The Dusk Mother

Two weeks later Elise found herself stowed away onto another wagon filled with real refugees of the war. Without armed guards, and being so close to the coast no one, not even the Scarlet Knights gave her a second look.

She spent those two weeks in near solitude never speaking to anyone except to ask how much further. She slept most nights curled up in the corner of the cart. When she woke every morning, there was always stale bread and water waiting for her in a basket left over by the soldiers.

When she wasn sleeping or eating, she sat staring out at the war torn lands as the passed by. The destruction and devastation was beyond words. Buildings lay in ruins, trees were uprooted, crops destroyed, livestock killed, and bodies, so many bodies littered the land.

For days she watched as thousands upon thousands of people fled northward. Most of them were peasants displaced by the war. Those who were lucky enough to escape without injury were either traveling with carts laden down with possessions or walking alongside the road carrying nothing at all.

Most of them traveled in groups; women and children together, men alone, families huddled together in rickety tents.

They weren allowed to travel southward past the wall because the armies of the Scarlet Knights were stationed there.

One day after three weeks of constant traveling, Elise noticed a large army of southern soldiers bearing the sigil of the Ashen phoenix in unison with them down the main. They likely were reinforcements meant to capture the castle Reverence. But there was not much point. Much like its sister castle in the Allanian lands called Everstone, Reverence had been built by the Zolans, and was impenetrable. Likely the soldiers would be enforcing a siege.

All Elise could do was watch helplessly as the troops marched past her caravan as she recalled the months leading up to the war.

She remembered seeing her father in the great hall of Reverence preparing for battle with his brother, the King of Mervil. She also remembered hearing the sounds of swords clashing, armor rattling, and the shouts of soldiers calling out orders. She remembered standing beside her mother and watching as her older brothers prepared themselves for the fight, though they died before the night was over.

The very thought of that night caused her stomach to knot painfully and her heart to ache terribly. She wanted to cry but couldn find any tears. All she could do was sit quietly and stare blankly at the passing scenery.

Why had the war even happened? Why did her father insist on fighting? What difference would it make if he lost? Wasn it obvious already that he would lose?

A few miles ahead of her, Elise saw a column of smoke rising high into the sky and recognized it immediately as the burning remains of a city shed once visited.

There were several hundred buildings completely engulfed in flames and dozens of smaller fires dotted about the city. Smoke billowed into the air thick and heavy. Blackened skeletons of charred bodies hung limply from the roofs of ruined houses.

Elise shuddered at the sight of it. How horrible it must have been for the people trapped inside. To die in such a way …

That evening when the moon rose overhead, Elise overheard one of the Knights conversations

”Seems the Inaresh are withdrawing their support after what happened at Reverie Castle. ”

”Reaver Castle, ” corrected someone else.

”Whatever, ” grumbled the guard. ”Still… To think someone managed to kill over thirty of them… Im surprised we didn get caught up in it too. ”

”Well, I guess the gods favored us. Captain Varlans men were the ones who found em, ” said the soldier.

”The head of the 3rd division? ” asked the first voice. ”I heard he marched on Reverence. ”

”He did, ” answered the other.

”Did he manage to take it? ” inquired the first.

”No, but he got close. The castle was well-defended. We lost almost fifty knights during the assault. If it hadn been for the fact that they sent word for reinforcements we might have taken their place. ”

”And the reinforcements came? ”

”Yes, just yesterday. And now here come the rest of the divisions. ”

”And theres still no word on the Kings whereabouts? ”

”No… And he isn at Castle Reverence either. No one knows how he managed to escape without being caught! ”

”Well, now that the Al Inar and Grimoire Council are involved it seems like the wars nearly over. Thats why being summoned to Thorow, to deal with the refugee situation. ”

”Good… Can wait to get back home, ” replied the first voice.

As the conversation turned to other topics, Elise stared off into space wondering what had happened to her Uncle, the King. Had he escaped somehow? Or worse yet, had he perished in battle? Though, it mattered little. The Kingdom of Mervil was finished. It wouldn matter where her uncle ended up anymore. There was no kingdom to rule over anyway.

It was then that Elise realized that she had been crying again. She wiped away the tears and tried to dry her cheeks. She closed her eyes and tried to relax herself, though it seemed that many of the refugees had gotten sick from the journey. She knew that sickness was going to spread quickly among them, especially since the weather had begun to turn colder.