They looked down into the blackened destruction that had been Corlan's camp. It was hard for Lindsay to immediately process what she was seeing. At the center of the charred clearing were the remains of a large structure that had probably been the main dining tent. She could see broken beams and bits of cloth and tables and then she saw, among the pieces of wood, a bone, blackened, sticking up between two broken beams.
Her eyes followed it to the rest of the body. And then bodies and bones were all she could see, everywhere, littering the ground. And tiktiks. Swarming around them like flies. Tearing pieces of flesh off the carcasses, leaving faces half flesh, half skull, eyeless, lipless...
"Oh God!" Lindsay turned just in time to throw up. Donil rubbed her back.
"Do you know where they might go?" Donil asked Veralosa.
Veralosa squinted into the hills. "There are some caves maybe a mile north of here. If they were able to get out, they would head there."
"Then we should go there first. Lindsay, are you feeling up to checking the camp?"
"Yeah," Lindsay said, wiping her mouth.
"You don't have to, Veralosa and I can handle it ourselves."
"No, I'm good."
They made their way down, picking through the wreckage. Lindsay tried not to look as she brushed things aside with her feet. It was all just wood and sticks, she told herself. That was all, wood and sticks.
Then her foot hit against something hard and round. Instinctively, she looked down. Horror buzzed down her brain to her spine, her vision went black for an instant as she stared into the empty eye sockets of a skull. She wanted to cry out, to stop, to go back up the hillside, but Veralosa and Donil kept moving, unfazed. No, she could do this.
Veralosa suddenly stopped causing Lindsay to bump into him.
"What is it?" Donil asked.
"It's my father," Veralosa said, turning over a body.
Lindsay looked over to a place that was somewhat familiar and yet strange. Whatever fire had raged that night burned the crates and tents that had stood at the place Corlan fell until it was unrecognizable to her, as was Corlan himself except for his armor. Most of his face was mottled with the early signs of decay, except the half that had been exposed to the elements; that had been eaten to the bone, the eye long gone. As she looked at it, there was a weird pulsing under the other eye. Suddenly, a tiktik burst through the eyelid and snarled angrily at having been disturbed.
Lindsay spun away, holding her fist to her mouth. Donil placed a hand on her shoulder. "We should see if we can find the nursery."
Lindsay remembered the child in her vision. "Donil, I don't think we'll find anything there."
"I know. But we should give him a moment." She indicated with her head to Veralosa.
"Ok."
They tramped along a path toward where the nursery might be. Pushing aside some tree branches, Lindsay jumped back. A Nobillo stared at her with giant, milky eyes, its needle-toothed jaw wide open, ready to attack! It took her a moment to realize it wasn't moving, and another to register why.
A huge sharpened log had impaled it from the side. Purple blood stained the ground below, surrounded by a rim of tiktik prints. Its wings hung limply behind it, tips brushing the earth.
"At least the trap worked," Donil said.
"They're all going to be dead," Lindsay said. She felt numb.
Donil touched her hip. "I know, but we need to check. Even an egg would deserve to be saved."
They walked on until they reached the nursery. It was half-collapsed in on itself though it had been spared the fire. "I don't like this," Donil said as they approached the darkened door. "Watch your step. It looks like it might go at any second."
Lindsay nodded in agreement.
Light sliced through the darkness of the nursery through cracks where the ceiling had caved in. Lindsay could see, in the corner, where the two nurses were, half-sitting against the wall in a pool of gold, their hips ripped from their sockets, everything from their ribcage down completely hollow. Golden Nobillo tracks led from them into the main building. Lindsay focused her eyes on the tracks, smeared along the wooden floors, golden lines from bloody wing tips trailing behind.
"There's nothing left," Donil said as she checked the cribs.
"No," Lindsay agreed, picking up a large panel of wood from a crib.
She gasped. Her vision blackened. Underneath the wood was the chubby blue arm of a baby. Just the arm. The wood must have fallen on it and rather than bother to remove the panel, the Nobillo just tore its arm off.
It was too much! Her stomach heaved. Tears stung her eyes. She fought to wipe them before Donil could see but they just kept coming. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Lindsay, go to the top of the hill and keep a lookout."
"But I can do it!" she objected.
"No, you can't," Donil said, firmly. "And there's no reason you should. You don't have to be a hero; you already are one. For your sake and mine, give yourself a break. It's not going to get any easier."
"Ok," Lindsay said, still unsuccessfully fighting back tears. "But if you need me, call me."
"I will," Donil said.
Lindsay walked out of the nursery and back up the hill in a daze. She wanted to do something, something more than just standing there being useless. She wanted to go to the palace; she could do that. Find out some important detail to keep this from ever happening again.
But if Prince Rivuk caught her... Maybe she'd just go to see him, yell at him until she ran out of words. Make him read her mind so he could see what they had done.
But no. She couldn't. She'd promised Donil. Breaking a promise to her in less than a day? Not only that, she wasn't especially keen on testing the prince's resolve. The sun glinted off the stone into her eye, momentarily blinding her. Then she had an idea, perhaps there was something she could do.
------------------------------------
She'd seen them going this way, the woman and her baby. That there even was a baby to be saved made her all the more determined. She ran the way she'd watched them go, west, away from the caves. The woman looked terrified, like something was chasing her, but Lindsay hadn't seen anything.
She heard a loud rustling up ahead. "Stop!" she cried. "The Bona Serat Corsar sent us."
The rustling stopped and Lindsay approached slowly. "It's ok, it's ok. We're here to help." She could see the woman now, she hadn't stopped intentionally, she was cornered against a large rock wall face.
"What is the name of the Bona Serat Corsar?" the woman demanded, trying to see where Lindsay was.
"Sirix. And he sent us to find you."
"Who are you?"
"Indsayee." Lindsay stepped from the brush into the woman's sight.
"You're the yooman!"
Lindsay nodded, not sure how the woman felt about her relationship with Sirix. Hopefully, not as bitter as Kadax or there wouldn't be much she could do. "I am."
"He sent his consort? For us?"
"Yes. I mean, I volunteered."
The woman fell to her knees. "Thank you! Thank you both!"
Duck! Lindsay slammed down to her knee. Something heavy flew above her. She felt the back of her shirt tear. She was up in an instant, unsheathing her harpoon from her back. She threw it instinctively to where the thing landed. There was a dull thunk and a shriek of pain.
"So, you want to attack a girl from behind?" She pulled out a second harpoon and pushed through the brush. "That was my favorite shirt!"
There was the Nobillo, pinned to a tree through his midsection by her harpoon.
She pulled out her knife. "I've got some questions for you, and, unlike Carak, I won't be patient."
