Eve of Enlightenment

Chapter 61

The events of the town are easy enough to glean through the bars. The cells where we are kept stand directly behind the gallows, a constant and grim reminder of our fate. Each morning, Dager stands at the pedestal, announcing the orders for the day.

Curious eyes find us in our cage, but none are allowed close. He often points to us as an example for what will become of any who disobey. The threat couldn't concern me less. I search the crowd for signs of Ohna or Teak, but their absence is the one constant.

I pray that they are safe. I hope that Mab has held her secrets. For the first time, I allow myself to wonder what has become of her. Has she been allowed to resume living in the mansion? Whatever her fate, Dager has not mentioned her. She is certainly not here with us in these shoddy holdings.

Köv continues to plot his escape. Judging by his exasperated silence, he has given up on me entirely. I can't say I miss his hurled abuses.

Without conceding his logic, I do try to find Wart. There is little else to occupy my mind in the yawning days... I struggle, however, to understand Agan's meaning.

I try to picture him in detail: his oil-slick scales, his broad shoulders and heaving barrel chest. The weight of his swishing tail. The smoke on his breath, curling from each flared nostril. I let myself envision where we last left him. In the field outside of our camp. Yet, no matter how I try, this is the extent of it. Imagination. The Wart in my mind's eye is not real, and he can't help us.

I sense it in a dream. A heartbeat. Or a drum.

Wart feels close.

But the vision fades as I open my eyes. It is then that I realize we are surrounded. Without real drums, the villages pound on whatever they have at their disposal.

"The trial beings tonight," resounds Dager's booming voice. "At midnight. Mab. My own dear daughter has come here to betray us. Along with... those," he casts a scornful glare in the direction of the jails. "Ungrateful children. They have forgotten who has raised them, cared for them, and they come back to us now, at our weakest hour, in attempt to overthrow us!"

Mab is lead onto the stage, bound in rope and gagged with cloth. Tears stream down her cheeks as her eyes meet mine. She shakes her head in what I can only assume is denial as her father continues.

"Rotten is the fruit that tries to poison the tree that gave life to it. Spoiled is the child that spurns her own father. These criminals have poured lies into my daughter's fragile mind. They have turned her against me, and they have brought... This." The crowd gasps as Wart is dragged into the clearing, muzzled with wolves nipping at his legs.

"A demon. A creature most foul. A fire-breathing beast from the depths of the earth." I can see where spears have pierced the armor of his scales and cry out in renewed pain.

"I would like to say that my daughter, an otherwise fair child, has been led astray by these blaspheming mongrels, but I know that, when it comes to leadership, there can be no weakness. What threatens our village threatens me most of all. Mab will stand trial like any other, and I will do with her what the law demands. Even if it means putting my own flesh and blood to death. I will do what it takes to see this land prosper. I will sacrifice for you in honor of all that you have sacrificed for me." Dager descends from the stage, Mab and the others in tow.

"Tonight, you will sleep with the dogs," he tells her as she is cast in to the final cell. "Enjoy it, for it will be your last." He turns to the crowd, before continuing: "Midnight!" The entourage departs, and we are left alone, nothing but the sound of Mab's sobbing to fill the void.

"I didn't tell them about Wart," she says after a time. Some hours ago, she must have clawed the cloth free. With our last hope lost, it doesn't matter to me how they found them. Only that they did.

"What about Agan?" Köv insists. "Or Teak and Ohna?"

"I haven't heard anything. I don't think he has found them."

"It would be best if they ran," I murmur. At least then some of us will survive. I hate to think of them dragged into this, too. Ohna would not even be here if not for me.

"What did they do to you?" Köv asks, ignoring me. The sullen silence that follows suggests that she has no interest in discussing it.

"They might still have a plan," he tries futilely. Sensing our dejection, he continues. "Agan would never abandon me. I just... I know that much about her. She is out there somewhere. She is going to come get us."

The hours that lead up to the end of our lives trudge forward regardless of our wishes. Köv and Mab talk quietly, while I do my best to sleep. The sun's rays, beat mercilessly into the lids of my eyes. It seems even sleep has forsaken me in my final moments. Unable to do much else, I listen to them recount happier times. I could join in, but my own version of events is disparate from theirs. While they were out on the town, I whiled away my hours at the farm. Still, I let the memories flit through my mind as if they were my own, painting pretty pictures on the canvas of my lids.

"I sensed him," I say when there is a lull in conversation. "Wart. When they brought him out here. I can feel him still. Somewhere." There is a shuffling from Köv's cell, and I stop him before any optimism can bloom. "He's stuck. But he was with them. Teak and Ohna. They are okay for now." I am unsure how I can be so certain of this, but the knowledge is unshakeable. I know it as simply as I know how to breathe.

It is such a shame that I learn to appreciate my Incarnate only when it is too late for us. Yet the thought of Teak and Ohna, those two most innocent parties, being safe is some reassurance. I don't want them to come for me. I want them to get far away from here. I want Teak to take her back to Sunia. Take Corsa and the twins. Forget about this awful place.

"They will come for us," Köv says again, though I wish he wouldn't.