Page 51 of Red Demon

Galen and Atalia exchanged a worried glance, then looked to the red-faced governor. They’d made him promise, by this point, to let the elders do all the talking, but Solonstrong didn’t seem to find this an easy task. I knew the Pathfinder was a title from when Attiq-ka ruled the Nara: a seat on their council. There was no Pathfinder anymore.

“What is the warning, Elder?” Galen asked.

The girl’s lips barely moved as she repeated, her voice flat, “Flee south to the Bend, or east as far as Uyr Elderven. Do not go west, or east past Baren Golkhi. Your khels will fail and the ruren-sa will take you. Leave today. Move fast and do not linger.”

Ruren-sa translated to “ghost demons.” Ice pricked the back of my neck at that. I didn’t know which type of khels that Z’har priests placed on the temple, but the magical barrier on our town wall kept ghosts from coming in. The girl stared, calm and passive like she was drugged, experiencing none of the urgency she demanded of us.

“Thank you, Elder. Why should we avoid north and west?”

“It’s a trap,” Solonstrong said, low enough where only I and the people beside him could hear.

“Flee south to the Bend, or east as far as Uyr Elderven. Do not go west, or east past Baren Golkhi. Your khels will fail and the ruren-sa will take you. Leave today. Move fast and do not linger,” the girl repeated, in the same tone as before.

Frustration and desperation flickered in the governor’s eyes. “We need to bring her inside for questioning.”

Galen and Atalia said nothing. I’m not even sure they heard the governor with so much we all had to think about right then.

The governor leaned over to his guards below. “Seize the rebel. Bring her here!”

Austin, the stocky black-haired guard, looked up. “The ghost?”

“Now!” Solonstrong ordered.

Austin hustled to the button on the wall. Falma covered her brown hair with a helmet and took a place beside him, the same guard whose sword I’d broken on Ash’s. I’d made her a better one since, which she unsheathed now.

The gate creaked open. The child rolled her head up. I held my breath.

“No!” Galen yelled. “Do not open that gate!”

“Continue! Seize her,” Governor Solonstrong countermanded. The guards strode out in unison, grabbing the child’s thin arm in rough grips as she tried to run away with stilting steps. The child stiffened, wailing in their arms. Guards held her shoulders on either side as they dragged her. Falma looked up at Solonstrong, questioning, as she and Austin dragged the child forward.

“Niire Mai!” Galen’s scream vibrated in my chest.

Never harm, he said, but I didn’t see how they were harming her.

“The law is above your superstitions!” the Governor growled.

Just inside the gate, the girl stiffened, her body convulsing as if struck by lightning. “No—No, Elders,” she grated out.

“You are killing a child!” Galen rumbled, his words carrying over the restless crowd as he ran down to the stairs. “Take her outside! She has not harmed us!”

The guards paused after one more step, but neither appeared shocked. A low, guttural sound escaped the girl’s throat as her eyes rolled back and stilled.

Austin let go. The child crumbled in Falma’s arms, who lowered her to the ground, unmoving.

The crowd closed in. Atalia was the first to check the child’s neck for a pulse, taking a sharp breath in as Galen and I joined her, the Governor behind.

“They killed her,” Atalia said.

“How?” Solonstrong blinked down at her body.

“Because that was an Attiq-ka ghost you dragged through the khel, you black voided simpleton,” Galen said, and I heard the ring of Istaran flying from its sheath before I forced my face away from the girl. Galen held it glowing to the governor’s neck as Atalia drew her blade on Falma.

I drew my blade too, shaking as I took position across from Austin. Around us on the walls, all Asri glared and shouted, supporting their elders.

“You—you cannot threaten a governor,” Solonstrong protested.

“Tell the queen we need a new governor then,” Galen said, pressing the blade closer as Solonstrong stepped back. “Because if I thought for one moment you understood what you just did, you’d be bleeding out already. It is no sin to kill a demon.”