Palina wrapped her arms around Roden as the sounds to the north intensified.

​

Amongst the crowd, only one man moved. Cafel raised his torch and took a few paces north... He paused briefly, looked back and found that no-one had decided to accompany him. With a scowl, Cafel turned away from his fearful companions and moved off with more outward boldness than he truly felt.

​

Roden and the others watched Cafel’s form diminish into obscurity and vanish except for the dim glow of his torch. One heartbeat longer and even the torchlight was gone.

​

A feeling of guilt stung Roden. He should not have let the barkeep go off and investigate on his own. Hefting his own torch, Roden unwound Palina from his hips and began to pace northward.

​

“Roden – don’t–” Palina started.

​

Ignoring her, Roden called instead: “Cafel! Cafel, I’m coming...”

​

There was no reply – or had the answer been lost amongst the now-manic swooping sounds filling the air?

​

“Cafel?” Roden raised his voice to a shout. “Are you all right?”

​

At ten paces from the bonfire, Roden was re-joined by Palina. She whispered nervously: “I want to stay with you...”

​

“Good.” He put his right arm around the woman’s waist to comfort her. “We’ll be fine...”

​

They moved carefully, peering hard until their eyes stung from the effort. Total blackness seemed ready to swallow them up and was only held off by the torch Roden bore in front of the pair.

​

“Cafel! Cafel, will you answer me..?”

​

After twenty paces, Palina spotted a vague shape on the floor ahead of them. Something dimly recognizable, even with their poor eyesight.

​

“It’s him,” Palina breathed. “He’s fallen...”

​

They speeded their advance until Cafel’s legs and rear grew into sight.

​

“Are you hurt?” Roden called.

​

He broke away from Palina and rushed to kneel at the barkeeper’s side...

​

Roden’s eyesight followed the moving glow of his torch. Up the man’s legs, his back and his thick-set neck...

​

To Cafel’s head, now split wide open from the crown to the top of his spine. A single strike of some incredibly sharp weapon had cleaved the barkeeper’s skull like a soft, juicy fruit...

​

Roden thought of the hideous wound, tried to imagine the weapon which could have caused it... And then considered the crescendo of monotonous swooping sounds around him...

​

Not insects. Not the noise of creatures or men in motion. Not the strange call of beasts...

​

Blades slashing through the air.

​

He rose and turned rapidly to face Palina.

​

...To catch a glimpse of movement in the darkness behind her. A long, thin curved blade arcing down from above Palina’s head.

​

The weapon struck her right shoulder and the arc of motion became the tearing of flesh and bone. Keen metal rushed through the woman to rip free below her groin...

​

Palina perished too swiftly to scream – but the agony on her face burned at Roden’s very soul.

​

She fell into two bloody fragments before her lover’s eyes.

​

An anguished cry exploded from Roden’s lips: “NO!”

​

He lunged to catch the gory remnants, as if somehow he could undo the lethal blow of her attacker.

​

Remorseless, Palina’s murderer moved unseen to stand behind Roden...

​

The tip of the long-blade speared into the man’s back, skewered his heart and came out cleanly through his chest.

​

The last thing Roden saw was the face of his attacker. It thrust its head down to view him – a mixture of curiosity and sadistic glee on its hideous features...

 

*       *       *

 

The crowd around the bonfire grew into sight once Deris neared it. At the same time, he heard the swooping noise he had detected earlier... Now it was not merely a brief distraction from the east, but a roar of disturbing motion from the north.

​

Deris approached Jeffers when he saw the man: “What’s the noise?”

​

Jeffers was grateful to see another friend. There was fear and uncertainty in the ploughman’s eyes. “We don’t know... Cafel went–”

​

A horrible, stomach-churning scream burst from the darkness. It formed one word, laced with anguish: “NO!”

​

“Roden...” Deris breathed.

​

The cry was cut short – the sound executed.

​

Panic broke out in the next instant. Two of the women screamed. A young boy fell to his knees to be ill. Half the remaining villagers fled blindly away from the northern darkness deeper into Luminar. Others froze like petrified animals before the spear of a hunter. One man near the bonfire spun around in terror, began to run and slipped – he fell headlong into the mass of burning wood...

​

Deris and Jeffers rushed towards the bonfire in the hope of helping... as they reached the flames, the victim flung himself from the blaze to crash onto the ground before them, screaming and writhing. The two labourers tore off their tunics and started to beat back the fire that ate ravenously at its prey’s clothes and flesh...

​

Even while he acted, Deris glimpsed movement at the outer range of the bonfire’s glow. Huge shapes, initially seeming to be made of dark mist, which advanced from the blackness...

​

The burning man gave a final convulsion and collapsed dead, face-down in the grass.

​

Jeffers and Deris peered over the smouldering corpse towards the emerging army...

​