Chapter 1

Aislin saw the smoke rising on the horizon. It was her lucky day. Another village had been sacked, which meant she might find something to eat, and maybe new boots. You never knew what you would encounter in the ruins the soldiers left behind.

She looked down at her ragged shoes, the seams broken and water seeping in on rainy days, soaking her feet. On days like these, when the autumn was almost over and the cold never truly left you, she couldn’t help but think back on her life. Had her family survived? And if they had, where were they? In the two years she’d been out since the civil war began and her town was burnt to the ground, she had never once heard of them. Maybe that meant they were dead. Her father would have been a prized victim, being the mayor of the town and all.

Prince Beremond should never have disrespected the old custom and refused to take a bride of the Kareshi’s. She shook her head. There was no sense thinking about it. The land had descended into chaos, and only their gods could save them now. She prayed every evening, asking them to bring an end to this war. So far, they had been quiet.

She hoisted her backpack. She'd better get going if she wanted to arrive before evening. With some hope, she would get there before the other scavengers descended upon the village.

She decides to take the long way there, through the forest instead of over the open field. You never knew who you would meet, and she’d learned quickly that the soldiers were as dangerous as other raiders. In her first months after escaping her town, she had thought that the soldiers of her nation would be benevolent. She soon came to regret it, and since then, she had been wary of any person she met. Kareshi or her own people, you’d better not take any chances, and you never knew whose village was burning or who you would meet there. Sometimes she imagined telling the Aislin she had once been, the daughter of a mayor, speaker of four languages, what she would become. She would have laughed at the ludicrousness of it all.

She was lucky and saw no one as she passed through the woods. Only a battered hut lay abandoned in her path. It could come in handy when winter came, and she made a note of its location in case she needed it. She spent one winter without a shelter, the first one after she escaped her town, before she knew how to go around without a place to call your own. She’d barely survived it, and in the second winter she’d made sure to find a shelter when the snow fell and the days grew too dark to travel. It was treacherous, staying in one place for too long, but she had learned a long time ago about the sacrifices one has to make to live for another day.

The sun was still above the horizon as she stepped out of the forest. It wasn’t far now. When she first became a traveller, the thought of raiding a village had left her sleepless. Seeing the tools left where they were last used, she imagined the hands that had held them not long ago. A toy lying forgotten by the door, the fate of its owner something she would rather not think about. But need drove you to the most unthinkable things, and soon, she barely noticed them. Knowing that the people who had once lived there weren’t as different from her was pushed aside, and the smoke on the horizon became a lucky sign.

Some houses were still smoking as she stepped into the village, but she was lucky, and not all had fared badly. Now, the only question was how much was left after the soldiers. She walked up to the first house, peering through the window. Furniture lay toppled over the floor, and she stepped over to the door and turned the handle. It was blocked. She moved on to the next, she could come back should she need it. The next door was unbarred, and she carefully opened it and took out her knife. She had never encountered any living villagers, but raiders might be close by, and she had once got into a fight she almost lost. She was more careful now.

A pair of shoes stood by the door, and she picked them up. Too big, but they would be better than what she had. She left them by the door to collect later and stepped into the other room. Another room of broken furniture, but she could see nothing useful, and she turned to try her luck in the kitchen when she thought she heard someone sniffling. She spun around. The room lay as deserted as she had seen it just moments earlier. But she was sure she had heard something. She carefully stepped over to the wardrobe and flung the door open. Nothing. She peered around and then lowered herself to the ground to look underneath the bed. She almost cried out as her eyes came level with the floor. Someone was lying pressed against the floor underneath the bed. A girl, no more than 8, glaring at her fiercely. Aislin sighed in relief.

The girl was no danger to her, and she got up, turned and walked to the kitchen. How had the girl managed to survive? She opened a cupboard, found the shelves empty, and closed it. No use thinking about it, the girl wouldn’t survive much longer by herself. It was a Kareshi child, so technically her enemy. She stepped over to the counter, searching through the jars. The girl would be more skilled than most in the wilderness, but even so, she was only a child. She stopped. Only a child… She glanced at the room she’d just left. She should leave her. A child would only slow her down. She opened another cupboard and then closed it without searching through it. Damn it. She walked back to the room, lowered herself onto the ground again and peered underneath the bed. The child retreated against the wall.

“I will not hurt you,” she said, only to realise that the child wouldn’t understand her. Most Kareshi’s did not speak the language of her nation.

She pulled her arm from underneath her and made a sign in the girl’s own language. Peace. The girl glared at her, but she could see that she calmed down. She signed it again, and the girl slowly crawled out from underneath the bed. She was dirty, with torn clothes, but not hurt. That was lucky. The girl glared at her, her mouth pouting with fury. Kareshis did speak, together with their sign language, but Aislin didn’t think she would get a word out of the child.

She gestured for her to follow her, and she walked back to the kitchen. The girl followed, and, without a word, led her to a cupboard, opened it, and stood aside. There was freshly baked bread, and a jar of flour. The last slices of a salted ham lay on a plate, and Aislin took it all and put it in her backpack. She gave one last glance at the room, then gestured for the girl to follow her and walked out to the hallway and picked up the shoes. Lucky day. Now they just had to get far enough before other raiders descended upon the village.