Dayn armallah

16. Breakdown

At first we just couldn't believe it, none of us. That the priestesses and the old King, whom everyone still considered at least half divine, would actually lose their minds enough to lock themselves inside and claim that the Holy Mother would provide for them? Surely that was too ludicrous to be true?

However, as one day stretched into two, then to three, and still no movement was seen in the house, we were forced to wrap our brains around the fact. From then on everybody watched the forbidding, closed house in morbid fascination. What was going to happen now? Would they come out at some point? Would they starve? Or – something no one really believed, and yet it couldn't be left out of the equation altogether – would they reemerge in the spring, alive and healthy, preserved by the Goddess herself?

I knew that I wasn't the only one who shuddered each time I had to pass by the house. I couldn't stop wondering what was going on inside it, and more than once I nearly ran past in order not to hear the eerie chanting that carried through the walls and tightly closed doors. It made my hair stand up.

Alaish kept creeping closer several times a day in an effort to hear or see at least something and reported every tiny bit of news to me, not that I was too eager to hear them anyway. He also kept his father updated. Merilion and Golden Deer were hunting again, pretending not to care, but I could tell anyway that the situation bothered them a lot. There was nothing we could do about it, and yet we kept a close eye on the solitary house, each pretending not to give a damn but nonetheless wary and alert for the slightest sign of something happening.

It took three days of waiting before the first signs of discord within the group of worshippers became apparent. Early in the morning we got word that one of the younger priestesses had fled and begged a neighboring family to grant her a bed in their cabin. She was hungry and thirsty and just couldn't stop weeping when she met with a friendly welcome. She'd do anything they asked, learn anything they wanted, anything at all, if only she could stay there with them.

Merilion, Golden Deer and Alaish went to see her and to hear the news. I followed them, astonished at her courage. To me she'd always seemed the mousiest, most timid of them all, yet now she'd been the first with enough guts to rebel and desert the others?

The poor girl was weary and distraught and looked much older than her years. When Merilion sat down by the fire and gave her a questioning look, she nearly shrank into nothing. Her too big eyes kept flickering this way and that as she tried to decide whether she ought to avert them out of sheer respect, or look at the First Prince who seemed to want to talk to her.

"What's going on in there?" Merilion asked. "Is everybody all right?"

The girl, who'd been chewing her lower lip to keep it from quivering, sniffled and tears welled up. "No," she whispered shakily. "They have gone mad, all of them..."
The whole village knew already that the eldest of the priestesses, the one who'd spoken up against the prince during the confrontation, held quite some sway over the others. From the tale that the hapless girl told, it became clear that she was unfortunately also the craziest. Now she had used a mixture of willpower, cajolery, threats, and pure religious zeal to make the entire group of priestesses engage in one never-ending prayer to the Goddess, telling them that by not heeding to their baser urges they'd win the favor of the Holy Mother.

And that was what they'd been doing for days now: praying. No food, just enough drink to make sure that their lips and tongue wouldn't get too parched to continue the incantations, hardly any sleep either. When someone had dropped, out of fatigue or thirst or simple tension, the oldest priestess had persuaded the others to wake the weakling up and just go on. By now it was certain that the atmosphere inside had crossed the line between fanaticism and insanity, and the girl hadn't been able to take it any more. She had somehow managed to get closer to the door, eventually slipped out, and once she'd smelled the fresh air outside, she had run – straight to the first people she saw.

When she got to the end of her story, Merilion shook his head with a dark scowl. Cold shivers ran down my spine and I could guess what he was thinking: should we interfere, or would that only make matters worse? Though how they could be still worse, that I couldn't say.

Golden Deer looked at the prince in askance. Of course he hadn't been able to follow everything the girl had said, but he had understood enough to look deeply worried.

"My Lord," the master of the house said tentatively, "should we try to go in there?"

"That's what I'm asking myself," Merilion grunted. "I don't know if there's much we can do about anything, though..."

He bit his lip and fell silent, then gave the girl a sharp glance. "How is the King?"

The girl blinked a few times.

"He's old, my Lord," she said hesitantly, then started when the prince pushed himself abruptly on his feet and turned to go.

"Not too well, you mean," he said harshly and strode out.

The girl gulped and seemed ready to cry, and I gave her as reassuring a smile as I could muster before following him. I couldn't think of anything much to say, and I also felt that I had to go after Merilion, lest he do something rash. I found him standing at some distance from the hut, arms crossed and staring into the forest, but when I tried to talk to him, he just brushed me aside and stalked away.

Apparently his decision was to wait some more, so wait we did. As always when one is waiting for something, time seemed to slow down until it was dragging like a tired animal. Everyone was on edge, casting suspicious glances around, being startled at the slightest unusual sound or movement. Voices were hushed but sharp, all nerves strung tight, and I know I wasn't the only one to pray for something, anything to put an end to the unbearable situation. And yet nobody could certainly foresee in what way that was to happen.

After yet another oppressive, silent day the village once again retired into houses and cabins, pulled blankets up to the ears, and finally fell asleep. The prince's cabin was no exception; the hunters had roamed wide and far that day and now slept soundly, as did Alaish who had spent the entire day helping me with the usual chores. The last thing I remember hearing before drifting into oblivion was his steady, deep breathing beside me.

But for some reason my sleep was restless that night. The echoes of the last day of Dayn Armallah just wouldn't leave me alone, I kept seeing and hearing the horrible rustle of fire, the billowing smoke, the screams of those unable to make it out. Then something jolted me awake and for a few blinks I just lay there, heart racing, nostrils flaring, until I realized that I could still smell the smoke. I was not dreaming any more.

I shot up in the bed, breath catching in my throat. No, this was no dream, not this noise nor the eerie glow that I could see through the tiny cracks in the shutters. Something was burning for real, something much bigger than a cooking fire.

There was another scream, loud enough to make Merilion and Golden Deer stir as well, and that was roughly when it all turned into chaos. We had barely enough thought left to pull on at least some clothes before dashing into the chilly night, barefoot and panicked, to see what was going on.

My insides turned into stone as soon as I saw the flickering light and heard the ominous crackling. In an instant I was there again, back in the city on its last day, but this time everything around me was not going up in flames – only one house was burning, the one where the priestesses dwelled.

Shouts tore through the air as more people emerged and added to the general clamor.

"Protect the houses around!" Merilion yelled at the top of his lungs and shoved me aside as he ran closer. It was the voice of command, and immediately at least two men, hauling buckets of water in a hopeless effort to abate the blaze, switched direction and hurried instead towards the buildings closest to the large house. Some of the surrounding roofs and walls were already smoking, and women rushed to dip rags and tree branches into the water to beat the smoldering areas with their soaked weapons.

A horrible scream sounded from inside the priestesses' house. Its gaping doorway belched out another cloud of smoke, and my legs refused to carry me any closer. There was nothing left to do, the river was too far away and the fire too huge, and I nearly threw up as the hopelessness of it all overwhelmed me. We might just as well stand around to fan the flames, I thought dully, just before blood froze in my veins.

"Father! Father!"

That was Alaish, screaming like I'd never heard him scream, and that scream brought life back to my limbs once more.

"No!"

I pushed closer through the throng, but thankfully my worst fears did not come true. Merilion was on his knees on the ground some distance from the carnage, clutching Alaish close and coughing his insides out. I dashed to them, nearly tripped in my haste, and knelt beside them, trying to see in the thick smoke that made my eyes scratchy. "My Lord, are you all right?"

Merilion tried to nod but just coughed some more, nearly retched, gasped for breath. His face was black with soot and striped with flowing tears. "Can't... get in... too much smoke." His breath was wheezing.

"We must go further!" I managed before the smoke filled my lungs as well. "Come away!"

Alaish shook urgently my arm and pointed towards the burning house. I turned and saw something move in the middle of the black cloud, then something else running towards it – or rather, someone. Someone tall and broad, running crouched and low.

The shape dove close to the ground, managed to get to the doorway and pull a dark lump from it, then another and still a third one, before crawling away once more. Some of the villagers ventured close enough to grab the unmoving bodies and drag them to safety, and the big dark thing followed them before dropping to the ground on all fours.

Merilion tried to get up but another coughing fit left him shaking uncontrollably, and all he could do was to gesture frantically to me to go. I gladly obeyed him and hurried to the kneeling man – Golden Deer, bare shoulders dotted with black and red, but very much alive. He crawled a few yards further, then sat heavily down on the ground with an odd squelching sound and tore away the cloth he'd tied around his nose and mouth. Only then did I realize that he was soaking wet, from long limp hair to the trousers he was wearing.

"Golden Deer..." I stared at the man who was trying to wipe his madly running eyes and coughed, shaking his head. "What did you do, Golden Deer?"

"Old man inside," he panted. "Father of Merilion. Must help, but no can go in."

"You are crazy!" I hiccuped, relief making me dizzy amid all the chaos. "Stay there, I must go and help."

I staggered on my feet and glanced around. Most of the people were simply gaping at what had still been a house when we'd retired to bed, while others were doing their best to keep the surrounding buildings safe and apparently succeeding in it – thank goodness this particular house had stood somewhat apart from the others. Nobody was even trying to stop the fire any more. The house was already lost, turned into cinders that flew high up into the night.

A little further away I spotted some women who were tending to the people Golden Deer had managed to haul away, and that was where I headed. They three were in filthy, torn clothes, with burns all over, and just as I reached the little group, two women pulled a ragged piece of cloth over the head of one of them. Judging from the dress, it was one of the priestesses. I felt faint.

"They are still alive," one of the women said to me with a nod towards the other two, and I crouched down to look.

One was a priestess, the third – the old King. Both were unconscious and obviously badly hurt, but for once I noticed that the villagers had put aside their fearful respect and were treating them like any other injured people, without hesitation or cowering. I sighed.

"Were they the only ones who got out?"

"No," a young farmer's wife said. "There was one who ran out when it all started and alerted us. But it flared up so quickly, you wouldn't believe it, Tarisha!"

"You'd better go look after your masters," another woman added. "We'll take care of these two, you can tell Lord Merilion as much."

I nodded, got up and trudged back in search of Merilion and Golden Deer, still choking on smoke and not wanting to look back at the fire any more. I'd seen enough fire to last for two lifetimes, I just wanted to have something to do, something I could comprehend and deal with. Quite especially I didn't want to know what exactly had happened, because some of the things that tried to creep into my mind were just too evil to think about.