Chapter 24

Sometimes when the lightning flashed he cringed at the brightness despite himself. Sometimes he saw the clouds overhead, and in the all-wrong lighting it looked as if the sky were covered with bruises.

And the wind sounded just malevolent. It carried some noises and blotted out others. He heard a neglected shutter banging, yet the wind ate away the sounds of their own steps on the road. Somewhere a cat screamed out angrily. It ended much to abruptly.

The others were tense, too. He could see it in their shoulders when he looked around. Agmar's poise seemed forced. He wondered if maybe the wound in his back still bothered him some.

Lynna and Stott were holding hands tightly, their knuckles white together. Should I be bringing them out in this? he asked himself. Then again, Agmar had started it. He was bringing them, and Avern had come with. Should I have said something? Shouldn't she be somewhere safe? Eventually he had to concede that she was an adult, even if just barely, and that the town needed her. It was a thought he was not altogether comfortable with.

There was still music coming from the schoolhouse, but the lighting and music both were more subdued than before. Gone were the shadows of dancers in the windows.

As they neared the building he could hear the sounds of crying instead of singing. The music was more subdued than their last visit and came from a couple of instruments instead of children's voices. It sounded to Avern like a flute and a stringed instrument, possibly mandolin. They filed into the door and Avern found himself suddenly surrounded by a small group of people who all tried to tell him things at once. He couldn't make out what any one of them was saying, much less them all, so he raised his hands in protest.

"Please! One at a time! I can't hear you all at once."

They quieted down and Avern pointed at the schoolmaster, who'd been standing patiently at the back of the group, not saying a word.

"Mr. Terrence, why don't you start by telling me what's been happening here since my last visit?"

"Of course," he replied, stepping forward. He cleared his throat and started by recounting the story of the Smithe family, and how their son Leon had fallen under the evil's influence and killed his six-year-old sister. Avern listened, having not been there to see all of what had occurred at the Surf and Sleep prior to his arriving and seeing the dead girl on the floor and Erica Smithe being bound. The schoolmaster recounted several more instances, similar in nature to the one with Leon, but they had known better what to look for and gathered the children together shortly after binding Leon, to make sure they were all accounted for and awake.

However, there had been eight other children who'd fallen asleep, and twelve deaths as a result, two of which had been children. The Harris' two-year-old son had been dashed headfirst against a wall repeatedly by the Richard's twelve-year-old boy, and Elton Mitchell had inadvertantly killed the Akern girl while trying to fend off her attacks. The other ten deaths had been adults, a few unaware that the children were dangerous and most in the process of trying to catch the children to subdue them. As Avern looked around, he could see that they had already taken the precaution of binding the rest of the children. Many were crying and unhappy with the situation, and he could see many of their parents weren't pleased as well. Mothers cried as they rocked their children in their arms, trying to ease their discomfort. By the time Mr. Terrence finished telling the tale, Avern felt weak in the knees from just hearing it all.

"We came here to make sure you bound them, so you've done well here. The children won't be able to stay awake as long as the adults, but you need to make sure to watch for any of them falling asleep as well. Remind the groups to watch over one another for signs they can't stay awake any longer. We don't want the adults falling prey and starting to kill the now helpless children next," Avern finished, taking it to the logical conclusion. Mr. Terrence paled a bit and nodded.

"Yes, that would be tragic. I'll remind them. Morale is rather low at the moment. The music helps, but..." he trailed off for a moment. "I'm accustomed to a classroom full of children who would rather be outdoors than doing sums. I've no real experience in situations such as this."

"I don't think any of us has had to deal with a situation such as this one before," Avern told him. "You're doing very well, considering."

"FIRE!" one man's voice yelled from behind them.

Avern and those around him turned and rushed back outside, towards the voice that had called out. Avern recognized the man as being from one of the cargo ships, but found his attention quickly caught by the pillar of flames that rose high enough that he felt sure it must touch the clouds above. He quickly estimated in his mind where in town the fire was coming from.

"Gods! That's where Bentz's group is!" he exclaimed when he pinpointed the location.

"Emilee!" Lynna took off at a sprint towards the fire.

"Lynna!" Avern heard his own voice in chorus with Stott's as they called out to stop her. Stott rushed off after her, Avern only a few steps behind. He could hear others running along with them, headed towards the flaming column. Avern noticed, as he ran, that the fire seemed unaffected by the hard wind that whipped in his face, as if it was trying to push him backwards and keep him from getting to the warehouse.

He ran there cursing Bentz to the best of his ability. Mostly he repeated the same couple over and over. Of course they ignored the warnings. Agmar suggested half of them, and he was right.

There were more children there than just Emmilee's. He ran to try to keep up with his daughter, but she was swift. Stott was keeping up with her, though. Avern kept within sight of her, but it was the best he could do. He tried calling out for her to wait, but was breathing too hard from running to yell with any real effect.

It was not so far a run that he really fell behind, and the pillar of flames rose up ahead like the wrath of an angry god. A handfull of people stood outside, staring with shocked and horrified faces. He recognized most of them. A few made it out. What if that's it? So help me, if Bentz lives through this I'll kill him.

There were people screaming inside. But it was not the screams of people burning alive. It was the screams of trapped and terrified people. "Gods, it's toying with them," he panted.

"Their fear is fueling the flames," Agmar said behind him, his voice calm and level and showing no signs of exertion. Avern turned, confused by it. Agmar stood there showing no signs of exertions. His hair blew in the driving wind, but still looked less disheveled than the rest of them. "That flame has a lot to draw from, it will be difficult to battle. I will not be able to draw and gather it as I did at Lloyd's.

"We have to do something," Lynna shouted from closer to the flames. Avern looked back and realized that it was only the outside walls of the building on fire. Lynna moved towards the doors. "Can we make an opening?" she pleaded.

"Just as you would manipulate the air to make a bubble of it," he explained. "You try to get them out, I will see what I can do about fighting or containing the flame."

"There are buckets prepared all over," Avern suggested. "Not enough," Agmar replied.

Agmar lifted his hand in the direction of the waterfront and a column of water rose up in the distance. It arched over the city and sprayed down on the column of fire. It diminished the flame, but even Avern could tell it would not be enough.

"I will keep it from spreading, Avern. Help Lynna and Stott get people out."

Avern moved quickly to his daughter, who was standing a few feet back from the fire with her arms out in front of her and a determined look on her face. Stott stood next to her, a few steps closer to the fire, his eyes darting back and forth between her and the flames. Lynna appeared to be straining, her jaw clenched and body somewhat rigid. He was sure she was holding her breath.

"Don't forget to breathe Lynna," he said quietly, hoping to get the words through to her without breaking her concentration. To his relief, he saw her chest rise and her nose flare.

"There. Hurry," she said. Avern turned and saw a small opening growing in the flames where the front door had once been. Once it got to a certain size, Stott knelt down and tried yelling towards it.

"This way! Get out of there! Over here!"

Avern knelt down next to him and peered into the hole, which had grown to about half a man's height. He yelled with Stott, but the people inside didn't seem to be able to hear him.

"They can't hear us!" he yelled to Stott. The wind around them had grown louder and harsher, and the flames themselves were crackling loudly, almost as if laughing cruelly at their punitive efforts.

"I'll go!" Stott yelled back. Before Avern could stop him, he lunged through the hole in the fire. The flames seemed to reach for him as he passed, and Avern watched him roll on the ground inside the warehouse to put out the flames that had caught onto his clothing.

"Stott, NO!" Lynna screamed. Avern stepped back from the flames some as the opening wavered and he felt the fire grow hotter before him.

"Focus Lynna! Keep it open!" he yelled back at her. Suddenly he lost his footing and slipped to the ground as water crashed around him. The flames still stood defiant, although their height had diminished again. Avern turned to see another column of water heading towards a different wall to douse it next. He got to his feet. The opening was almost as tall as he was now. He could see Stott pushing people towards it, and reached out to them, beckoning.

"Come on! Hurry! You have to get out of there!" he cried as the first person stumbled out of the opening. The woman's skirt caught fire as she passed through, and she screamed and spun wildly, the flames enveloping her faster than Avern would have thought possible. He ran forward and threw her to the ground, rolling her and trying to suffocate the flames with his hands. She screamed horribly, and he could smell the terrible stench of burning flesh. Some of the flames grabbed onto his sleeves and he pulled away to put them out, suddenly thankful that most of him was wet from Agmar's column of water. Only a small portion of the sleeves had caught, and he got it out quickly, but when he turned back to try and help the woman again, she had stopped moving and screaming. He could see her face through the flames, mouth frozen open in a terrified scream, her skin black and charred. He turned back towards the opening and saw others catching fire as they tried to escape the flames. Lynna had made the hole the size of the double-door opening at the front of the building, but the flames were leaping into it, catching the edges of people's clothing and hungrily consuming the fabric as quickly as they could. Some knew to drop to the ground and roll, others flailed about, their agonizing screams piercing the air. Another column of water poured down on the front wall, putting out the people burning on the outside in the process. Avern got to his feet and ran to the opening.

"When you get out, roll on the ground! Right away! Roll on the ground in case you've caught fire!" he cried out to them. Suddenly he saw a man run through the hole with a pitchfork in his hands, pointed towards Avern. For a few moments everything seemed to move in slow motion, yet happened more quickly than he could react. The man's clothes caught fire as he passed through the opening in the flames. The man's hair caught fire quickly and he didn't seem to care that he was burning.

Who is that? Avern's mind somehow found time to wonder. I think he's one of the caravan merchants...Bret something or other. Hey! His eyes are red!

He took several steps, trying to run backwards away from the man when his heel caught on something and he fell backwards to the ground, the wind being knocked out of him in the process. Stunned for a moment, he tried to roll away from the pitchfork before the man could bring it down on him. He almost made it, the pitchfork only catching half of him, skewering part of his midsection to the ground.

"Father!" Lynna screamed. "Stott, Agmar, someone help him!"

Avern couldn't see anything but the man, who fell upon him and started punching and clawing at Avern's face like an animal. Avern put his arms up, trying to fend off the attacks, when the man suddenly flew backwards through the air and into the wall of the flaming building. Avern pulled the pitchfork out of himself, throwing it to one side and trying to get up again. As he sat up, he doubled over, the pain too great, and he lay on his side in a fetal position.

He saw Lynna fall to her knees, both arms still held out towards the building and a look of desperation on her face.

"I can't hold it much longer, it's getting harder!" she screamed.

He turned his head towards the opening, and saw the flames had started to get thicker at the front of the building, and licked out towards Lynna, as if following a path from the opening. Agmar seemed to be concentrating the water columns there, but still the flames grew hotter. It looked as if people were fighting amongst each other to get out of the building, some catching on fire while still inside. He saw the column of fire above the building join together and turn inward, starting down to engulf the building entirely. He felt as if he was about to burn just from the heat of it.

"Stott! Get out NOW!" Lynna cried. Stott seemed to catapult himself out of the building, just as the flames came down and audibly hit the roof, instantly engulfing it in flame. Lynna fell forward, crumpling in a heap on the ground and letting the opening close. People screamed from inside, as the flames ebbed slowly downward to the ground, consuming them in its path. Avern turned and retched on the ground, the smell of burning flesh being blown directly over those outside the building. When he looked back again, another column of water appeared to be finally putting the flames out, but the impact of it caused some of the roof and wall to collapse inward, as the fire-gutted structure gave out.

Avern watched helpless as it slowly collapsed in on itself. It happened too slowly, as if the evil was purposefully dragging it out. He supposed it was. Several of those who had escaped screamed while those who did not slowly roasted to death.

Like many of those outside, Avern stood in shock. Many fell to sitting. Quite a few vomited. Avern supposed that as many as thirty, perhaps as many as forty, had escaped. That meant that three or four times as many had not. He did not know of any single event that had claimed so many lives at once in the town's history. The blaze roared, dominating the subdued-seeming howling of the wind. He could hear heavy timbers cracking and breaking as the building finished falling in upon itself.

Lynna was hugging him. He hugged her back, unintentionally leaning on her for support. She was just as soaked as he was. Her hair smelled like the sea. A dead fish lay on the street. He did not know whether to laugh or cry. He did not manage to do either.

Stott was touching Lynna's shoulder. Avern looked over at him and nodded approvingly. He wondered if the boy would understand what a father's approving nod looked like. Later he would have to say something.

"Lynna," Agmar said, "let us see what we can do for the injured."

"Daddy, people need you," Lynna said in his ear.

"Can you heal this first?" He realized he'd been keeping one fist tightly against the wound where the pitchfork had punctured him, and he pulled it back. "I'm afraid he got me," he told her, gritting his teeth against the pain that seemed to be worse now that the blood flowed freely and the pressure was off of it.

Lynna put her hand over it, and he felt heat soak into the wound, increasing in intensity for a few moments until it felt like it was about to burn him. Then she removed her hand and the heat receding again as rapidly as it had come. He noticed that she looked exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her cheeks were streaked with dirt and tears. She looked like she was in some shock herself. He pulled her back into his arms and hugged her tightly.

Gods! I hate this! She's been through too much already, how can we keep asking her for more?

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" he asked.

"I'm not hurt," she answered, muffled a little by his shirt. Avern realized that the wind had died down some around them once the screaming from inside the building had stopped. The flames seemed to be dying of their own accord, and what was left of the walls were crumpling, ash being thrown up into the air around them to drift back down like black snow. Everyone was coated in soot and ash, mingled with the water from the bay.

Lynna pulled back and looked at him.

"They need you more right now. I need to help Agmar heal people."

"You are so like your mother," he told her, kissing her forehead. "Go heal them."

She gave him a smile and another quick hug before she turned and headed towards Agmar, who'd already gone to start healing people's burns. Stott followed close at her heels. Avern rose to his feet and took a few long breaths until he'd managed to stop shuddering. He headed towards the pitifully small group of survivors, trying to organize his thoughts on the way. He wondered if there was still room at Mary's for these people, as he had a feeling they might not want to join the other warehouse group at this point. He tried to put away the thoughts of all those who had just died, as it brought dizziness and nausea every time he did. He did his best to collect himself by the time he reached them.

He stopped just short of the group. There was some coughing from a few people, and the sounds of crying, but nobody spoke. He saw looks of shock on many faces - disbelief as they stared at the broken, burned building. He saw looks of guilt on others. Some just sat and cried. He cleared his throat.

"We've just suffered a tremendous loss. More terrible than anything we've ever been through here in Eagle's Harbor. More terrible than we ever imagined could happen in our quiet little town. But we..." he paused a moment, needing to collect himself more before continuing. "We have to keep our wits about us. We can't give up or it will get worse. We'll have time to mourn those that we've lost later. Right now we need to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive, or there will be nobody left to mourn them." He paused a moment, to let that sink in before continuing.

"I am going to go and see if there's room for all of you at Mary's inn. If you are wounded, make sure that either Lynna or Agmar heals you. You all need to understand that there are no grudges being held against you for choosing to join with Bentz. He made an error in judgement."

"He's alive," one man said. Avern recognized him as one of the cargo ship captains.

"Bentz is?"

"I saw him get out. He's not here now though. But I saw him get out of the building." The man's voice was filled with loathing.

"Bentz will get what's coming to him, whether by the evil that did this or by trial when this is over. If he lives long enough to be tried, his fate will be decided by a popular vote. For the moment, however, Jacob Bentz is no longer welcome to join with us. The lives of those people lie on his shoulders. I will not watch more friends die because of him." Avern saw his own anger reflected in the faces and nods of the survivors.

"For now," he continued, after taking a moment for a cleansing breath, "we must set our anger aside. The evil feeds off our anger and our fear. Let us not give it more of what it wants."

He could see that Lynna and Agmar were nearly finished with the healing. He saw people nod thankyous to Agmar and hugging Lynna. Some of the faces around him looked guilty, some regretful, and some apologetic. But he had meant what he said about not holding any grudges.

It was actually going to be a relief to have everyone united again. He hadn't felt any less responsible for these people, but he hadn't been able to do anything for them. Now he could see that they were protected--at least as protected as anyone else.

After the healing Agmar stood to the side a moment. It looked as though he was listening to people talking to Lynna. She stood amongst a group of people who were apologizing, or explaining that they hadn't meant any offense or that they had just been ignorant of magic or swayed by political pressure. She stood in the middle of it with a noble humbleness that was even more impressive coming from one of her age.

He took the moment to catch Agmar's attention. "I think we should take them as a group to Mary's. We'll house as many as we can there, and then move the rest to the next location, and so on. I think that makes more sense that splitting them arbitrarily."

"I agree."

"Good. I'll go ahead and let Mary know we're coming. That will give them a chance to figure out how many they can take."

"Who would you like coming with you?"

"No one. I'll go alone."

"That is not wise, and you know that."

"I know, Agmar. But I need it. I need some time. I think you know what I mean. I only have so much strength to show people, and that's what they need to see."

"I understand. I will monitor your progress until you reach the inn. I think I can arrange some small delay and a slower pace. Expect perhaps twenty minutes or so between when you arrive and we do."

"Thank you."

He headed off at a quick pace, not wanting to delay alone on the streets any longer than necessary, as his head still rung with the screams of those recently dead. Once he was safely out of earshot, the tears began to roll down his cheeks as his mind tried to make a mental list of the names of people he had known who had just burned to death. Once he had reached the halfway point between the burned warehouse and Mary's inn, the first sob broke to the surface, followed by more. He stopped for a moment and vomited again, shouldering his weight against a tree until there was nothing left in his stomach. He turned and kept moving, knowing he couldn't afford to stop.

When he reached Mary's he stayed in the shadows and moved around to the back entrance, trying to reel in his emotions some again. He'd managed to stop sobbing by the time he reached to back steps. To his relief, it was Marcus who he encountered first. The man was emptying a bucket of water out the back.

"Marcus?" he said quietly. The man turned, holding the bucket up as if ready to throw it until he apparently recognized Avern and lowered it again.

"Could you get Mary please?" Marcus nodded and went inside, leaving the empty bucket on the step near the door. Avern settled heavily onto the step, the weight of his own body feeling like more than he could bear for the moment, and he dropped his head into his hands.

"Avern?" Mary's voice was quiet, undermined by the squeaking of the hinges on the back door and her footsteps as she made her way outside. A part of him suddenly couldn't bear to face her, despite the fact that he knew he needed her right now more than ever. He made himself raise his head to look at her, and the worry in her face deepened at the sight of his.

"Avern, what's happened?" She knelt down on the step next to him and her arms went around him. He opened his mouth to speak and tears came anew instead, overwhelming him. He buried himself into her arms for a moment, letting some of his sadness out before he could find it in himself to speak. He raised his head and took a few deep breaths before beginning.

"I need to know if you can house about 30 or 40 more."

"It's tight already, but I suppose we can manage if we need to. What's happened, Avern?"

"That's all that's left of Bentz's group." He watched the look of shock and disbelief wash over her face.

"We were able to get about 30 or more out," he told her. "But...oh gods, Mary! I heard them burning to death! It was killing them slowly and I couldn't do a damned thing to stop it! One woman was outside but caught on fire getting out and I tried to help her but the fire burned too fast and... I can't do this Mary! They made me mayor and I've let them down! I couldn't protect them!"

"Avern, look at me." She took his face in her hands. "It's not your fault, what happened. They chose to separate from the rest of us and they put themselves at risk! You tried to warn them and you didn't abandon them, you said you even got some of them out!"

"They were burning, Mary..."

"Shhhh." She pulled him into her arms and rocked back and forth, one of her hands rubbing a pattern on his back while the other held him close. "We're going to get through this Avern. It's not easy but we're going to make, alright? You have to promise me you'll hold on until then. I'm not willing to lose you."

"I know," he nodded into her shoulder. "I couldn't let anyone see me like this. I just needed... It's a lot to handle. Lynna seems to be holding up better than I am."

"Of course she is, she's got you." she pushed him back so she could see his face, and gave him a sad smile. "I'm here, anytime you need me Avern, I'm here. Always." She brushed a hand against his cheek and then leaned forward and kissed him.