Chills snaked through me. Li and his men hadn’t just set fire to the Community—they’d slaughtered everyone who’d chosen to stay, including Father.
Months ago, a troll had killed Mother. Now, my own people had killed Father. The world was full of monsters, Stef had said before. I hadn’t realized sometimes those monsters could look like people.
“Father is dead.” Saying it out loud didn’t make the turmoil of my emotions any clearer, though. No matter what he’d done to me, he’d still been my father.
“He died bitter and angry,” Fayden muttered. “Just like he lived.”
“He died alone, believing the worst of us.”
Stef swore under his breath. “Everything is going to burn. Everything we ever knew will be gone.”
Fayden had thought they’d die without the Community.
In a way, they had.
“You know what this means?” I whispered, watching the blaze rise higher.
“What’s that?” asked my brother.
“We’re never going back. Wherever Meuric is taking us, that’s where we’re staying for the rest of our lives.”
We’d been traveling for a week before I finally had a chance to try the flute. Since it wasn’t an instrument Mother or Grandmother had played, I knew very little about it, but Stef’s aunts—collectors of every book they could find—had discovered some beginner practice books in their possession. They’d given the books to me only after Stef had promised them I’d learn how to play something incredible for them.
With that in mind, I was sitting on top of the wagon practicing breathing across the mouth plate when I spotted the riders in the distance.
“Hey!” I lifted my flute into the air and waved for the neighboring wagons. “Riders!”
Along the line of wagons, other lookouts stood and peered into the distance. The riders were still a ways off, but their horses covered the distance between us quickly. There were a lot of them, and while Meuric and the Council regularly sent scouts in different directions, I’d never seen this many people returning at once. There had to be a hundred or more.
Maybe they were other people—people from another Community that had survived the Cataclysm.
Quickly, I disassembled my flute and dropped into the wagon to put it away.
“Hey, watch out.” Whit ducked out of my way as I found my feet. She eyed my flute. “You didn’t practice long.”
“There are people out there. Coming from the plains.”
Her eyebrows rose beneath her heavy black bangs. “Really?” She climbed onto the roof while I shoved my flute into its spot. “Oh, Sam.”
I scurried up the hatch after her, and hauled myself onto the roof. The riders were closer now. There were more than I had originally thought. Two hundred, at least; maybe more. They were armed with bows and spears, and just under the pounding of hooves, I could hear the roar of their yelling.
“Those aren’t riders.” Whit stood at my side, gazing eastward. “Those are centaurs. Part human, part horse.”
I squinted. She was right. The human parts were so far forward, they couldn’t have been people sitting astride horses. Their bodies were long and slender, and their faces much narrower than a human’s. And as they drew nearer, they raised their weapons. At us.
All along the caravan, people shouted and pointed. Men took to their horses and kicked them toward the plains, where the centaurs began loosing their arrows.
“We’re under attack,” Whit breathed. She scrambled toward the front of the wagon, where Orrin drove the team of ponies. “Don’t stop the wagon. No matter what, keep going.”
I couldn’t hear Orrin’s response over the rush of wind as the wagon jerked faster. On the road ahead, everyone was moving more quickly, while the warriors who’d been riding alongside the caravan broke off, wielding swords as well as bows.
Fayden appeared on horseback, just below my perch on the edge of the wagon. “Protect our things, Dossam.”
“Me?” Before I could find out how I was supposed to do that, Fayden took off toward the centaurs, along with the warriors and people who were supposed to protect the caravan.
Arrows rained from the lines of centaurs, most landing in the ground, but a few—too many—hit their marks. Bodies rolled off their horses, onto the ground.
Desperately, I gathered up my sling and a few rocks that were scattered on the wagon roof. Whit was already back inside the wagon, and I wasn’t sure where Stef had gone. As the caravan moved faster, and the world came alive with shouts and screams and the sounds of people dying, I pressed my stomach to the roof and watched the battle, trying to find Fayden in the mess of people.
Everyone moved so quickly. Nothing made sense. Humans seemed to be winning, thanks to our greater numbers, but the centaurs were fast and frightening warriors.
A centaur slipped through the human ranks, coming right at my wagon.