‘Allaigna’s Song: Oburakor ~ The Killing Ground’ by JM Landels

It was a good ten minutes of forced jog before the smudge resolved into the shape of a building, and another five before it was evident the building was ruined. We slowed, all of us breathing hard by now and coughing on the dust-filled air.

It was a keep — a single square tower, half the height it must once have been. No doubt its roof and floors were long since gone, but at least it had walls.

If the wind had been blowing the other way, if our noses hadn’t been clogged with dust, we probably would have smelled it first. Instead it was the Ilvani woman who stumbled into the mouth of the keep then reeled back into us, gagging.

The light was failing as the sand closed in and the sun sank lower, but there was just enough of it to reveal the gruesome sight within. The square enclosure was drenched in blackened blood, from the four walls to the broken stone floor to the bodies — and parts of bodies — strewn about like so much unwashed laundry. Flies, safe from the wind, made their own counterpart to the howling sand outside. It was all I could do to not vomit on the spot, and I held my hand over my mouth, retching as I scanned the ramparts from the doorway.

The ruined walls seemed to hold no obvious threats. I looked at Redbeard, who’d reached my side in the doorway a second after me, and then at Goff on my other side. I could see the same question in each of their eyes: whether to take shelter in the scene of this massacre, not knowing what caused it — and if its author was still around — or whether to continue to flee the sand storm in hope of finding an alternative?

It pleased me to see that the short-haired woman had moved left and was stringing her small bow as she peered around the outside corner of the building. The Chriani lookalike was doing the same to the right. Well trained, these ones, whoever they were.

Hand still over my mouth, I motioned Goff to follow the woman and circle to the far side to check for threats. He and I both had trained with Brandishear forces, and he knew the signals common between Rangers and Knights. But would he take orders from me?

He did, not questioning except for the back-of-the-mind look his eyes hadn’t lost since we met. I motioned for the Ilvani woman to take the right, wondering if she would comprehend. But it seemed she knew more than the average Ilvani of our military protocol. I couldn’t worry about that now.

I motioned Redbeard and we stepped through the door. I didn’t string my bow, wanting instead to have a sword in hand. We circled away from each other, stepping carefully over the carnage. When we converged again by the far wall and nothing had moved except the flies, we met each other’s eyes. With unspoken assent, we began picking our way amongst the bodies to see if any of them were whole enough to have a chance of being alive.