Page 80 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 80- HESTAN

W e had made it to the Palace gates.

So had hundreds of other people.

Kaspian and I tirelessly shoved through the throng, several of them allowed us to pass, simply for his presence.

Or that they thought we could do something about the closed gates before us.

There were hundreds of people at them, at least three dozen at the front, banging on the thick wood with their fists, begging, making pleas through sobs to be let in.

“I have children!”

“You can’t do this! They’ll slaughter us!”

“OI, CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT’S GOING ON DOWN HERE?”

They blended into a cacophony of mournful beseeching, a chorus of sorrow.

The boy, who was now half perched on my left shoulder, as my arm rested under his legs, stared around warily. He tugged at my hair.

He pointed towards the top of the gate.

Dyna was standing there.

My face hardened. What was she doing? Why had she been sent here? Had she been forced, or had she come of her own free will? If so…why her? Where was the King?

I pressed through the crowd to get closer.

“My Lady!” I yelled at her.

She turned to the sound of my voice. Her face momentarily relaxed in relief. She wouldn’t have known if I’d survived.

I hadn’t known if she had survived either, seeing her alive brought me a small piece of calm.

She faced away from me and turned the crowd.

“The King has sent me here to tell you he cannot open the gates. There are people here in Reyaru as well, and if these gates are opened, their lives will be—"

“What about our lives?!” someone screamed.

“Why should they get shelter and not us?”

“Just because they could afford to live behind the gates! Is that what makes them worth saving?”

“Please…please!” Dyna raised her palms, attempting to quieten the crowd. “The King cannot open the gates, but he intends to send out warriors to help defend you, and give you weapons to help you defend yourselves!”

I frowned, it was unlike Dunlan to hide behind walls and gates, to ask others to fight on his behalf.

“So, the King wants us to do his fighting for him!” someone protested.

“His quarrel with Vasara wasn’t our doing!” someone else exclaimed.

“Please understand!” Dyna sighed. She still appeared weathered and worn from the journey to the Palace. “We cannot allow them to breach these gates.”

“What about the outer gates? They’ve already breached those! Both of them!”

“Wake up, girl! They’re already inside!”

“If these gates are stronger…why not let us in! What are we out here dying for?”

Jeers of agreement spread throughout the space. People raised their fists, their words and voices blurring into indiscernible sentences.

Kaspian hollered to me over the noise. “Still believe your King gives a shit about us now?”

“He’s your King too,” I reminded him.

“What kind of King lets his people die for nothing?”

“Everyone! Please stay calm!” Dyna fumbled, turning from left to right. “The King will—"

Silence.

I felt myself shatter into a thousand pieces.

No angry words of protest. Not a single remark of disdain. No cries, not even from the children. Nothing.

No sound, save for the impact of the arrow that protruded from Dyna’s chest. She opened her mouth silently, glaring at her torso as a red sea grew and grew and grew underneath her pale clothing.

She tumbled forwards, clutching at her chest.

And fell two feet away from me to the ground.

I didn’t realise I was shaking until the boy in my arms placed his hands on my shoulders to steady himself.

The crowd erupted into wild chaos.

Screaming, so violent and loud swarmed all around us. The villagers became frantic, spinning around. They knew the attackers had caught up, that there was nowhere left to go.

Several of them resumed their pleas for mercy, clutching at the wood, scratching at it, their nails leaving marks, but their fists denting nothing.

Their feet paid no heed to Dyna’s corpse.

I stepped forwards reaching out to her lifeless form on the ground, my hand trembling.

Someone grabbed my clothes from the back and yanked me away.

Another arrow, this time in the nape of a man whose profile I had just been covering.

Kaspian let go of my clothing. “Are you trying to get killed?

I lunged forwards. “Dyna—"

“Is dead. What’s the use in you dying too?”

Dyna…was dead.

The screams that moments ago had been so loud were instantly drowned out.

I was instantly immersed in a hollow empty blankness…

Until Kaspian yanked me backwards again.

The same noise we had heard less than an hour ago had returned. A herd of horses blazed towards us.

Blazed towards a crowd, standing on their feet.

People sensing the inevitable, grew even more frightened. Their shrieks increased in volume, some piercing, some howling, some heavy, some raked with tears.

The smell of smoke and fire surrounded us, the shadows of the oncoming army, crossbows in hand, cast over us. There was no light, there was no wind, only stale darkness, thick with terror.

I grabbed the spear from behind my back, and pushed through the crowd, with great difficulty. Everyone was trying to get as far to the edge of the horde as possible. Kaspian followed, without it seemed, really understanding why.

Just as the horses began to flatten and crush those at the very edge of the mass, I moved forwards and threw my spear at a point along the outer edge of the gate. It embedded itself in the wood. I flung myself upwards and grabbed it, climbing onto it, balancing whilst holding the boy in my arms.

“Hurry!” I yelled at Kaspian. There was enough room for two on the length of it, and it was sturdy enough to carry us both.

Kaspian did as I asked and thrust himself up. Several people around us, who wielded swords or spears, found points along the outer gate to do the same.

But the majority had no time, weren’t near enough, or did not carry an adequate weapon.

The horses flew through the crowd of several hundred within the space of seconds.

Within those seconds, the soldiers atop them had pounded countless lives into the ground, their bodies into pulp.

He sat at the front of the troop, and just as he approached the centre of the gate, he raised a crossbow, and fired at its centre, with perfect aim.

Vasara's King.

Athlion's King.

An explosion raged through the atmosphere. The noise smothering out all other sounds. A gigantic hole was blasted through the thick and sturdy material, a material nobody had yet been able to breach. How had he done it? The gate had been impenetrable, the people’s assuredness in its strength absolute. But now, it had fallen as if it had been nothing more than a silken veil.

The impact of the blow vibrated through the wood, and threw several who were standing on their weapons off them. Myself included.

I grabbed it as I fell, the boy and I hanging from it. The fall wouldn’t kill us due to its height, but should we fall to the ground, we would be trampled to death within seconds. I glanced down briefly, to see exactly that happening to some who hadn’t managed to stay atop their makeshift perches.

With my right arm around the spear, and my left still around the boy, I ground my teeth and raised the boy up.

“Take…him…” I told Kaspian. I was beginning to sweat profusely from the effort.

Kaspian hesitated for a moment, then did so. He reached out his right hand to help me up moments later.

From up here, and now the horses had passed, the devastation they had created, the death, was even more visible.

But Dyna’s body no longer was.