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Seneca nodded past Neo. “Go as far as you can that way and I’ll go this way.”
Neo shuffled to his right, inching closer with each lateral step.
As a Tamurian paced across the corner, Neo knelt and directed his Sword. No one else came, and no watch towers faced his direction.
The Tamurian continued marching and Neo crept forward until he stood ten yards from the edge of the tree-line.
He aimed his Sword at the Tamurian’s back and swung right to left. The Tamurian flew into the trees, his pale-blue military uniform exposing him against the wooded backdrop.
The Tamurian scrambled to his feet, eyes darting every which way, and drew his Sword. Neo hit the Tamurian with a second whirlwind, this time blowing him against a tree trunk, where he crumbled.
Across from Neo, a second Tamurian ran toward him, waving his arms.
Neo stepped forward and delivered a whirlwind just as Seneca jetted out of the man’s neck.
Neo froze. “Whoa!”
Seneca shifted her weight and blew the Tamurian against the adjacent tree where Neo’s victim lay. She looked to Neo and gave a shy smile. “Thought I’d try it.”
Neo’s jaw hung open. “Mind telling me what that was?”
Seneca walked toward the men. “Possession. Not many fifteen-year-olds can do that these days. Definitely not those succumbing to the State’s ways where Spirit has long been considered Taboo unless you happen to be a high-ranking member of the Tamurian military.”
“Rare, in other words.”
Seneca nodded. “Among us Eureans. I’m sure those who haven’t yet succumbed to the iron claw of Statist-propaganda are different. For instance, in the Lands Beyond the Western End of the World. I’m sure they have top-notch Spirit travelers.”
“Maybe we’ll find out one day.” Neo advanced on the fallen Tamurians, who stirred on the ground. “Should I go extreme?”
Seneca held out a hand. “May I? Give them a little bit of a revenge from an Untouchable?”
Neo handed her the Sword. “Do what you have to do, and I’ll keep watch.” He turned, where Tamurians continued encircling the Palace before Seneca tapped him on the back. “What?”
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t. If they scream, we’re done for. As much as I’d like to, it’s not worth the risk.”
“Yeah, but we still have to—”
Seneca held up her hand. She walked a few yards into the forest and picked up a rock the size of a human skull. “Actually, I’ve a better idea.” She stepped over a fallen Tamurian, raised the rock over her head, and slammed it into the man’s temple.
The man groaned and convulsed, but within seconds, lay still.
The second Tamurian, upon seeing what Seneca had just done, climbed on all-fours, but Neo again slammed him against a tree with a wind gust.
Seneca scooped the rock, wiped the blood on the earth, and proceeded to slam it into the second Tamurian’s skull. “Hope you don’t mind a little bit of blood on your clothes?”
Neo shrugged. “My back’s still on fire and I guarantee some of those blisters had already opened. I don’t mind blood.” He knelt and tore off the Tamurian’s cloak, draping it over himself.
Seneca dragged the other Tamurian’s corpse a few yards away and did the same. “Hey, can I see your Sword? I need to find a way to cover my hands.”
Five minutes later, they waited for the other Tamurians to advance before entering the premises.
Tamurians stood scattered in front of and on the other side of the Palace, which stood atop a hill overlooking Tamuria City below them.
Neo leaned into Seneca. “Which way’s home?”
“I snuck into the Palace that night from the back, right where we were just a few minutes ago. I flew up from down here.” She walked over to the bank, as other Tamurians greeted them with smiles and nods.
Neo followed her tracks. “I think we’re okay. It doesn’t seem they have a clue.”
She waved him forward. “Let’s get out of here while we still can.”
They crept down the hill, greeting any other Tamurian soldier marching their way.
Seneca grabbed his hand. “We have to travel down one more hill and we’ll be able to see the huts and fields.” She stopped and tore off her cloak. “We don’t need them to think we’re Tamurians, either.” She shivered and looked back to the hill. “And it looks like we’re good to go.”
Neo followed suit and returned his Sword to its sheath.
Seneca scrambled down another hill. Her walk morphed into a jog, which became a run, and after another few seconds, a sprint. She turned and increased her speed to the point Neo trailed least twenty yards behind.
As Neo turned another corner, he almost ran into her. “What’s wrong?”
She took a step back, gazing into the fields, eyes widening.
In front of Neo lay a barren wasteland. Not a single hut stood. In fact, single fragments of framework remained, burned to a crisp. The trees, crops, everything else burned away along with them. Scattered across the ground and torn apart, rested charred remains of human flesh.
Seneca put a hand to her mouth and drew a breath.
“Sen?”
She shook her head and her knees gave out.
Neo caught Seneca and guided her to the ground.
She clung to Neo as if he were a raft in the middle of a sea providing her sole hope for survival, shaking. “Oh, dear Gaia.” She closed her eyes and buried her head in a hand.
Neo tightened his grip around her shoulders. It’s times like these where all the power in Gaia, or in Neo’s case, a nation, vanished. No one had the power to reverse the line of time. Neither a Prince nor a King.
Seneca lifted her head. “They...they just...” She shook more than ever in his arms for another minute or so before finding the strength to stand.
Neo kept a grip on one of her arms in case she collapsed again.
She led him deep into the fields, passing burned skeletons, dead crops, and hundreds of fallen huts. After a half-hour of hiking, she stopped in front of a hut where two smoldering sticks stood among the wreckage.
She pulled Neo into the confines of the tiny place, where three mangled bodies lay. One around her size and two which appeared deformed and hunch-backed. She fell to her knees once again and leaned over the two deformed bodies.
Neo knelt beside Seneca as she ran a finger over the bits of cloth that hadn’t burned away.
She turned over and sat with her knees tucked in, looking to the gray sky, eyes brimming.
Neo sat next to her and she fell into his shoulder, tears streaming down her face, squeezing his hand in a vice grip.
For an hour lasting an eternity, Neo held her close with his free arm as she wept nonstop into his shoulder.
Sickening. Absolutely sickening, for anyone, even a tyrant like Ruslan, to have ordered such a genocide. For what? For what? Killing people he brands enemies as a show of force? What was Ruslan’s reason?
Neo shook his head and pulled Seneca closer. This evil man, for no apparent reason, killed his own people, because the voiceless craved a voice, which was never heard, and their government decided to exterminate them. Ruslan, and the entire House of Romanoff, were disgusting human beings.
After at least another hour, she peeked at him, face beyond flushed. She tightened her grip in his hand. “Thanks, Neo—for just—being here.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“I—I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
She indicated herself with her free hand. “For just breaking down.”
“Sen, anyone would’ve felt this way.”
She stood and helped him to his feet. “No. From what King Ruslan wrote in his letter I should’ve expected it. The man’s ruthless. Of course, they’d use them for fodder. What else would the State want them for? They’d say something like, ‘This will happen to everyone else if they mess with us, look at what we did to the Untouchables.’ Oh, I guarantee you it’s not just here. I bet they did this to all of them.”
“Just to prove a point? Sen, that’s barbaric.”
She walked to her sister’s corpse and ran a finger over it. “No. It’s the fact they see some people, Untouchables more than anyone else, as objects. As ways to get a point across. Neo, Tamuria isn’t fooling around.” She drew a breath and looked to him before staring off into the hills, where the Palace’s top turrets were just visible. “I’m not letting them get away with this.” She scanned the wrecked area again. “One day, King Ruslan will pay. I don’t know when, but he will pay.” She stormed from the hut.
Neo hurried after her. “Are you going to be okay?”
She folded her arms and bit her lip. “I just want to—”
A convoy of horses pulling wagons containing men and women bound to one another entered the area, heading for the hills of Tamuria City.
The lead man cracked a whip onto his victims’ flesh. “Ddraigoch spies. Your crime is an act of war and your death sentence of beheading awaits.”
Seneca glared after them.
The man laughed as the spies, more likely tradespeople, screamed in agony, their cries echoing off the hills. “We’ll see how much King Irvin likes it when our army gathering at the Strait invades The Palace at Radyr. Your King will pay for his crimes.”
Neo’s hand found his Sword. “You say something about revenge, Sen?”
Still glowering, Seneca nodded. “Let’s ruin this thing.”