Bacorium Legacy (81 page)

They both laughed, and Eva looked at them in confusion, not understanding what the joke was.

The happy moment was cut off by a blinding flash of light.

“Wh-what?!” Miniu exclaimed.

They heard the sound of dying screams as they tried to see after the intense flash. Emila rubbed her eyes, and could faintly see what was happening. Men in black and red armour had appeared, and were attacking the town. The villagers were screaming, and trying to run, but there were three soldiers for every one of them.

“What is this?!” Miniu exclaimed in shock. “N-no, it can't be! I thought they... How in the world did they just appear like that?!”

“Father, what's happening?!” Eva cried out, grabbing the hem of his cloak.

“Acarians...!” he said through his teeth. “Get inside the sanctum, now! Both of you!”

Emila wasn't listening. She had jumped down from the ledge, and was running into town, despite her father's protests.

“Where is she going?!” Eva asked.

Miniu's face grew pale. “She's worried about your mother. Come. We have to get back inside the sanctum, where it's safe.”

He took his youngest daughter and all but carried her to the sanctum. The basket of sweet rolls fell over the edge, rolling out into the streets.

<> <> <>

Emila knew the city well, having spent her entire sixteen years of life in it, so she was able to make her way back home quickly. The things she saw on the way were horrible - she almost got caught because she had to stop to cough up the contents of her stomach.

The villagers who had been killed were the lucky ones. Now that the initial rush of the attack was settling down, the soldiers were taking survivors and making sport of them. Some of the men were being beaten in circles of armoured soldiers they could not escape. Others were being whipped, screaming as the tiny hooks at the end of the lash tore the skin from their backs. One man had been set on fire, and was running around, screaming and flailing his arms about while the Acarians pointed and laughed. And the women... Emila didn't want to think about what they were doing to them.

Even the children were being tortured.

“Monsters,” Emila whispered. “They're not human.”

By some miracle, she was able to make it back to her house without being discovered. She feared the worst, but she let out a sigh of relief when she saw the house was untouched. No broken windows, the door was still closed, and no signs of struggle. She ran, and threw open the front door...

And froze.

Her mother was there, seated at the table, alive and unharmed. But she wasn't alone. There was a man there, in the black and red armour of Acaria, with long hair as black as her and her mother's. The man looked over to Emila as she entered, his single eye glowing red.

“Well,” he said. “It looks like we have company.”

Melissa looked up at Emila, her eyes growing wide.

“And who might this young lady be?” the Acarian asked Emila's mother.

“I don't know,” she said. “I've never seen this girl in my life. She probably just came here looking for a place to hide from your soldiers.” Melissa was giving Emila a look that she knew meant to keep her mouth shut.

The Acarian raised an eyebrow. “Is that right? I don't know, she certainly looks a lot like you. Same black hair, same green eyes, same pale skin, same pointy chin. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was your daughter.”

“I don't have a daughter,” Melissa insisted. “I don't know who this girl is. I may have seen her in the market once or twice, but I don't know her name, or who her parents are.”

“What's your name?” the Acarian asked Emila.

“Kiera,” she lied. “I'm the city's record-keeper's daughter.” It was the best she could do - there really was a Kiera, who was the daughter of the record-keeper, but she was likely already killed in the attack.

The Acarian stared at her for a long time. “I see. Well, my name is Zinoro. I'm the king of Acaria, and the leader of the men who are destroying your home and killing your friends. Nice to meet you, Kiera. Come, take a seat. I was just having a chat with Melissa here.”

Emila hesitated. She could make a run for it, but she couldn't just abandon her mother like that. And they would probably find her if she went back out there. It didn't look like she had much of a choice in the matter. She slowly walked over to the table - the table her family had eaten dinner at for her whole life - and sat down beside her mother.

“Would you like something to drink?” Zinoro asked her, so kindly that there was no doubt he was mocking her. “I'm sure Melissa could fix you something.”

She shook her head.

“You do look like you've lost your appetite,” Zinoro said. “I suppose you wouldn't be wanting anything to eat or drink after what you probably saw on your way here. That's too bad.”

“Enough,” Melissa said in a firm voice. “Leave her be, Zinoro. You came here for me, not her.”

Zinoro smiled. “Awfully quick to defend a girl you don't know, aren't you?”

Melissa said nothing.

The Acarian turned his attention back to Emila. “I'll have you know I don't like being lied to, Emila.”

Emila was so afraid she was shaking, but she still managed to speak. “P-please don't hurt my mother.”

“I haven't come here to hurt your mother,” he replied. “I've come here to hurt
my
mother.”
 

Emila blinked. She was confused. Why would the king of Acaria come to a city in Saeticia to find his mother...? Who could possibly...

And then it hit her like a brick to the face. Her eyes grew wide, and she looked over at her mother, searching in her face for some denial of this. Melissa said nothing, just maintaining a firm face and matching Zinoro's gaze.

“I want answers,” Zinoro said to her. “I want to know why you've betrayed me, and why you've betrayed my father.”

“I betrayed nobody,” Melissa told him. “If anybody has betrayed anyone, it is you who has betrayed him.”

Zinoro's single eye narrowed in rage. “Explain.”

“You know your father was a man of honour,” Melissa told him. “What he did in Sono, he did for his people, not for personal gain. He would never have done the things you are doing. Consorting with dark forces? Slaughtering children? And you justify it by doing it all in his name? How wrong you are. You spit on his grave.”

Zinoro reached across the table, striking Melissa with the back of his gauntlet. Emila couldn't help but cry out, seeing that happen to her mother. The steel glove was hard, and when Melissa sat back up, there was blood at the corner of her mouth. But she did not lose her composure, maintaining a steady gaze at Zinoro. She had an expression Emila had never seen on her before - the look of a queen.

“You are not my son,” Melissa told him. “You ceased to by my son the day you entered that temple. When you emerged, your eyes as red as a vampire's, I knew what you were going to become, and I could not bear to watch the last member of my family turn into that. That is why I left.”

Zinoro scoffed. “And you fixed that by creating more. You replaced me with these bastard girls.”

“I married Miniu. My daughters are legitimate.”

“That does not make it better!” Zinoro almost shouted. “The former queen of Acaria, the wife of some healer in Saeticia?! You never thought about his legacy for even a second, did you? You left me alone, to carry the weight of his entire kingdom!”

“His kingdom is a ruin,” Melissa said. “Manorith's kingdom died with him in Sono.”

Zinoro shook his head, his mouth twisting into a grin. “That's where you're wrong, Mother. I am rebuilding Acaria. I will resurrect the kingdom, slay Lodin, and destroy the Alliance. I will do my father justice, and make Acaria into the empire he always dreamed of!”

“You would need a much bigger army to do that,” Melissa told him, a hint of a smile appearing on her. “There aren't enough Acarians left alive to accomplish what you speak of. Acaria is nestled between those mountains, bordered on three sides. Good luck launching an invasion against the three great nations with so small an army and one direction to attack from.”

Zinoro frowned. Apparently, what Melissa had said was true, because he didn't seem to have a retort to that.

“It makes no difference,” Zinoro said. “I am keeping true to his legacy. I am the one who is honouring him. You are a traitor, both to me, and your late husband, and to your kingdom. And traitors must die.”

Zinoro rose. “Hold the girl.”

Out of the shadows, another Acarian stepped out. This was the man from before, the one with the trimmed black beard who had asked her all those questions. Serpos, she remembered, was his name.

Serpos stepped up behind her and grabbed her by the back of her shirt, pulling her back. Realising what was going on, she started to struggle. “No! No, don't kill my mother! Please! Please!!!”

Serpos grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look him in the eyes. “Stop struggling,” he ordered her in a firm, commanding voice.

Emila suddenly felt very lightheaded. She felt lethargic, like the very strength was being pulled out of her. Serpos' eyes seemed to be pulling her in. She was really sleepy all of a sudden. She couldn't muster up the strength to fight anymore.

“Zinoro,” she heard her mother saying. “Please, spare my daughters. It is the only thing I ask of you. Please, don't kill my little girls. You say you're a man of honour, so honour my dying request. Do not hurt them, please.”

A pause. “I will consider it.”

Emila then heard the sound of a blade cutting through something, and hitting wood. It sounded kind of like what she heard at the butcher's stand in the market when he was cutting up meat for her dinner. She'd always liked that butcher. He was nice - he always gave her and her sister an extra slice for free.

She was so tired, she just wanted to sleep. She found that she was turned around, and she could see the room again. That Zinoro guy was standing there, talking to another Acarian. He looked pissed about something. The other Acarian looked uncomfortable, like he'd made some kind of mistake. He was handing Zinoro something - a pair of glasses, stained with blood.

She giggled a little. Her daddy had glasses just like those.

That Zinoro guy tossed the glasses away and left her house in a rush. Emila looked down at the dinner table. Her mother's dress was spread out over the length of the table. There was a huge splatter of blood where her mother's head would have been if she'd been wearing it. Uh-oh, Emila realised. Mother would be angry when she saw this. The dress was certainly ruined in all that blood.

She was thinking a lot, she realised. All that thinking was making her tired. Since that guy behind her was nice enough to hold her up, she decided there was no point trying to stay up anymore. She closed her eyes. He'd definitely put her in her bed later.

She couldn't wait for tomorrow morning.

Maybe Mother would make pancakes.

<> <> <>

“Get up, you stupid bitch! C'mon, wake up! I'm not about to fuck a corpse!”

Emila gasped as she felt a bucket full of ice-cold water being dumped over her head. She panicked, immediately realising that wherever she was, it wasn't her bedroom.

“W-w-where-?”

She cried out as she felt someone slap her across the face.

“Shut up! Who told you to talk?!”

She felt tears stinging her eyes. She opened her eyes enough to see what was going on. It was night time. She was in the woods somewhere, beside a river. There was a man standing over her, undoing the straps of his black armour and tossing it aside. Somewhere in the distance, she could see the faint orange glow of a camp.

“Don't got a lot of time before someone notices you're gone,” the man said, looking down at her in a way that made it all too obvious what he wanted. “Mmm, you are a looker. Zinoro's got good taste, keeping you.” The man started to undo his belt.

“N-no!” she said, trying to crawl away. “Don't! Please!”

“I said shut up!” the man said, kicking her in the stomach. Thankfully, he had taken his boots off, but the pain still left her gasping. The man scowled, and said, “If you keep screaming like that, somebody might-”

He never finished. The man choked, a knife coming up from behind him and slitting open his throat. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and collapsed, disappearing.

The knife was tossed aside, her rescuer coming to her side. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“N-no...” she managed to say through her sobs. She looked up at the man to see long grey hair, and tired eyes. She knew immediately who this was - his hand still bore the mark of her mistake. The mistake that had cost her everything.

“Can you walk?” he asked her.

She nodded. The man gave her his hand, helping her up to her feet.

He handed her a backpack, a sheathed short sword, and a brown travel cloak. “I grabbed as much food as I could for you. There should be enough to last you a few days, at least.” He pointed south. “There's a town about twenty kilometres south. Don't stop there. We have spies there. Keep going to the next town.”

Trembling, she tried to pull the cloak up over her shoulders. She was so cold, from the frigid night air, and the bucket of water that had been dumped on her. Her hands were numb and she couldn't do it. Seeing her struggles, the man did the clasp for her.

“T-thank you...” she said. He also took the backpack from her, and helped get it on her back.

“Do not linger,” he warned her. “They're likely already looking for you.”

“Come with me,” she pleaded. “Please...”

His eyes looked very sad then. Old beyond his years, and full of regrets. Perhaps this moment would become another one. “I'm sorry,” he said. “There's somebody else I still have to save.”

“At least tell me your name.”

He frowned. “It's probably better if you don't know. Now go! Run and don't look back! Trust no one!”

She thanked him once more, and she took off into the night. She ran. She ran, and as she ran, memories of the previous day started coming back to her. She remembered the attack. The people being tortured - folks she had known her whole life. Her mother's dress, and the massive blood stain where Zinoro had decapitated her. Her father's glasses, stained with blood, and the implication that Zinoro's anger stemmed from his men having killed her father and sister right after he had just promised to spare them.