“It was a nightmare,” Will went on. “Bodies piled in the streets. Left to rot, swarming with flies. Worms. I nearly threw up from the smell. From the sight of it.”
His words pulled the memory from where I’d buried it.
And suddenly, I was there again.
I saw them.
The faces of the people I had loved.
Bloated. Broken. Unrecognizable where they’d fallen.
Forgotten. Abandoned. Left for the worms.
There would be no flowers. No carved stones. No one to remember them.
Just a number in a history book.
The sacking of Novil.Estimated dead: three hundred.
If anyone bothered to count.
The tears escaped before I could gather myself, small and traitorous.
“No, please don’t cry, dear,” Iria said gently, her voice thick with sympathy. She leaned forward and reached for my hand. “You’re safe now. You’re safe here.”
But I wasn’t. Not really. Not anywhere in Vestance.
“You can both stay as long as you need,” she added, squeezing my fingers.
“I think a few nights will be enough,” Will answered before I could say anything. “I promised Kera we’d head south.”
Iria looked at me again, curious but kind.
“Do you have family in the south, Kera?”
I shook my head.
“It's not Vestance. That’s good enough,” Will explained.
“Yet,” Iria remarked.
Yet.
Like it was only a matter of time.
What was stopping King Devore and his Vultures from going south too?
The Wall?
Nowhere was safe from monsters.
“I’ll make sure you have everything you need. Horses, food and gold. It’s a long journey.”
“I'm aware,” Will said, his eyes flickering toward me.
“Thank you.” I managed.Always polite. Always grateful.Maybe I had taken my old life for granted. Maybe that’s why the gods had punished me in every way imaginable.
“No trouble at all, dearie,” Iria replied with a soft smile. “Now, let me see if I can find some blankets and clean sheets for the guest rooms.”
