to track when we were children. I glanced at Kith, but, as usual since his return last fall, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Talon looked a little disturbed at my change of subject. He spoke slowly. âCaulem must have been coming for help, but theyâd posted someone on the main trail to your daâs. His horse ran into Albrinâs yard covered from ribs to croup in blood. Kith rang the alarm bell and we all headed out. We left some men at your maâs, and the rest of us followed the horseâs trail.â
I licked my lips nervously, wishing my thoughts werenât so clear. Father had just bought that horse from Albrin, but the track it had followed should have taken it past my parentsâ house before it ran to Albrinâs yard. My parents had an alarm bell in the yard, too. Ma should have been out ringing the bell before the horse made it as far as Albrinâsâif sheâd been alive to ring it.
The raiders hadnât taken grain sacks from the barn because they already had enough grain, stolen from my parents.
âMa?â I said softly, as if my quietness would change the answer I knew they would give me.
Talon looked around for help, but no one else took up the story. âThey started at Widow Mavrenenâs,â he said as softly as I had, the way he spoke to fidgeting young horses. âKilled her and that old dog of hers. Took everything that wasnât nailed down. They hit your folksâ place next. Mistress Ani was there and your ma. We figure they must have put up quite a fight from the looks of things.â
He swallowed and looked uncomfortable. âPoul, he was with us, too. We left him and his da there to take care of things, but we were afraid, from the direction the raiders were taking, that they might decide to hit you up here before they left off.â
I nodded dully. Ma, Ani, and her unborn child were dead, too.
âThereâs no one farther out than us,â I said, telling them nothing they didnât already know. My voice was slurring, but I didnât care enough to correct it. âThe old place up on the hill has been vacant since old man Lovik died of lung fever last winter. They didnât take much more from our placeâjust the pony, really. And Gramâs silver mirror.â I hadnât looked for it, but it must be gone, too.
âHow is it that you escaped?â asked Kith suspiciously.
His harsh tones pulled my attention to him. Iâd grown up with Kith, fished with him when we were children, dancedâand flirtedâwith him before heâd been called to war. When heâd come back to us, heâd come back with a loss that was more than his armâ¦.
âTime for you to go home, canât fight with one arm. Too bad, really, youâd become quite a soldierâ¦â
I swallowed, forcing Lord Moreshâs voice away, knowing that they were all watching me. Iâd never had visions like this before, as if all I had to do was think of something and the sight grabbed it for me.
âIt was stupid,â I said, finally. I knew another time Iâd have been angry and hurt at his suspicion. âI was starting down the stairs to the cellar to get some salt pork forâ¦for Darynâs lunch when I heard them outside. So I hid down in the cellar with a rug over the trapdoor. I waited until it was quiet before I came out.â
I walked past them then, to the wagon. I think Albrin asked me something, but I couldnât focus on it. I lifted up the quiltâit wasnât one of Maâs, she never used flowers in her patterns.
I stared at the bodies lying in the wagon. Death had marked them so they didnât look like the people I had loved. Someone had closed their eyes, but I tucked the horse blanket over Darynâs head anyway, climbing on the wheel to get close enough to do it. Then I covered them back over with the flowered quilt.
âI think I have some