Chapter 21 Kailin
KAILIN
"Life's thread is fragile, but the memory of it is everlasting, woven into fate's grand tapestry."
—Elucian Teaching
My father returned with our packs, the fabric dirty from debris but otherwise intact. Each pack on its own wasn't heavy, but carrying all four must have sapped the last of his energy, and he looked exhausted as he set them by the door of the back room.
"They've finished clearing the square," he said, accepting a fresh cup of tea from Gran and sitting on the bench next to my mother. "All the dead and wounded have been taken away. The funerals are scheduled for midnight."
"Tonight?" Alar asked. "Will it allow enough time for the families of the deceased to collect their loved ones and arrange for burial in their hometowns or villages?"
Gran shook her head, strands of her silver hair swaying with the movement.
"We don't bury our dead, Alar. Their bodies are just the husks left behind, and their souls are free and surrounded by love in Dolis.
We burn the bodies, turning them to ash.
" She reached for a jar of herbs and added a pinch to her tea.
"The ashes are collected into urns. Some keep them in family shrines, others scatter them from Mount Spirit. Every family has its own tradition."
"I didn't know that," Alar said. "In Eluria, we bury our dead. But still, shouldn't they wait for the families to arrive?"
"They're most likely already on their way," my mother said. "The Guard would have notified them immediately. Besides, everyone watches the news, and the names of the dead were announced."
It was heartbreaking. I couldn't imagine the pain and shock of the parents whose children had been supposed to embark on the next stage of their lives but had instead perished in the cowardly Shedun attack.
It dawned on me how close I had been to meeting a similar fate twice already.
Why had I been spared?
Was it because fate had an important mission for me to fulfill in its grand tapestry? Or was it just random luck, and I shouldn't read anything into it?
Believing that I had been spared for a reason made the guilt of surviving while others hadn't a little less suffocating, but it still pressed down on me.
The television was still broadcasting updates. A somber-faced announcer appeared on screen. "We've just been informed of another casualty. Terris Windars succumbed to his injuries at the infirmary, bringing the total death toll to seven."
My heart clenched as they showed his picture. It was the heavyset man with the chest wound who had collapsed in front of me and Shovia, the one whose blood was still on my clothes.
"We tried to save him." I exchanged sorrowful looks with Shovia. "I was sure he would make it."
"You did everything you could," Alar said, but the frown that accompanied his words of comfort gave me pause.
"What is it?" I asked. "You look bothered."
Alar hesitated, glancing at my father. "I saw Terris and another man working on the stage decorations moments before Chicha sounded the alarm.
After we returned to the square, I joined the team that cleared the debris, and we helped free the other guy who had been trapped under the collapsed section.
We looked for his partner but couldn't find him.
Then I saw him when Kailin called me, and I wondered how he was walking around with a chest wound almost an hour after the explosion. I just find it suspicious."
"I told one of the guard commanders," Shovia said. "He said they would look into it."
"Maybe he got injured while moving debris," Codric suggested. "Maybe he made a wrong move and fell on a jutting piece of wood or something."
That didn't seem likely, but Alar was right about the timing of the wound. The guy couldn't have been hurt during the explosions and then just kept going until he'd collapsed next to Shovia and me.
"I know Terris." My father frowned. "He moved here not long after we did, when Kailin and her mother and I came to help run the apothecary."
"Did he have family in Skywatcher's Point?" Alar asked.
My father shrugged. "I'm not sure. Skywatcher's Point may seem small to you, but we have a population of nearly twenty thousand. That's a large town by Elucian standards. We don't all know each other's personal lives."
"If he only moved here recently, he must have family somewhere else," I said. "Someone should be notified."
The day's events pressed down on me. Seven people had died, dozens had been injured, and why?
Because the Shedun thought that dragons were evil demons?
Because they thought that Elucians were blasphemers who served those demons?
Because they wanted to kill our shaman and cause the downfall of our society?
What twisted ideology was worth the carnage they wreaked, and all those lives they took?
Sensing my distress and wanting to comfort me, Chicha whined softly and pressed against my chest. I stroked her shaggy fur, the rhythmic motion slowly calming the storm in my mind.
"I'm sure the Guard will investigate his background," my father said. "They'll find his family if he has any." He paused, studying Alar. "You seem to suspect something. What is it?"
Alar set his cup down carefully. "I know that treason seems unlikely to you, but people are people, and they are motivated by different things.
Terris might have been in financial trouble and agreed to do the unthinkable against his own for money.
Or he might have harbored a vendetta against the shaman.
Perhaps when he was a young pilgrim himself, the shaman declared him ungifted, and Terris vowed to kill him one day and sabotage the entire tradition of pilgrimage.
It's also possible that the Shedun held someone dear to him hostage, and the only way he could free that person was to do their bidding.
Those are all just some of the hypotheticals I came up with on the spot, and each one is possible.
You shouldn't think that treason will never happen because Elucians adhere to the Precepts of Truth. "
My father didn't dismiss Alar's suggestions out of hand as I'd expected.
Instead, he rubbed his chin. "I'm not naive, Alar.
And Elucians are far from perfect. The guards patrol the square regularly, so someone would have noticed strangers loitering near the planters and the stage long enough to plant multiple bombs.
But a local who had reason to be there? They wouldn't have paid him any mind. Terris could have done that."
"That's impossible," my mother said, but I could see doubt creeping into her expression. "No Elucian would help the Shedun even to save a loved one. It goes against everything we believe in."
"Unless Terris wasn't actually Elucian," Shovia said. When we all turned to look at her, she shrugged. "What? We're all thinking it. The Shedun are masters of deception. What if Terris was one of them? A sleeper agent sent years ago to establish himself here?"
The thought sent chills down my spine. How many others might be hiding among us, waiting for their chance to strike? How could any stranger be trusted?
I glanced at Alar and wondered how I had come to not only trust him after the short time I had known him but also to rely on him. He had an inner strength that invited such reliance, but it could be an illusion and a mistake to allow myself to be so vulnerable.
I didn't really know him, but I also didn't believe that he could be a Sitorian spy.
Nevertheless, he wasn't going to be around for long. After the pilgrimage was over and Saphir told Alar his fate, he and Codric would go back to Vedona and resume the comfortable lives they had left behind.
Shovia put her empty cup down and folded her arms over her chest. "If Terris was a Shedun operative, there must have been another one out in the square who killed him to keep him from talking."
"That's not how the Shedun work," my father said. "They wouldn't have had any problem with us finding out about Terris's treason. On the contrary. They would have relished the anguish it would have caused us."
"Speculation will get us nowhere," Gran said firmly. "And speaking ill of the dead goes against the precepts of Elu. The Guard will investigate and find out what happened."
I wasn't sure I agreed with Gran. She was right about respecting the memory of the dead and letting the Guard do its job, but the people actually in charge of the investigation didn't know all the details we'd pieced together.
"We should tell the authorities what we know," I said. "Or even what we suspect. How would they know that Terris's wound wouldn't have allowed him to walk around for nearly an hour after the explosion? They would assume he was found unconscious by the rescuers."
The newscaster on the television said something about the pilgrimage, catching my attention, and I lifted my hand to get everyone to quiet down.
"All uninjured pilgrims should report tomorrow at dawn to the base of the mountain.
Those who wish to postpone their pilgrimage should report to the records office tonight by 9:00 p.m. If you can't make it in time and the office is closed, add your name to the list that will be attached to the door.
All pilgrims and residents of Skywatcher's Point are invited to attend the funerals at midnight. "
That would leave us only a few hours of sleep, which wasn't a good idea before a physically and mentally demanding trek.
"That's good news," Codric said. "It means that we get to eat tonight and tomorrow morning. Less fasting."
I envied the guy's ability to find something encouraging about the situation.
Seven pyres would burn tonight, seven families would mourn, and seven urns would be filled with ashes. And somewhere out there, the Shedun who had planned this attack were probably celebrating their success.
They had failed to kill our shaman, but they had still caused us a lot of anguish and struck fear into our hearts. They had shown us that nowhere was truly safe, not even Skywatcher's Point.