Keepers of the Moon

Chapter 13. The King (7)

‘What do we do now? They’re going to come through eventually.’ She had quite a heavy accent, but it could not hide her fear.

‘Are there any exits we can use? Maybe we can walk around them?’ Even as I said it, I knew that we didn’t have another option. I had seen the way the trucks pulled up and surrounded the castle. We were pinned between the enemy, the Cuillin and the bay. Unless we could find a way to fly us out of here, there was no escaping. The only way out was through.

And I doubted we had enough manpower to do that.

‘I don’t think so. We’re pinned down.’ I nodded in agreement and rubbed the painful skin on my hands. There was blood on them, though I wasn’t sure whether it was mine or from the man I’d punched in the face. The weapon was now hanging awkwardly by my side, it put quite some strain on my shoulder, where the strap pushed deeply into the muscles. It was heavier than I thought and it became even heavier when I realised what I had done. That I’d done the one thing I’d sworn I would never do. That little piece of innocence that I could hold onto throughout my entire life, no matter how hard it got, was destroyed in the place I thought could become my home.

Such irony.

Though I did not truly resent what I’d done. I knew in my bone that I didn’t have another choice. If I hadn’t acted, I would be dead.

Abi would be dead.

But even I could not deny that the hatred burning inside my body wasn’t poisoning me. That was something I couldn’t truly justify. My hatred was real and came from a place of justice, but the way I wanted to act on it was less than honourable. I wanted to destroy the one who’d done this to me, not because it was the right thing to do, but because I truly felt that it would make me feel better.

‘Then we have to fight our way through.’ My words came out colder than I had intended. I was struck by a momentarily wave of doubt, which soon made place by determination. It was them or us. It was that simple.   

The girl didn’t say anything, but pressed her lips together. A single tear found its way onto her cheek. She didn’t seem to notice and let it run its course. I wondered if she had lost someone, if a friend was buried underneath the rubble. I didn’t dare to ask.

‘Maybe we can hide? I bet they don’t expect anybody in the west wing. You know, just hide between the rubble, wait for it all to end.’ She bit her lip, she was trembling. My first thought was that this was an act of cowardice. Hiding, while other were risking their lives, was wrong. But then I also realised that we weren’t soldiers, we didn’t know how to fight. We would be a liability for those fighting with us. We would get in their way and maybe even endanger them. Hiding was the smarter option.

Though it still felt wrong. These people took me in, cared for me even though they knew that I was having fun with the enemy. They were good people, they deserved my allegiance.

‘I’m really scared. I don’t want to fight.’ Her voice was so heartbreakingly small that I swallowed hard. This was not Mere. She was not the brave, reckless girl that I knew. This was just a random girl thrown into a war. A random girl that had not known the hardships that I did. Of course she was scared.

‘Me neither.’ I lied. Because I did want to fight. Even if it was the last thing I’d do.

‘Yes you do.’ She gave me a wry smile, but didn’t judge me. It was a sweet gesture, a little piece of kindness in the chaos unfolding around us. A little bit of humanity. It somehow decreased the burning in my chest and it cleared my head a little. The hatred that was consuming me was waning. Though it never truly left me.

‘I was lost, for a long time. I was searching for a way to turn my life around. These people – your people – took me in and cared for me, even though I was a stranger. I want to fight, because I feel like I have to repay all of you. One way or the other.’ She nodded.

For a little while we walked silently through the castle. It was oddly calm, the blaring alarms had been turned off. The flickering red emergency lighting had ceased and only the dim lighting of tiny wall lamps lighted our way inside the black walled corridor. It was almost completely deserted. We were passed by several groups of security personnel, but they just ignored us. All they cared about was the fighting going on outside. Though it had probably already shifted toward the inner walls of the castle.

There were so many men out there.

So few of us.

The smoke was getting thicker again, we were closing in on the west wing, which apparently had been completely destroyed. It did make sense to go there. As long as the fires weren’t too large, we could hide between the rubble. Wait for nightfall and then hopefully slip out in the darkness. It didn’t look like a bad idea, though I still wanted to fight.

Then we heard exited voices coming from ahead. I knew that there was a communal living room which also served as a break room. People were usually playing the pool table, while sipping away at piping hot coffee. I’d spent one afternoon there when Erin and I had finished our work early. The old couches were particularly comfortable.

The room was now crowded with people, though the usual excited buzzing of voices had been replaced by rapid, panicky exchanges. I knew most of the faces, yet barely any names. They all looked afraid and lost. Some of the people were wounded, though apart from one man, most of them had only sustained minor damages. Between the faces I found an ashen-faced Ben. He was handing out bandages, but seemed in dire need of some medical assistance himself. He too was covered in white dust and his jumper was torn away from his left arm. The skin underneath had blistered and in some place completely stripped away. It wasn’t bleeding, but looked extremely painful. His usual curly hair was standing upright, encrusted by concrete. His eyes were red, not just from crying.

I walked over to him and when he saw me he panicked for a minute.

‘The children are safe, they made it out.’ The words poured out fast, but they were exactly what he needed to hear, because he instantly calmed down. For a moment I thought he wanted to say something, but then he just nodded and started to wipe away the dust from my head.

‘You got hurt.’ Without waiting for an explanation he cleaned the wounds on my face. The alcohol stung on my skin and I only now realised that I must look like hell. The falling debris had left me with bleeding gashed all over my body, though luckily I didn’t really feel any of those.

‘Are you all right though?’ I nodded to his arm and he just shrugged.

‘Western wing is gone. All fire. Barely anyone came out.’ It was as good an explanation I was going to get. He looked really shaken and I couldn’t blame him. He had apparently been close to the western wing when the first bomb went off. Considering the blast he had been very lucky. Though many of his friends most likely were still inside. A lot of them probably hadn’t made it.

‘Did you find Meav?’

He stopped working for a few seconds, a painful look on his face. Then he kept going, cleaning the dust of my face with steady hands. I felt guilty for asking, he probably lost a lot of his closest friends today. On top of that he also had to deal with the disappearance of his mother. If it was really true that Mo Bhean was his mother. Somehow.

The girl that I’d come in with was now talking to an elderly man. He was eerily calm and was comforting her with a few strong pats on her back. The weapon was still in her hands, her knuckles white. She barely seemed to register everything around her.

‘Did you get a few of them?’ The sudden shift in Ben’s voice made me tear my eyes off of her. They were cold and calculating. Almost longing for my answer. There was an anger inside him that I hadn’t seen before. He looked, like I felt.

Vengeful.

He wanted Nordlys to pay.

‘I don’t know. I wasn’t even aiming. Just shooting.’ I shrugged apologetically. A tight knot had formed inside my stomach. Now that I said it out loud, the ramifications truly hit me.

‘Good.’

I bit my lip, so hard that I tasted blood. I had been acting this way, I had thought the exact same thing. Did I really want to become someone like that? Someone so full of hatred that I couldn’t see right from wrong anymore? I knew that that wasn’t the case, yet I also felt the way Ben was feeling. It was a mutual understanding. We needed to do something.

Then we were all startled by the sudden static noise coming from the radios inside the castle. A heavy, booming voice echoed through the room and my blood turned cold. I knew that voice. I had heard it only once before, but it had haunted me the entire night. I had hoped to never hear that voice again.

‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. By now you have all witnessed the immense strength of my men. You have fought bravely, but all for naught. Your King has left you. He hid away while you were laying down your life for him. Surrender now and you will be spared. You will get to see your family again. Pledge your allegiance to the new King and walk away unscathed. Fail to do so and you will be obliterated. If the fighting continues we will see this as an act of high treason the penalty for this crime is dead. Your faith is in your hands.’

Everything had fallen silent. Horrified faces looked around in disbelief. We all knew it, we had heard it. King Einar was inside the castle, he had send King Domhnall fleeing. And Domhnall had gotten away, but we were left abandoned. Caledonia had fallen, Nordlys would move in.

Einar would be crowned King.