Cita drew on the thing that looked like a girl.
She stood with her fists balled. Her sapphire eyes caught the last rays of the sun as it slipped beyond the horizon.
The two smaller things clung to her legs, trying to hide behind her simple skirt. One burst into a fresh round of tears.
"Enough!" Bilal stepped into the battle line in the growing darkness. "Cita, lower your weapon. Girl, we mean no harm. Please, comfort the young one."
Steady golden eyes soothed the girl enough that she lowered herself to hug the youngsters.
Cita fumed but complied.
'I can't shoot through Bilal, anyway.' He snarled and went to find his broken arrow, scuffling through the growing darkness.
Locating it, he glared at the shattered shaft. He picked it up and carefully untwisted the arrow's tip. After tucking the tip in a zippered pocket on his quiver, he inspected the fletching on the shaft. 'Can I salvage it to fix another arrow?' He scowled and tucked the arrow into the quiver, too.
He turned back to see Bilal crouched down, talking with the things that looked like children.
One of the smaller ones reached toward the kitten that was back on the one-winged man's shoulder.
The biggest pointed toward one of the buildings.
Golden eyes tracked the gesture.
Cita scowled at them.
'What is he thinking? How can he be so trusting?'
Rashida stomped up to Cita.
"What were you doing — shooting at children?" she hissed. "That's… you don't do that!"
"They're Infected! The entire village fell to the Infected — you can't believe it just skipped them!" Cita hissed back, waving at the survivors in question.
"You don't know that. You can't know that. My Lady Staryu says they are no danger to us." Rashida folded her arms over her chest. "She would not be mistaken."
Cita hesitated but shook his head. "I'm going to check the rest of the village." He pulled an arrow from his quiver, double-checked it for damage in the fading light, and turned away from the healer.
"You can't!" She raised her voice in protest. "You can't go alone. There could be some Infected still in the village."
Cita sucked in a breath and glared at her.
'Of course the Infected are still in the village!'
Bilal rose from his crouch and turned toward the new argument.
"Exactly what alternatives are there?" Cita challenged. He fought to keep his hands from shaking. "The sun is nearly set. The village is obviously not secure."
Heat flared at his back. He almost sobbed as it bathed his flesh.
"There. I'm not alone. Nocturne will come with me."
The stallion wrapped around his back, chasing the chill from Cita's bones. Nocturne nosed Cita's cheek before dancing away.
"I will come with you, as well. It is not safe to separate," Bilal said.
"So, what — we leave the blind healer with these …" Cita waved at the children.
"I am a healer and suited to tend to their needs. My Lady Staryu grants me eyes to see as she wills," Rashida reminded him. "We will be fine."
She glided to the children with Aspen following close.
"Fine!" Cita checked his bow and arrows. He stalked toward the closest house.
A grimy cloth hung in place of a door.
Cita patted Nocturne. "Wait out here."
Bilal exchanged a quiet word with Rashida before accompanying Cita into the house.
In Nocturne's dancing light, the inside of the one-room house was as depressing as the outside. It was grey, with a family's meager possessions scattered and broken on the floor. Cita averted his eyes from three ravaged corpses.
"It's all broken," he whispered. He watched Bilal sweep the room.
"Come." The warrior spoke softly. "There is nothing we can do here."
The next house was similar, except the floor was wooden instead of dirt. It creaked with each step. The middle was darkly stained, and the only corpse seemed to have been shoved across the floor. Smudged footprints led away, fading to invisibility before they reached the door.
Cita shuddered and retreated to stand near Nocturne. It felt like hours before Bilal emerged and they moved on.
Hovel by hovel, they explored the village. It was devoid of life, lacking the typical scavengers found around human habitation. The final house was larger than the others, with a tiled roof and a sealed metal door. There was no handle.
Cita pried at the door, but it didn't budge. He cocked his head to the side and peered and the small, round protrusion at head-height. He pressed a finger to the smooth, cold glass bubble. 'That almost looks like a peephole. But …'
"Is it locked?" he asked. "One real door in this …" His eyes scanned the desolate village. He did not finish the thought aloud.
"This is where we would have checked in with Baron Dorf's officials." Bilal contemplated the solid building. He pushed against the door.
"So someone could be inside, waiting for … all this … to stop? For the Infected to go away?"
"Hmm." Bilal made a noncommittal noise. "The girl — Ryka — said that the Infected swarmed the village three days ago, as best she can tell."
Cita flinched, and his hands started to tremble again. He stowed his arrow and clenched his bow in both hands, pretending to inspect the upper limb and cam.
"She and the twins were shut in a hidden cellar. The Infected could not reach them after their mother was slain on top of the trapdoor."
Cita remembered the bloodstained, wooden floor. He ignored the tears that leaked down his cheeks.
"How do you know all that?"
"I asked." Bilal paused, waiting for Cita's response.
'That's what he was doing when Rashida was attacking me over those Infected?' Talking to them? Cita sank his teeth into his lower lip.
Bilal continued, "If anything human was in this place," he thumped the door for emphasis, "it would have long since come out."
Golden eyes turned back to Cita. "It was not well-done of you to shoot at the children."
Red-orange eyes widened. "Not … you …" Cita ground his teeth and turned away. "You trusted me in the forest. What changed?"
"It is not the same," Bilal said. "The forest … it was an unknown. These? They are children!"
Cita bit his lips.
'They're not children! They're Infected!'
When Cita didn't respond, Bilal led the way back to the well.
Rashida washed the not-children's hands and feet with a bucket of water drawn from the well. Ryka washed her long, dark hair in another bucket. The tousled, damp locks of the younger children said they already met the same fate.
"Anything?" Rashida asked.
"Nothing … unexpected," Bilal offered. "Are the children injured?"
"Physically they're malnourished and dehydrated." She huffed in annoyance. "I've given them some of the jerky, but little Zara and darling Jay don't have the teeth for that." She smiled fondly at the small children.
Cita jerked back, seeking refuge behind Nocturne. The maternal expression on the healer's face rocked him like a physical assault. After slinging his bow, he buried his face in the stallion's flaming neck and focused on breathing.
"That isn't natural!" Rashida's tone was hostile again.
Cita strove to repel her anger.
"Yesterday, flames didn't harm him but destroyed his clothes," she continued. "Today, everything he holds is safe from the fire? And you lied when you said his name was Cita!"
"I did not lie. He goes by Cita, just as you go by Rashida."
Rashida bristled like a surly porcupine and said, "I don't share a name with —"
Bilal continued over her, "That is the least of our worries. We have a village of the dead, and it is full night now. The children are not going to be able to walk far, and the forest—"
"The children?" Cita turned back to the discussion. "Those things are not coming with us!"
Bilal looked as blank as ever, but Rashida's gaze was hot and angry.
Ryka's eyes flashed in Nocturne's light as she, too, glared at him.
"Whatever," Cita turned back to Nocturne and buried his face in the flaming mane.
'They're not going to listen this time.' He reminded himself, 'Terrible things happened to those so-called children.'
**They're still dangerous,** the youth whispered.
Cita spun, searching the blue-hazed village.
**Not the most dangerous thing here, but still a threat.**
"It doesn't matter what the most dangerous thing is, Cita." Bilal's voice cut through Cita's introspection.
Cita jumped.
"Wait — you heard that?"
"Yes, I heard you. But we need to clear the village. Do you think you can burn it behind us? Without the fire breaking loose?" Golden eyes drifted from Cita to the sealed metal door.
Images crowded Cita's eyes. Flames. A low brick building, burning. Screams rang in his ears.
"Burn the village," he echoed, speaking over the screams. "Oh, yeah. I can do that."
Grabbing Nocturne's flaming mane, he pulled himself astride. The stallion pranced, excited. The crimson flames that crawled up his powerful legs deepened to blue.