Antello sheathed his sword and rambled off as Lyra knelt next to Walak and checked him for injuries.
Satisfied that Walak’s only injury was a bump on the head, Lyra placed her hands on his forehead and cast a mild healing spell that would ease the pain when he woke. By the time Antello returned with the horses, Walak was rousing from his short slumber.
“What happened?” quizzed Walak as he looked up at his captors. “Where are the raiders?”
“I am afraid it was us stalking you,” offered Syman quietly. “We thought you were a raider.”
“How did you escape?” asked Lyra. “Where is your horse?”
Walak sat up and felt for the bump on his head. “I didn’t have a horse,” he answered. “My father was supposed to arrive this morning so I was not in class. I wandered into one of the empty study rooms and was gazing out the window when the screaming started.”
“I will go back and get a horse for him,” offered Antello as he tied the other horses to a tree.
Walak started shaking and crying as he related the tale. “I hid while they were killing everyone,” Walak sobbed. “After a while the raiders left for other parts of the castle and I slipped out the back and ran for the woods. They killed everybody.”
Walak’s head sunk to his cupped hands and he started sobbing uncontrollably. Syman wandered off to check the horses while Lyra sat next to Walak and put her arm around him and tried to console him. After several moments of unresponsiveness, Lyra let her mind wander to the bizarre events of the day. She wondered if anyone else managed to escape the slaughter. She hoped some did, but she knew they dared not return to find out. Letting Antello return for a horse was not even a smart thing to have done, but her mind had been focused on Walak and she hadn’t stopped to think about what might be waiting for Antello at the Academy. Lyra berated herself for another thoughtless decision. Silently, she vowed to start planning better.
Lyra’s thoughts disintegrated as the sound of riders drifted through the silent forest and she leaped to her feet. Syman quietly drew his sword and Walak scrambled away from the trail to hide. A few breathless moments later, Syman relaxed as he recognized Antello returning from the Academy with a spare horse for Walak.
“Anything amiss back there?” asked Syman.
“Nothing at all,” replied Antello. “Maybe it is all over and we can return.”
“There is no going back,” rebuked Syman. “Not ever. Have you so quickly forgotten your pledge?”
“No,” Antello smiled thinly, “I just don’t think we have to be so worried. They are not going to be bothered by a couple of students escaping.”
“I will release you from your pledge,” offered Lyra, “but I am going to Alamar. There is nothing left at the Academy for me and I must get to my uncle as quickly as possible. I understand if you want to go home. Rhodella had no right to wring that pledge out of you anyway.”
“She had every right,” Syman interjected. “Something very serious is going on and someone has to find out what it is. We are all that is left of the Academy. I would go with you without the pledge anyway, so do not blame Rhodella for asking. She did what she had to and we shall do what we have to.”
“Of course,” Antello jumped in, “I am with you too Lyra. I was just suggesting that maybe we don’t need to be so jumpy. Syman and I can handle any trouble on the trip to Alamar and I gave my pledge freely. Like Syman, I would come without the pledge. I would never desert my friends.”
“Alamar?” quizzed Walak. “Why on earth would you go to Alamar? That is on the other side of the country. We should just find the nearest Imperial Guard and tell them what happened and then go home.”
“You are free to go where you want to, Walak,” stated Lyra, “but I must go to Alamar. There is nothing the Imperial Guard can do for those at the Academy now and I have nowhere else to go but to my Uncle Temiker. I promised Rhodella that I would, so I will.”
“You are welcome to ride with us for as long as it suits you, Walak,” Syman added. “We have enough provisions for the four of us. Whatever your decision, we should be moving along now. We have wasted too much time already and I think the raiders will check this trail sooner or later. We should be well gone when they do.”
Walak looked around nervously as the others mounted their horses and quickly joined them. “Well, you are going in the same direction,” he feebly stated. “I think I will ride with you for a while.”
Antello took the lead as the four students rode quietly down the forest trail, each lost in his own thoughts of the events of the morning. Several hours later, Antello paused briefly as the trail split. Lyra directed him to take the left fork towards the village and they continued on in silence. Lyra remembered her vow to anticipate and plan and starting visualizing the small village. She recalled that the raiders said they were going to the village and she did not intend to stumble into them. Silently, she pictured where the trail would enter the village and thought about how they could tell if the raiders were still there. Finally, she whistled softly and when she had Antello’s attention, she signaled for him to stop.
“I am concerned about raiders in the village,” she explained. “I want to stop before we get to the village so we don’t stumble into a trap. There is a farm a short distance before the village. I want to stop there and talk to Aguara, the farmer, but I also want to check out his farm before we are seen. Let me lead for a while.”
Antello quietly nodded as Lyra moved to the front of the procession. Everyone remained silent as the afternoon wore on and it was approaching dusk as the farm came into view. Lyra halted the little group and everyone dismounted. Lyra walked off through the trees to a small hill that offered a good view of the farm. Slowly she scanned the farm. Syman drew alongside her and gently touched her arm to let her know he was there.
“Something is not right,” Lyra declared. “Aguara should be in the fields, but nobody is in sight.”
“Not exactly true,” grimaced Syman. “Look at the barn. I see at least four figures standing in the shadows inside. How many people live here?”
“Just three,” frowned Lyra. “Aguara, his wife, and a son. I see the people you are talking about. I would have missed them.”
“You were wise in checking,” smiled Syman. “Keep watching. I will break out some food. We haven’t had anything to eat since we left the Academy.”
Lyra only nodded as she peered at the barn. She hadn’t even thought about eating, but now that Syman had mentioned it, she was very hungry. Dismissing her newfound hunger pains, she considered Aguara’s farm and the presence of the fourth person. It could be just a visitor or neighbor she realized, but the thought did nothing to quell the rising sense of fear that was building within her. If the raiders were still in the village, how safe were they this close to the village? Would the raiders think to check the trails in the forest near the village?
Syman returned with bread and strips of dried meat and they ate in silence while watching the barn for any changes. Lyra nearly choked on her food when the four people exited the barn and made their way to the house. Four dark clad raiders opened the front door and entered the house as if it was their own. Lyra fought the fear rising in her chest as she frantically started searching the rest of the farm for more dark clad figures.
Chapter 3
Puzzles of Thought
The sky was turning black when Antello and Walak crept up the hill to join Syman and Lyra. Lyra had not spotted any other raiders on the farm, but the four that entered the farmhouse had not left either.
“It bothers me that we have not seen the farmer or his family,” Lyra muttered almost to herself.
“Perhaps they are in the farmhouse,” offered Syman. “When it is dark I can go down to have a look.”
“Are you crazy?” Walak almost screamed. “We shouldn’t be within a hundred leagues of here. I say we get out of here now while we can. You saw what they did at the Academy.”