a gust of wind had spread a mass of embers, but as she rounded the rear of her wagon she found chaos awaiting her that was too great to have come from such humble origins.

No more than ten meters from where she had stood was a wagon engulfed in flames. A string of quick-minded people had already formed a line to transfer buckets of water from the river to the wagon but it was clear, even then, that there had been no hope of quenching the flames. All that they were capable of doing was preventing the fire from spreading further.

“Kya, stay back!” Farris had shouted from his place near the head of the line. Already coated in ash, he had appeared **** yet collected, but a single word, cried from the opposite end of the caravan, quickly filled him with equal parts dread and panic.

“Bandits!”

Kya could clearly recall the pit that had formed in her stomach throughout the moments that followed the cry. She’d turned to see the man who had bellowed the alarm pointing westwards across the dunes, to where a mighty cloud of dust was being raised in the wake of a horde of horsemen.

They’d moved swiftly over the dunes, making no effort to conceal their approach. Kya had been able to clearly hear them shouting their battle-cries from afar, their curved-blades already drawn and glinting in the moonlight as they descended upon the caravan.

As Kya had stared at the approaching threat, she’d seen from the corner of her a figure leap out from the shadows. Dressed all in black, with a heavy hood and thick gloves, he’d appeared as if out of thin air and tackled the bellowing man to the ground. There was a flash of steel and a wet thunk and suddenly the man was unable to raise the alarm for a second time.

“Farris!” Kya had screeched, turning to flee from the bandit that now rushed towards her. “Help me, please!” She’d pleaded, hurrying back towards her wagon in search of shelter.

The bandit had reached her just as she was climbing inside, his dagger biting her left calf before she could pull it away. Kya yelped and stumbled, falling to the floor of her wagon as her assailant climbed in after her.

“Please,” she pleaded again, scrambling backwards to put as much distance between her and the man as possible. Her words fell upon deaf ears. The bandit approached without hesitation, weapon raised. “Please!”

“Get away from her,” Farris had roared, reaching through the wagon’s curtain to drag Kya’s would-be-killer out by the shoulder. He threw the bandit to the ground and buried his own dagger into the man’s chest three times before addressing Kya. “We need to go, now!” He’d told her, glancing over his shoulder towards the horde. They were close, too close. The pair had had less than a minute remaining before the rest of the bandits were upon them.

“My purse,” Kya said, retreating back into her wagon.

“Coin isn’t going to help us now! We’ve no need for it!” Farris cried, attempting to draw Kya out from the wagon with a haste that betrayed his nonchalant personality. “I already have everything we need,” he’d told her, gesturing to the satchel that straddled his back. “A flask, some food, and a weapon or two; that’s all that we need.”

“We’re going to need coin eventually, unless you plan to become a beggar once we reach safety,” she had argued, drawing the purse from her trunk. She sealed it quickly with a string and tied it around her neck, stating: “there is enough in here to buy us both food and shelter for a month! That’ll give us time to get back on our feet, no matter where we end up.”

“Fine, take the coin, but we need to go! Now! Or else the only place that we’ll end up is the grave!” He’d said, gripping her hand to help her from the wagon. Following Farris’ lead the pair turned to face the desolate dunes and sprinted as fast as they could.

Behind them they heard the horde reach the caravan. Ear-piercing screams had followed them into the night, neither daring to look back out of fear of what they’d see.

“I don’t think any of them followed us,” Kya had panted, slowing her pace only once the could no longer see any light from the fire. “The dunes should hide us well enough, right? Surely they wouldn’t waste their time combing the desert for survivors.”

“Trust me, they would. All that these people care about is getting as much coin as possible; I wouldn’t be surprised if they can smell that purse around your neck.” Farris shook his head in despair. “No, we can’t assume that we’re safe here. We need to keep moving.”

“Can we at least catch our breaths a little, please?”

“Fine, just for a moment. Take this as well, just to be safe.” The former caravan master handed Kya a dagger, ornate and curiously sharp. The hilt was forged from silver, with a ruby into the hilt while the grip featured flowing scripture in a language alien to them both. The blade itself was damascus, dark and strong and boasting a pattern reminiscent of the dunes themselves. Kya had noted that it seemed moist, as if covered in some sort of oil. “I took it from that bandit that attacked you, goes to show just how much money they can make through pillaging.”

“How can someone justify using something so beautiful to do something so horrible?” Kya had asked. Try as she might to be disgusted, she found herself fascinated by the weapon. As she rolled the dagger to inspect it further she found that the scripture caught the faint light of the moon and appeared to almost glow.

“If I was to guess, I’d say it’s the same way that they justify doing horrible things to beautiful people. Monsters only care for beauty if it’s something that they can claim. They don’t respect it, they simply lust for it. When they see beauty, they see a commodity; one that they and they alone deserve. It makes me sick that-” Kya had turned to face Farris, curious as to why he paused, but she soon heard the reason. A horse could be heard approaching, its hooves thudding against the sand. It sounded so terribly close.

Farris had lifted a finger to his lips, though Kya had had no intention of speaking at that time. Slowly he’d rolled onto his stomach and crawled to the crest of the dune, taking great care as he peeked over the top.

“Run,” he’d whispered.

“What?”

“Run!” he’d echoed, this time shouting as he jumped to his feet. It was only a moment later that a stallion leapt over the crest, its hooves crashing down onto the spot where Farris had just been.

Settled into its saddle was a burly bandit with a thick, black beard. He’d looked once between Farris and Kya, as if debating his next victim, before drawing his blade and charging towards her. Kya just barely managed to scramble out of the path of his horse, adrenaline flooding her veins once more as she’d tailed after Farris, though his long legs carried him further with each stride than Kya could ever hope to match. She used what little breath she had to call out to him.

The man was quick to halt his pace once called. He turned on his heel to face both Kya and the horseman. “Keep going,” he cried to her as she drew near. “I’ll find you, I promise!”

Kya saw the dagger that Farris had held, she’d known immediately what his plan was. She wanted to stop him but her legs moved on their own accord, spurred into action by the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

As she’d sprinted past the former caravan master, she’d watched him lunge towards the bandit and his mount. A moment later she’d heard the horse squeal as its rider shouted obscenities. There had been a series of thuds and the brief sound of steel scraping against steel but she didn’t dare pause to check who was winning the fight. She’d chosen instead to maintain her breakneck pace until her legs had given out, by which time the first signs of dawn had appeared in the night sky.

Kya remembered collapsing facedown atop a dune, hopeful that the elevated position would make it easier for Farris to find her. Her throat was dry, her mouth felt clammy, and every breath that she took caused her lungs to burn from overexertion.

Her eyelids felt as heavy as stones yet she refused to let them drop without a fight. Sleeping right now would be dangerous, she thought to herself, her throat so sore that she was unable to actually speak. The sun is rising, it’ll kill me if I don’t find some sort of cover. She’d tried to move her arms and legs, to hoist herself onto all fours at least but every muscle in her body throbbed with a numb pain that left her motionless.

I can’t sleep! She’d repeated, though her warnings were in vain. Despite her best efforts she felt herself plummeting into a restless slumber just as the sun peaked over the horizon.