Read The Boy in the Field Online
Authors: Jo Oram
“What about Noah? And your mother?”
Ethan shook his head. “If we find them, we’ll take them, but
we’ll be made slaves if we stay.” Ethan grabbed your hand and pulled you to the
window. “Come on.”
Taatars roamed the streets, taking hostages and fighting with
anyone who wouldn’t comply. Bodies lay crumpled in the gutter, faces stained
with blood. Ethan kept you away from them, scrambling between gardens and under
hedgerows. Branches snagged at your bare legs and caught on your clothes as you
fought your way through, all the while searching desperately for some sign that
Noah was still alive.
Your hope waned as you left the town, the track leading to your
father’s crumbling old house empty of people. You wondered if you were the only
ones to escape, if everyone else had been caught or killed before they could
get so far. Noah could be amongst them. He might never find you.
When you reached the house, the windows were dark and no noise
came from within, despite it being a perfect hiding place. No one would bother
to attack such a dilapidated building. Ethan pushed open the door and ushered
you inside. You huddled together under a musty blanket in the dark. Ethan
pulled you close to him, stroking your shoulder as you cried.
“What if I never see him again?”
“Don’t think like that.”
“But what if he’s dead? What if I never get to tell him—?”
“We’ll look for him in the morning. And if we don’t find him,
I’ll look after you until we do. Okay? Anyway, tell him what?”
“No.” You shook your head. “I’m not going without him.”
Ethan grimaced. “Please?”
“Not without Noah.” You grabbed his arm as he began to open the
window. “Don’t leave us!”
“We’ll all be killed if we stay.”
You swallowed. “My house. It’s out of the way. They’ve got no
reason to go there.”
He hesitated, one foot out of the window. “I’ll meet you there.
Find Noah. Take mother.”
You nodded. “If we’re not there by midnight tomorrow, expect
the worst.”
You pulled on the shoes and turned towards Adina’s room. The
streets were full of shouting – she should have been awake. You had your
fingers on the doorknob when a rough hand grabbed you by the shoulder and
slammed your back against the wall.
“Don’t scream.” He flashed a blade at you, his breath like a
hot sewer pipe in your face. “I would hate to ruin a pretty thing like you.”
You fought against him, but he was stronger. Tears formed in
your eyes, as he ran his hand up your thigh.
“Let me go,” you whispered. “Please.”
“You belong to me now,” he said.
His hand moved further under your nightshirt and you squeezed
your eyes shut, wishing it would stop. His face came closer. You felt his
tongue on your neck.
“Don’t touch her!”
The man lurched away from you, pulled by the collar. Noah threw
him on the floor, punching him over and over in the face until you heard bones
snap. The man tried to fight back, but Noah wrenched the knife from his hand
and drove it into his chest three times.
“Noah, please.”
You touched his shoulder and he stopped, sitting back. His
hands were coated in blood. His face was coated in blood. His eyes met yours,
raging and bloodthirsty.
“
Parahe
.” He swallowed and looked away. “Are you hurt?”
You shook your head. “I'm okay. Please, Noah. We have to get
out of here.”
Adina’s door opened and she peered into the hallway, her hands
clasped over her mouth. She shook her head.
“We need to move before more of them come,” Noah said. “Where’s
Ethan?”
“He’s going to meet us at my father’s house.”
“Okay.” He stood up, taking the sword and handing the knife to
you.
Outside, the streets were chaos. Noah took you through the
gardens instead, scrambling over hedges and between houses. Branches snagged at
your bare legs and you and Noah both had to help his mother over each obstacle,
the woman too stunned to even speak.
When you reached the house, the door was still closed and the
windows were dark. Ethan wasn’t there. You crept from empty room to empty room,
gathering supplies from the mouldering furniture. Noah stayed in the kitchen
with his mother, his voice soft as he tried to reassure her. You shook your
head as he looked up at you.
“You know what Ethan’s like, Ma. He probably stopped to help
somebody.”
“I told him we would meet him by midnight,” you said. “We’ll
wait a little longer.” You placed a pile of blankets on the kitchen table. “Get
some sleep. He’ll be here before you wake up.”
You sat in silence until Adina had gone to sleep, both staring
out of the window, eyes searching for Ethan. As dawn began to rise, Noah took
hold of your hand and led you from the kitchen into the other room.
“He’s not coming, is he?” he asked.
“He said he would be here.”
“What am I supposed to do without him? He’s my brother. He
always knew…” Noah shook his head. “What if he’s been killed? What if I never
see him again?”
You put your arm around his shoulder and pulled him close.
“He’ll find us.
Neither you nor Noah slept well that night, both waking at the
slightest sound, expecting it to be Ethan or the invaders. By the morning
light, you could each see how bad the others looked. Adina’s skin was pale and
heavy bags weighed under her eyes. Noah’s face was streaked with blood and
sweat and your own looked much the same. The house had no running water for you
to wash away the dirt and nothing to drink.
“I want to back,” Adina said. “Maybe he's still there. I want
to go home.”
Noah looked out of the window. A cloud of black smoke hung over
the horizon.
“I don't think that's possible, mother.”
“Then I want to go back to Ethigos.”
You frowned. “Why Ethigos? Everyone will be fleeing. They’ll
close the borders.”
“Mother was born in Ethigos,” Noah explained. “They will allow
her to return – and us with her.”
“Yeah. I’m coming.”
You put your foot into his hand so he could lift you over the
fence. The streets outside were full of people, running, fighting, screaming.
Ethan kept you away from them, scrambling between gardens and under hedgerows.
Branches snagged at your bare legs and caught on your clothes as you fought
your way through, all the while searching desperately for some sign that Noah
was still alive.
Eventually, you were out of the town and on the road to the
dilapidated old house you once called a home. It seemed the perfect hiding
place, already fallen into disrepair – the kind of place nobody would bother to
attack. If you kept the candles out and stayed quiet, no one would even know
you were there. You pushed the door open and huddled inside.
It was empty, the rooms all cold and quiet as you crept between
them, avoiding the creaky and rotting floorboards. You gathered blankets from
the bedrooms, fusty but good enough to keep you warm overnight. Ethan pulled
you close to him, stroking your shoulder as you cried.
“Don’t think about it,” he said. “Don’t think about
them
.”
“I don’t know how you can just leave them behind. They’re your
family.”
“They’re being attacked by Taatars. We warned them. They
wouldn’t come. It’s their choice to stay.” He smiled at you. “If they survive,
Noah will know to come here. We’ll wait until tomorrow and then we’ll leave.
Okay?”
“Where will we go? Everything we own is in Landia. Everyone we
know.”
“Kinta,” he said. “Kinta will be safe. It will be the last
place they attack. The King will have hundreds of soldiers around the city.
You’ll see.”
Ethan was right and he was wrong. Kinta
was
full of
soldiers but they weren’t the Kinel army. They weren’t Taatars either. They
were Serlorans, troops sent from the Empire to the north. Part of you was glad
your country had support but Ethan read the news reports, calling it a convert
invasion. Ethan wanted to fight it.
“No. I can’t leave him to be killed. Let me try to save him.
He might listen now.”
Ethan hesitated. “Okay. Be quick.”
You ran back through the house, grabbing a knife from the
kitchen as you did. Noah had moved from the doorway but you could see him
across the street, fighting with a man in Taatar clothing. Two more Landian men
moved to join him, pushing the other man back. You reached out for him,
narrowly avoiding the tip of his sword as he turned.
“Noah, we have to go.”
“I’m not leaving!”
“We’ll be killed if we stay.” You grabbed his wrist and pulled
him towards the house, only to see other men going into the house.
“Ma!”
“We can’t fight them, Noah.” You pulled him again, this time
towards the alley at the side of the house, shouting for Ethan as you went.
“Where is he?”
You shook your head. “He was in the garden, but I doubt he’ll
be there if he saw those men.” You paused. “He’ll be with your mother. They’ll
find us.”
You continued to run, scrambling over fences and through
bushes. Stones cut into your bare feet and twigs caught on your clothes as you
fled across the town, making your way towards the house in which you once
lived. If you kept quiet, it would be the perfect hiding place.
Inside, the house was exactly as you remembered it – filthy and
decaying. You avoided the creaky and rotting floorboards as you searched the
rooms, looking for anything that could get you through the night or help you
locate Ethan. Aside from some moth-eaten blankets, you found nothing.
“I thought he would be here,” you said. “I thought he would
wait.”
“Yeah? Well, he didn’t.” Noah scowled. “He left me to fight by
myself.”
You leaned your head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I should have
stayed with him. At least then we would know where he was.”
“He would have gone anyway.” Noah stood up, pulling you with
him. “We should keep moving too. If we try to go back, we’ll be killed. Ethan
won’t come for us. Mother will be…” He shook his head. “We should just go.”
You didn’t look back as you left the crumbling house. It was
the loss of Landia that really upset you. It was where most of your best
memories had happened. Now it, Ethan and Adina were gone.
Noah decided that your best hope was to leave the country
entirely. Ethigos, to the north, was part of the Serloran Empire and the home
of their imperial family. It was be safe, if you could just reach its borders
without being found by the Taatars invading Kinel or mistaken for them by the
peacekeepers or magisters of Ethigos.
It took almost two weeks to reach the capital city, travelling
mostly by night and resting whenever possible. You arrived with only a few
hundred kesas which you had traded at the border for Serloran currency and it
was barely enough to rent a room for a week in a cheap inn on the rough edge of
the city.
“We need to find work,” you said, picking up the newssheet and
staring intently at the words on the pages, hoping that they would begin to
make sense.
Noah leaned over your shoulder and turned to the back of the
sheet. “Down here,” he said, pointing to a list in a box. “That’s the jobs.”
You shook your head. “I can’t read it.”
He smiled. “Shop workers wanted – you could do that,
peacekeepers – we can both do that, office work – no good for you, junior
medic…” He scanned the list. “And a lot that neither of us can do.”
Choice:
53.
Peacekeepers
or
54.
Junior Medic
“No.” You shook your head. “I’m not going without him.”
Ethan grimaced. “Please?”
“Not without Noah.” You grabbed his arm as he began to open the
window. “Don’t leave us!”
“We’ll all be killed if we stay.”
You swallowed and let go of him. “Meet us at my father’s house.
It’s out of the way. They’ve got no reason to go there.”
He hesitated, one foot out of the window. “Find Noah. Take
mother.”
You nodded. “If we’re not there by midnight tomorrow, expect
the worst.”
You pulled on the shoes and turned to go to Adina’s room. The
streets were full of shouting – she should have been awake. You had your
fingers on the doorknob when a rough hand grabbed you by the shoulder and
slammed you back against the wall.
“They said the Landia girls were pretty,” he leered, his breath
like a hot sewer pipe in your face. “Don’t scream.” He flashed a blade at you.
“I would hate to ruin you.”
You tried to push him back, but he was stronger. He pushed his
knee into your stomach.
“Don’tcha wanna be nice to me? It’ll hurt less if you’re nice.”
His hand ran up your thigh. Tears formed in your eyes, but you
bit your lip, determined not to cry.
“Let me go,” you whispered.
“Pretty thing like you? I don’t think so.”
His hand moved further under your nightshirt and you closed
your eyes, wanting to make him disappear. Something hot and wet hit your face.
Your throat filled with the taste of iron. His hands left your body and the
knife clattered to the floor. You opened your eyes to see his face wide with
shock and Noah behind him, the silver sword in his hands, the blade wedged in
the man’s neck. And blood. So much blood.
Footsteps pounded up the stairs and Noah turned, letting the
first man fall gasping to the floor. He swung the blade at the second, pushing
him back across the hallway. He fell as he stepped back, tumbling down the
stairs. Noah chased after him and you leaned over the banister to see him
stabbing the man, over and over and over.
“Noah, stop.” You moved behind him, putting your hand on his
shoulder.
He span, the sword finding your throat for a split second
before his eyes met yours, raging and bloodthirsty.
“
Parahe
.” He lowered the sword. “Are you hurt?”
You shook your head. “I'm okay. Please, Noah. We have to get
out of here.”
“Where is mother?”
“Upstairs. Ethan is going to meet us at my house.”
“All right. We need to move before more of them come.”
You grabbed your coat while Noah fetched his mother. The
streets outside were full of people, running, fighting, screaming. Noah led you
through the garden, scrambling over hedges and between houses. Branches snagged
at your bare legs and you and Noah both had to help his mother over each
obstacle, the woman too stunned even to speak.
Eventually, you were out of the town and on the road to the
dilapidated old house. Already partially in ruin, you were sure no one would
bother attacking it. If you lit no candles and stayed quiet, no one would even
know you were there. You pushed the door open and huddled inside.
It was empty, the rooms all cold and quiet as you crept between
them, avoiding the creaky and rotting floorboards. Noah stayed in the kitchen
with his mother, his voice soft as he tried to reassure her. You shook your
head as he looked up at you.
“You know what Ethan’s like, Ma. He’s strong. He’ll get here.”
“I told him we would meet him by midnight,” you said. “We’ll
wait a little longer.” You placed a pile of blankets on the kitchen table. “Get
some sleep. He’ll be here before you wake up.”
You sat in silence until Adina had gone to sleep, both staring
out of the window, eyes searching for Ethan. As dawn began to rise, Noah took
hold of your hand and led you from the kitchen into the other room.
“He’s not coming, is he?” he asked.
“He said he would be here.”
“What am I supposed to do without him? He’s my brother. He
always knew…” Noah shook his head. “What if he’s been killed? What if I never
see him again?”
You put your arm around his shoulder and pulled him close.
“He’ll find us.”
But it wasn’t that night. Neither Noah nor yourself slept well,
both waking at the slightest sound, expecting it to be Ethan or the invaders,
finally tracked you down. No one came.
By the morning light, you could each see how bad the others
looked. Adina’s skin was pale and heavy bags weighed under her eyes. Noah’s
face was streaked with blood and sweat and your own looked much the same. The
house had no running water for you to wash away the dirt and nothing to drink.
“I want to go home,” Adina said. “Maybe he's gone back to the
house. I want to go.”
Noah looked out of the window. A cloud of black smoke hung over
the horizon.
“I don't think that's possible, mother.”
“Then I want to go back to Ethigos.”
You frowned. “Why Ethigos? Everyone will be fleeing. They’ll
close the borders.”
“Mother was born in Ethigos,” Noah explained. “They will allow
her to return – and us with her.”