Alturiak 9, 1492 DR – The Massacre

They came in the night. The rookie I was keeping watch with died almost instantaneously. One moment he was standing near the fire, the next he lay dead with an arrow in his throat. I raised the alarm while seeking cover. I yelled for the people to get into the wagons. We did everything right. By all rights they should have called for parley. Our valuables in exchange for the lives of our charges. They did not. Ducked into cover Myron and I watched arrows attempt to pierce the sides of the wooden carts. After the second volley with no call of surrender he looked at me and he looked…resigned. I didn’t understand then. I do now. I have never felt the loss of Sargon so completely as that fight. We sounded the whistle, all of us charged, and we fought. We fought and died while they pulled women and children from the carts and slit their throats. We fought while they ran through old men and pregnant women. We didn’t save a single one. All the power I was promised, and not ONE survived…. At the end it was just Myron and I, back to back, against 6 of them. I was tired, and wounded, Myron was wounded and tired. And they still offered no quarter. The leader of their murderous band came at me and I just wasn’t fast enough. I could see the blade coming for my throat and I knew I wasn’t going to move in time. Myron pushed me out of the way, all he could do, and the blade took him across the chest, nearly slicing his spine. I was so angry. I could feel my body burning with it. It must be how Essy feels all the time. But more than that, my anger burned with cold. One moment hot, the next I felt like not even the sun god could have warmed me. I stared at the men around me, the murderous bastards who had slain without a single thought the charges I held dear. And I felt my rage grow so cold that it frosted my lips. Words I don’t even remember hissed from lips, spoken in my mind by the whispering sword. I won’t describe the horrible fate of those around me. But all that was left was the leader and myself. And I wasn’t afraid anymore. He ran.