From The Ashes (19 page)

Soon, too winded to continue, Ahndien stopped.

Still in the distance, now with the sun setting behind black, billowing clouds of smoke, she saw the village a bit further down the path.
 
If only she could run for another minute.
 
Then she'd arrive.
 
But what then?

Doubled over, hands on her thighs, Ahndien leaned back against the smooth striped trunk of a bamboo tree and wept bitterly.
 
The old man up at the mountain top had been right.
 
It was too late.

Now, the only sound she heard over her own sobs and coughs were those of the Torian soldiers.
 
Laughing and swearing in that accursed
accent, that
twisted dialect of the common tongue which represented the demons of the West.
 
It could mean only one thing:

They were leaving.

On the tips of her toes, she stepped forward taking care not to make a sound.
 
Between the trees she now could see the entire village burning.
 
Except for the remaining Torian soldiers poking through the ashes, no one stirred.

Ahndien tried in vain to swallow the tension lodged in her throat.
  
Where were Ah-Ma and Ah-Ba and Shao-Bao?
 
And everyone else for that matter?
 
If only she could get past the leaves and branches.
 
But she dared not move.
 
She held her breath as a pair of Torians walked by, not a stone's throw from her.

Just then, a loud shriek rang out above.
 

Ahndien let out a gasp.
 

Immediately she covered her mouth and braced herself behind a tree.

"What was that?" one of the soldiers said.

"You fool," the other said and pointed upwards into the sky.
 
He laughed.
   
"It's just a bird.
 
See?"

"You're the fool!
 
It's a vulture.
 
Coming to pick the bones clean."

For fear she might wretch, Ahndien held her mouth tighter.

"By its marking, you idiot," said the first.
 
"A blind man could see that it's an eagle."

The second soldier did not reply.
 
He kept staring up.
 
His lips started to move, but now words came out.
 
Then he began to point.
 
Finally, he said, "Whatever it is, it's coming at us!"

At that, they both ran, cowards that they were, and mounted their horses, just as the bird—the size of a horse—landed on the ground where they had fled.
 
The magnificent creature tilted its head, jerked it side to side, surveying the destruction.
 
It almost looked sad.

 
The eagle was every bit as terrible as it was beautiful.
 
But Ahndien dared not move.
 
Its razor sharp talons and beak were more frightening than a Torian sword.
 
It let out a piercing cry, which caused the fleeing soldiers to blubber as they fled.
 
Then the eagle itself spread its massive wings and sent a strong gust that bent the tree branches to the point of breaking as it flew off into the sky.

Finally, after it had vanished, Ahndien drew a deep breath.
 
It was time.
 
Tears stinging her eyes and the hilt of Ah-Ba's sword shaking between her fists, she descended the path to the burning village.

"Ah-Ba?" she whimpered, entering the gates.
 
"Ah-Ma?"
 
Neither
 
responded
.
 
"Shao-Bao?"
 

Nothing.
 

She pushed the draping palms aside.
 
All at once her heart sank.
 
Strewn all over the ground were men, women and their children.
 
All dead.
 
Some of their clothes continued to burn.
 
Others lay in pools of blood.
 
None moved.

Every hut, burned to the ground or in the process.
 
Carts overturned, fruits and vegetables scattered and crushed.
 
The hideous stench of what Ahndien could only imagine was burning flesh made her stomach twist.
 
The word "no" kept repeating silently on her lips.

Then something arrested her steps, her very breath.

Past the south wall, which had been smashed open, the clinking gears and grinding wheels of those monstrous siege engines and trebuchets pulling away caused the hair on the back of her neck to prickle.
 
Ahndien dropped behind a fallen cart and gasped.
 
Her entire body quaked.
 
Every breath stuttered between clenched teeth.
 
Her knuckles went pale, as she strangled the hilt of Ah-Ba's sword.

A large shadow from above passed over.
 
The giant eagle.

The Torian soldiers' voices faded into the forest along with their monstrosities.
 
It could not have taken but a few minutes, but to Ahndien it was an eternity.

Now
came
the dreadful task of looking for her family through the bodies and debris.
 

Let them be alive.
 
Please.

When she arrived at the well, where ten paces to the south her house should have been, her knees grew weak.
 
She fell upon them.
 
The sword dropped from her hands and clanked against the rocks.

"Ah-Ma!" she cried out.
 
"Shao-Bao!"
 
In the fallen doorway of her hut, Mother lay
still,
face down with her arm draped over Shao-Bao.
 
Arrows protruded from their backs and smoke continued to rise from their clothes.
 
"No!"

She tried to get up, to run to them.
 
But it was no good.
 
Instead, she fell on her face and cried out in anguish.
  
Like everyone else around, her family was dead.
 

She wanted to scream.
 
Release the horror, the dagger of sorrow and regret that impaled her heart.
 
But, for fear of betraying her presence, she held her hands tightly over her mouth as she rocked back and forth, shaking her head.

No amount of sobbing could dislodge the pain in her chest, her knotted innards.
 

 
"Ah-Ma!"
 
The words caught.
 
"Ah-Ma.
 
I'm so sorry."

And finally, the sight of poor little Shao-Bao, clutching a toy bird, would have overcome her utterly.
 
But she noticed that Ah-Ba was not present.

"Ah-Ba!" she cried, abandoning any care or reason.
 
Where was he?
 
Again she cried out, "AH-BA!"
 

If only she could just lie down and die there, with her mother and brother.
 
She would have spent the rest of the day, on her knees, sobbing.

If not for the feral snarls of a wild animal, approaching from behind.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The low-pitched growl
vibrated in the ground through Ahndien's sandals.
 
From the depth of the sound, it must have been that of a very large predator.
 
Slow and steady, she reached for the handle of the sword, slipped her hand through its lanyard and grasped it.

All at once, the creature's furious roar flew above her, just as she spun around and swung the long, straight blade of Ah-Ba’s sword.
 
A wash of tawny brown flashed before her and she let out a shout.
 
Before she could even complete the stroke, a deep and dull pain caught her forearm.
 
Ahndien cried out in pain.
 
Her eyes felt as if they'd bulge out of her head when she saw it.

Her arm, now about to be crushed or torn off, lay in the cruel grip of a mountain lion's jaw.
 
Its glassy brown eyes fixed hard upon Ahndien's, not blinking, almost daring her to move.

Then, as if the shock were not complete, something even more freakish happened.
 
With its jaws still clamped, the mountain lion gazed straight at Ahndien, as if it would speak to her.
 
And that is exactly what happened.

// LITTLE GIRLS SHOULD NOT PLAY WITH SWORDS //

"What?" she cried out.
 
The beast's fangs bore down harder, increasing the pain.
 
Though she was aware of this pain, she was too confused to care.
 
"What manner of evil is this?"

 
// YOU HAD BEST DROP IT...//

The mountain lion
snarled,
his otherworldly voice both aristocratic and sinister.

//...SOMEONE MIGHT GET HURT //

Two more mountain lions leapt over the burning ruins of Ahndien's neighbor's house and into the courtyard.
 
Her blood went cold.

I must be going mad, she thought. How can this creature speak?
 

With her arm in the beast's jaw, neither its mouth nor tongue moved.
 
Nevertheless, she would not relinquish Ah-Ba's sword.

The other two mountain lions stalked closer.
 
The one biting down on her arm yanked and shook her arm.
 

// THE SWORD OR YOUR ARM?
 
DECIDE! //

Ahndien shuddered.
 
It was clear now.
 
The creature did not speak aloud.
 
Somehow, she could hear its thoughts.
 
Whether or not the massive feline knew this, she couldn't be certain.

The beast clamped down harder still.
 
Ahndien let out a sharp gasp.

Just then, a large shadow passed over them.
 
What followed happened so quickly it was near impossible to recall the details.

A shrill cry from above.

With glassy eyes, the beast gazed into the sky, alerted with apprehension.

The two other mountain lions stepped back.

Ahndien's arm was free.
 
Just as a swooping wind and flapping sound rushed down.
 
A wash of brown and white surged past her eyes.
 
She fell back and hit the ground.

When the dust cleared, she turned her gaze upwards.
 
Well into the distance she discerned what appeared to be an eagle, the eagle, soaring high into the air and clutching a kitten in its talons.

Only, it was no kitten.

For on the ground, the mountain lion who had attacked her stared with its mouth agape.
 
In the grasp of the bird's talons was one of the two mountain lions that had come to assist him.

Ahndien squeezed her eyes and blinked twice.
 
How could this be?
 
The eagle was enormous!
 
Then screaming in terror, the mountain lion fell from the massive eagle's clutches and hit the rocky ground with a bone cracking thud.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Ahndien bolted to her feet sword at the ready.
 
The eagle returned causing the remaining two mountain lions to flee from the village gates and into the bush.
 
Ahndien feared the colossal bird of prey would come for her next.
 

But it changed its course.

Instead, the eagle sailed over the tops of the green bamboo and palm trees.
 
Leaves rustled with the passing wind.

And then it vanished into the thick of the woods.

Once again, it flew out with its quarry flailing about in its talons.
 
Ahndien dropped behind the crumbling wall of a demolished house and peered out at the spectacle.
 
As it did before, the great eagle dropped the second mountain lion to its death from a frightful height.

// BE STILL //

She jumped with a start.
 

Swung around.
 

Looked to the left.
 
To the right.
 
It was not the voice of the mountain lion.
 
No, this voice rang with aged sagacity.
 

// FEAR NOT //

Right away, she lowered her arched shoulders.
 
Let out a suspended breath.

Still clutching her father's sword, Ahndien kept her eyes on the woods just outside the gate.
 
The eagle had flown out of view.
 
But somewhere in the thick of the woods, she feared, one mountain lion lurked.
 
The one that attacked her.
 
Whether it had fled or if it lay in wait, she could not tell.