The Girl Born of Smoke (11 page)

Jonah shrugged and turned
toward the group. “Well, you know the drill,” he said. “Go see if
we can at least find a couple people who will join us. Talk to
everyone you see. Explain we're trying to help them.” The group
began to disperse and Aurora looked around helplessly at the sad
scene. She had lost track of Djerr after entering the town.
Frowning, she noticed that no one was approaching the woman
mourning the child. No one even looked at her. They seemed to go
out of their way
not
to look at her.

Breaking away from the group, Aurora slowly
walked up to the woman and crouched down in front of her, on the
other side of the child. She looked at the body. It was a boy, his
curly brown hair matted with blood. Part of his skull had been
crushed inward and his face was twisted into an expression of pain,
both eyes still slightly open. One arm was flung out to the side,
the smooth palm facing upwards. Aurora touched the boy's hand and
found it was clammy and unnaturally stiff. The woman had stopped
wailing and instead rocked silently back and forth on her
heels.

“What happened?” Aurora asked,
swallowing.

The woman showed no sign that she was even
aware of Aurora's presence.

Aurora put a hand out and laid it on the
woman's shoulder. “Are you okay?”

The woman snapped her hand up and grabbed
Aurora's wrist tightly. “What have you done?” she asked sharply,
finally meeting Aurora's eyes as she stopped rocking.

Eyes wide, Aurora shook her head violently.
“I didn't do this!” she protested.

The woman slowly let go of her wrist. “What
have you done?” she whispered, looking horrified.

Aurora stumbled backwards. “I didn't-” As
she watched, the woman suddenly went back to rocking and sobbing
loudly, paying no attention to Aurora. Shaking slightly, Aurora
turned and walked away, back to where the forest lined the town.
She sat at the base of one of the trees and drew her knees up to
her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Watching her fellow
soldiers wander around the town, often in small groups, following
after the townspeople, she felt embarrassed that she was even part
of the group.

“Hey!” Jonah had noticed her sitting by
herself. He walked over and looked at her sternly. “What are you
doing over here? There are still lots of people to talk to in this
town. Everyone's working hard except you.”

Aurora shook her head. “I don't want
to.”

Jonah sighed loudly. “You're Kirian's kid,
aren't you?”

“I guess?” She wasn’t sure how to
answer.

“Well, how would he feel about your refusal
to participate?” Jonah asked her. “I mean, here we are, providing
you with a place to go after your home was destroyed and you don't
want to do anything for us in return.”

Aurora didn't reply and set her head down on
her knees. Jonah simply shrugged and walked away, back into the
town, advertising the glories of the Citizens’ Army to any of the
townspeople who glanced his way. As it turned out, no one in the
town wanted to join their group and Jonah was forced to count it as
a loss.

They left that evening, heading back into
the remote forest. Only ten days later, they came to another town
in the same state of recent destruction. After a lecture from
Kirian, Aurora reluctantly participated. That time, they managed to
recruit three new members for the army. Two of them were recruited
by Aurora. Both were young women who had lost their daughters in
the attack.

Djerr dutifully performed his duties as
well, attempting to recruit the townspeople, although he had much
less success. He never again asked Aurora if she wanted to leave
the army. They fell into the routine of the army quickly and grew
accustomed to walking for long periods of the day. Soon, they left
the forest and came across another town, destroyed as well. They
picked up several more survivors.

Aurora began to worry that the Wizard's Army
had swept across the entire world as they lagged behind. After
nearly half a year in the Citizens’ Army, she counted a total of
sixteen towns that had been destroyed, several without a single
survivor. Those were the worst, where the fires had blazed out of
control until they spread to engulf the entire town and the
surrounding area. They were often still burning when the Citizens’
Army arrived. Jonah labeled those towns “lost causes,” although
they still spent a day each time, searching the outskirts of the
fire for survivors. They never found any.

Even after so long in the army, Aurora had
yet to draw her sword.

She often wished they would hurry their
pace, especially after she heard how nearly they had missed the
Wizard's Army. They were often only a day or two behind them.
Sometimes less. But no matter how much she pleaded with Jonah to
walk just a little longer each day, he refused each time, claiming
that not everyone in the group was as young or fit as she was.

A few others were not content to accept this
explanation or they couldn’t stand the destruction and death they
encountered so very often and left the army, often during the
night. It was not unusual to wake up and find a spare set of armor
lying where a person had lay down to sleep the night before.
However, even with the deserters, the army steadily grew in
size.

They meandered slowly across the land, never
heading in a single direction and sometimes nearly doubling back on
the direction from which they had come. One time, Aurora recognized
the landscape and realized they were nearing one of the towns she
had stayed at with Roxanne and Kirian, during their trip to Kain.
At the same moment, she also realized that had been well over a
year ago and felt startled that so much time had slipped by.

That town turned out to be one of the “lost
causes.” She could never explain to Djerr why she broke down crying
that night as they fell asleep. She didn't know herself. More than
ever, she felt like she had lost something that could never be
reclaimed.

Many days later, in the dusty hour between
afternoon and evening, the group crested a hill that looked down
upon a wide valley. A river twisted through the center, glimmering
in the sun. Buildings and farming fields were scattered on the near
side of the river and after a moment, Aurora realized she could
just make out little dots of people moving throughout the village.
With a rush of relief, she realized that they had actually arrived
in time. The people below moved about in no great hurry. All was
peaceful. Aurora paused to smile at Djerr, then started down the
tall hill.

“Wait,” Jonah called to her.

Impatiently, she paused and turned.

“We camp here tonight,” he continued. “It's
getting late and the Wizard's Army is nowhere in sight. Those
people will be fine for today.”

Aurora stared in shock. “What are you
talking about? It's not getting late. We could easily make it down
there before dark.”

Crossing his arms, Jonah shook his head
firmly. “I think you're forgetting who's in charge here, kid.”

Aurora opened her mouth, but caught sight of
Kirian glaring at her, and reluctantly stayed silent. Stalking
away, she sat down on the bluff and looked down at the villagers
obliviously going on with their lives. She caught sight of one
little dot, running frantically between the houses, then spotted
several others, following close behind. She squinted worriedly at
them, but noticed none of the other dots seemed alarmed and
continued on their way. Smiling slightly, she realized they must be
children, playing chase.

“Hey,” Kirian sat down beside her. “What's
gotten into you?”

Aurora pulled at a strand of her hair and
continued to watch the people below. “It's just that we always seem
to arrive less than a day late to every town we come across. It's
the same horrid scene over and over again, yet we never seem to
hurry to our next destination. Finally, we get somewhere in time,
just in time to warn all those poor people, and I'm afraid we're
going to miss that chance.” She leaned back and looked up at the
sky. “Jonah promised us the chance to prevent what happened in Kain
from happening to other people, but I feel like all we've done is
sit back and watch the exact same thing happen over and over.”
Biting her lip, she looked over at Kirian. “Doesn't it get to
you?”

He shrugged. “We do what we can to help the
survivors.”

“Yeah, we recruit them into our little
army.” Aurora picked at the long grass beside her. “I just feel so
useless.”

Kirian patted her shoulder as he stood up.
“You're a sweet girl, Aurora, but you need to learn to listen to
the ones in charge. Jonah knows what he’s doing.”

She glared crossly at him as she lay down in
the cool grass on the side of the hill, half-napping until night
fell. When she propped herself up on her shoulder, she could look
down on the town, illuminated by the cool moonlight which slid down
the hill and enveloped the town.

Continuing to prop herself up every few
moments to check on it, Djerr finally grumbled sleepily at her to
stop. Breathing a long sigh of hope, she flipped over onto her back
and finally closed her eyes, her mind slipping away on the soft
night breeze.

When she awoke the next morning, she judged
that the sun had not been up for long. No one else was awake yet
and the morning was quietly calm. A pale yellow butterfly flitted
by overhead. Feeling relieved, she sat up and looked down at the
town, rubbing the grogginess from her eyes.

She saw a small plume of smoke rising from
one of the houses. Squinting, she tried to determine if it was
simply coming from the chimney or something more. Her heart beating
quickly, she caught a gasp in her throat when she saw a flash of
fire from the house and then noticed another small trail of smoke
rise from another house. With a cry, she wasted no time tearing her
blanket off and stuffing it in her backpack. As a few of her fellow
soldiers groaned and sat up, looking around, Aurora threw her armor
and sword on. Djerr opened his eyes, looking confused, but Aurora
had already jumped to her feet and started down the hill, toward
the town.

She hurtled down the long hill, stumbling
and skidding through the thick grass. She managed to keep her
footing until the hill leveled out and her momentum carried her
over her feet. Sprawling face first onto the ground, she lay there
for a moment, trying to catch her breath.

Sucking in the sharp smell of grass and
dirt, she pushed herself to her feet. Over the sound of her
pounding heart, she heard someone yell her name from behind, but
fearing to wait a moment longer, she dashed into the smoldering
town. The smoke arched over the town and had already formed a layer
of haze across the sky.

Her skin prickled from the heat of the
fires. Smoke billowed out of the open window of a house next to
her. Running to the front door, she threw it open and staggered
back as more smoke poured out. “Is anyone in here?” she yelled.
Listening closely, she thought she heard a cry. As she glanced
around, she saw a soldier of the Wizard's Army round the corner of
the street.

Hoping he had not spotted her, she quickly
slipped into the house. Coughing, she looked around. Through the
thick smoke, she saw the chairs and curtains were engulfed in
crackling flames. Dropping to her hands and knees where the smoke
seemed thinner, she crawled deeper into the house, through a door.
The fire had not yet reached the room and the smoke seemed less
dense. She saw a bed in front of her with a small lump lying on it.
Her eyes feeling dry and painful, she squinted and crawled closer.
Kneeling up, she saw a small face on the bed looking over at her.
The girl had bright blue eyes and her long dark hair sprawled out
on the bed where she lay.

The girl frowned over at Aurora. “Why did
you do this to me?”

“I-” Aurora bent over coughing, hands
pressed to the floor. When she had recovered, she continued, “I'm
not with the army who attacked your town, I'm here to help. Come
on.”

“I know who you are.” The girl glared at
Aurora, her voice resounding clearly over the crackle of the
fire.

“Come on, we need to go.” Aurora glanced
behind her, realizing the smoke was getting thicker. Her eyes
streamed with tears as she reached out to grab the girl's arm.
“Come on.” Aurora's hand went through the girl's arm and she drew
back her hand in alarm. As she blinked, the girl vanished.
Clutching desperately at the blankets piled up on the bed, she
finally tumbled backward so that she was sitting on the floor.

She heard a whimper and wondered if it was
her own. She caught sight of something shift underneath the bed and
she hurriedly scampered forward for a closer look. A slightly pudgy
boy with shaggy black hair was curled up in the corner under the
bed, his eyes squeezed shut. Sliding herself partway under the bed,
she grabbed hold of his shirt sleeve and slid him out from under
the bed. As he felt her tug, the boy began frantically thrashing
about, his eyes still closed tight.

“I'm trying to help you!” Aurora protested,
wheezing slightly. She glanced around, trying to see if there was a
window they could climb out, but the thick smoke blocked her view.
She decided to crawl back the way she had come. The boy had calmed
slightly at the sound of Aurora's voice, but still refused to open
his eyes.

Finding it increasingly difficult to
breathe, much less speak, she settled for simply dragging the boy
along by his sleeve. She decided she couldn't blame him; her own
eyes were in terrible pain. Each blink felt rough and scratchy and
she couldn't help but imagine her eyes shriveling and drying up and
perhaps falling out of her head.

She crawled across the floor as quickly as
she could with the boy in tow, out of the bedroom and into the main
room. She could no longer see the flames, only hear them and they
sounded close. The heat dried the tears from her face. Squinting
helplessly into the smoke, Aurora realized she could no longer see
the front door and only hoped it was still open.