Serpentarius's Stories; The Sacrifice
an excerpt

Chapter 1

Prologue

Abigail looked into the hearth of the fireplace and felt very alone. The wood in the hearth sputtered and hissed as it had not properly dried and gave her slight distraction from her nerves. She sat in a rocking chair, holding her baby son tenderly, but hardly paying him mind at this moment. He was sleeping anyway. The wood however calmed down and her eyes once again were forced away from the flames and back to the end table next to her. It supported a large sand dial, counting down how many grains of sand until she would have to flee her home. She had watched it almost the entire hour after her husband, Rene, turned it, instructing her to leave when the last grain dropped.

Not bearing the suspense any longer, she stood up from the rocker and carried her son to his cradle. He was only a month old and already he was going his parents became involved in. She watched him sleep peacefully for a moment. He was such a well behaved baby and hardly cried, even through labour. Abigail smiled proudly and moved to her wardrobe to dress in her darkest robes. She was very uncomfortable in black. Her training as a priestess and all the duties of healing and white magic left her feeling unnatural in any colour apart from white, but black was the worst. It made her feel as though she was in disguise and lying about her true nature. Tonight though, she would need the dark cloak to blend in with the night. There would be archers sent to shoot them as they ran and the camouflage could save Torin’s life.

Her bag was already packed and hung tightly to her back under the cloak. They contained minor provisions and a few keepsakes she couldn’t leave behind. She held the sling made for her baby and realized she would have to wear it differently tonight. Normally Torin was strapped to her back so he was easier to carry but that would be impossible this time. She choked and forced back a tear knowing that if archers were shooting at her back and should hit, she will at least have died protecting her child. She picked him up again and nestled him into the sling. He whimpered slightly as she manoeuvred him into her front and tightened the straps around her body. With everything in place she stood at the door and again returned her attention to the timer. Only a minute remained.

As she waited the light from the flames licked against her angular face and long blonde hair. Her eyes narrowed as they prepared to see the harshness of battle. Her body looked bulkier under the dark cloak than normally due to the sack and child she carried, but she still appeared strong and as the last grains of sand fell, she started to appear fierce. She knew the mindset required when it was time to fight and now she was preparing herself. As her eyes lifted from the dial back toward her kitchen, she saw a dagger glistening in the flames as well. As a second thought, she walked over and picked up the blade by its leather bound handle. She touched the steel blade and it was surprisingly hot. Although it was no where near the fire it was searing warm. Abigail recognized the omen and the fate that was eventually due to this knife, and she concealed it in her cloak. Her deep brown eyes bore confidence with possession of the knife.

Finally the last grain of sand dropped from the upper globe to the large pyramid of sand below it. Abigail wasn’t watching anymore but she sensed the time and glided along to the large wooden door. She walked through the door and didn’t look back.

The corridor was dark, and long shadows appeared where torches were lit. Abigail calmly strode along the halls of the small fortress remembering each required turn and door to meet Rene at the secret exit they would use to escape. Finally she arrived at the store rooms. She pulled the key Rene had given her from her gold-pouch hanging from her belt, and looking around the corridor tentatively for approaching residents, she unlocked the door and entered, closing it tight behind her and encapsuling her in darkness.

She only stood for ten minutes in the dark. After a few moments, she her a faint knock: first three, then two, then one. That was the signal Rene arrived. She unlocked the door and he entered. He was holding a candle and she could see that past his bright blue eyes was fear. Unlike her, he had never seen battle as a chemist.

He reached his hand around and gently traced the outline of his son, and then he drew Abigail in for a tender embrace. She held on for dear life until he let go. Afterwards, she relocked the door behind Rene.

“We will need to run immediately to make as much distance between us and the guards,” he said solemnly. She nodded in agreement. He looked around the room in the candle-light and found what he was looking for. He walked to a wall covered in shelves and with great strain pulled the shelves away from the wall without knocking anything over. “There is a window I filed the grating out of. There should be enough room for you to slide Torin in first, then I will boost you through. I’ll come after.”

“How soon do you think they will notice we are gone?” Abigail asked. She watched his eyes trace to the floor, then to his remedy-satchel, and then back to her. “Whatever you imagine how soon it will be, it will be sooner than that.” he replied and immediately entered the gap behind the shelves of vegetables to force open the window.

She watched him pull the window out of its wooden casing and then for a minute wrestle with the iron lattice that was set in the stone keeping intruders from passing through. It came loose eventually and Rene slid the glass and the lattice through the window to the outside. He drew in a deep breath and looked at her. It was time for her to go.

Without hesitating, she gently pulled the sling Torin was sleeping in off her shoulder and set him outside the window, followed by her own bag. Rene bent down to give her a lift, but she didn’t need it-she lifted herself by the outer ledge through the window. The night air was warm and damp, and the wind blew wildly past her, making waves in the grass she could see in the sliver of candlelight from the window. After she was through, she refastened the baby and her belongings as the candle was snuffed out behind her.

The darkness enclosed her, and the reality of the situation set in as she realized she was outside the fortress walls for the first time since she left her home. It was eerie, unfamiliar, and while it meant freedom for her-it also meant a world of dangers she needed to protect her son from. She didn’t have much time to reflect though as Rene was through the window as well and started shuffling the shelf by some rope back against the wall. He numbly found the pane of glass and set it back into the wooden frame, and then he pushed the grating back to its original position.

“Let’s go. You run in front of me,” he instructed. She did as she was told and started jogging into the night.

As she ran she didn’t look back. Even though she would have enjoyed the view of the fortress with its windows lit up, she feared seeing the face of one of her friends in a window, and the natural event of their eyes meeting. Only this time their eyes would not meet in relaxed familiarity, but of confusion, fear and anger. No, looking back was tempting fate. She learned her lessons back when she read The Scriptures as a child. God punished wicked wives who looked back on their condemned friends, and she had to survive. Torin needed her to survive. After she set into a pace, her senses slowly numbed and she stopped feeling the weight hanging on her shoulders, the pain and pressure on the soles of her feet, and the fear in her chest subsided as rhythm took over.

They ran for three quarters of an hour before they heard the alarm bells. Rene called, “Stop.” and she did. She turned back and saw Rene behind her bending over leaning on his knees. “They have discovered we are gone. We are only half way to the wood. It’s going to be close.” They were both panting heavily as stopping killed the steady beat of footfalls. “Then we should start moving again.” she said. She turned and ran with Rene behind.

Urgency took over her heart beat now which made the run
irregular and strangely paced. The dark night sky started keeping pace with them as first light crept up from their backs. It was overcast with clouds, which gave the sky strange, long shadows that stretched miles across the atmosphere. They had timed their escape so that it would be dark as they crossed the pains and light as they entered the wood. Obviously the spring sun came earlier than they had planned and they were going to lose the night which was their only defence. Abigail could feel Torin stir as he noticed the light as well. She prayed he would remain asleep.

Finally with the sky almost completely lit, she could see the woods in front of her. She smiled and thought, ‘We are almost free.’

“Abby!” Rene cried and fear gripped her as tightly as the arms clapped around her knees and she fell to the ground. She put her hands out in time to catch herself and not crush the child underneath. “Rene! Are you mad?” She said to the ground. However as she lifted her head, without looking back, she saw an arrow stuck in the ground where her path was to cross. They had been found.

They both found their feet and ran wildly forward without the steadiness of their previous jog. They now knew they were running for their lives. They changed their course in bizarre zigzags to keep arrows from following their paths, and they were, as she saw them falling down sporadically left and right. They were only maybe five minutes from the wood, but she knew that they no longer would be able to stop running and walk upon entering the forest. The guards knew where they were and they would have to keep running through the brush.

The job to the woods felt like an eternity, but they both successfully made the tree line, with arrows lodging themselves into the oak trees that welcomed them.

After entering enough of the woods to block the arrows, she stopped running to Rene almost crashing into her, and just veering off to the right.

“What happens now, Rene?” she said in heavy exhale.

“I looked back,” he said. “They were on chocobos, and had stopped to take aim. Now that we are in the woods though they will start riding again to close in on us. We have to get you and Torin hidden. I can distract them if it comes down to it.”

“How?” She asked, and he opened his satchel and he pulled out something that brought fear up rapidly from her stomach to the back of her eyes. He was holding a pistol.

“No time to explain. We have to run,” he said, returning it to his bag. She nodded and shook off the knowledge that now she knew that they weren’t just being hunted down for leaving-they were also thieves. As they stood in that second in silence, Abigail finally heard Torin crying. She never even noticed when he started but his twisted face indicated for a while now. She lifted her hand over him, closed her eyes for force concentration and whispered, “Silence his cries to mask our fear. Silence.” White energy left her fingertips and settled over a into his neck. His face twisted in confusion as the strange sensation that took his throat, and his voice fell quiet as he shouted at the top of his lungs. She looked back up at Rene with quiet scorn for herself as she didn’t want to use magic on the baby, but their lives depended on it. Without a word after their eyes meeting they turned heel.

More running. The fields made running easy but now the forest floor was uneven with stones, puddles, and tortured looking roots, seeking to trip them up. No longer running in single file, she noticed Rene stumble a few times over uneven ground but he always caught himself. They could both sense the beat of chocobo feet behind them just out of sight and their eyes scanned the forest floor for cover. After a moment, she felt Rene pull on her sleeve and she followed him to a section of bushes that grew out of and covered a small dip in the forest floor. They settled and hid in silence, like two pheasants hoping the dog wouldn’t smell them in the hedge.

It was only two minutes before they saw large chocobo talons reach their line of sight along the forest floor. They stopped and they both held their breath and each other’s hands. Their chests vibrated with every word they heard from the guards.

“The trail ends around here, sir.” the first male voice said. A second set of talons approached the first and a deeper, more commanding voice replied. “We have to find them. Our lives depend on retrieving them and bringing back the stolen goods. What’s the most likely direction they could have gone on from here?”

A cold second passed. “I think I see a trail that way, but I won’t lie-it could be a wild chocobo trail. Only a couple seconds down it and I will be able to tell.”

“Alright, let’s head that way and if it doesn’t turn them up we will come back here and search. They could be hiding.”

The talons beat off. She silently counted five sets of feet. Abigail’s heart was beating with the strength of a train engine. She turned to Rene hoping he would know what to do next, but she found him digging through his bag with manic. He pulled out a round package wrapped in brown paper and string. His grip barely held it in one hand comfortably but he seemed to handle it without trouble. He held it out to Abigail.

“Abby. I need you to take this with you.” he whispered. She looked at it, and him, and now understood that the veracity of the search party wasn’t over escaped citizens or a stolen gun, but over something bigger that Rene had kept from her. She started to object but he cut her off. “There’s no time. Just trust me that it’s very important. Give it to Torin when he’s old enough to protect himself and tell him it’s from me as a memento.” Abigail reluctantly took the package and nestled it in Torin’s sling at his feet. She looked up again and this time Rene was holding the pistol. He reached over with his left hand which he placed over her neck and roughly kissed her.

“I will make sure they don’t follow you. You have to get our son out alive.” He started crawling out of the bush backwards. He stopped and took a last look at her.

“I love you Abigail. I’m not going to come back for you today, but I will. I promise I will.”

For the first time today, she forced back tears. “I will wait forever for you Rene. I love you too.”

She felt her words filled him with new strength and he left the bush and started crashing through the woods back where they came. After two minutes, the talons returned. She listened intently as they made a racked through the woods back to the spot.

“They must have been hiding, sir! Look, they doubled back.”

“After them! We’re too close to let them go!”

They galloped off and silently she counted five sets of talons again. She started to count to sixty in her head after they left, staring down at Torin and the strange package. She lost count however when curiosity gripped her. If she was going to risk her and Torin’s lives over stolen goods, she ought to know what they were. She unwrapped the paper with shaking hands and looked in wide eyed curiosity at what it wrapped. A large fir-green crystal about the size of the palm of her hand. It had strange cut edges and on its top flat cut, a strange ‘S’ was carved into it. She stared for a moment and her fear was washed away by curiosity for just a moment. Then she refocused her attention back to the situation at hand. She shoved the crystal back into the sling, and crept out of the bush. Just as she got to her feet, Abigail was jolted by a loud bang that came back from their original direction. She thought of Rene and his sacrifice, and began to run forward, away from the noise and into the unknown.