Kiromir 53

This unsung feeling of anxiety crawled over with me, and I couldn't do anything more than put my foot down and order that we all leave.

It was a petty move and would ruin this part of Migration, but we had plenty of other stops on our route.

Dimal took my orders serious and started our evacuation. Letti, a baby on her hip, ran about, grabbing kids by the hand and chiding parents.

"I’m going off to the woods to catch the kids screwing around so we can go. Hopefully, none of them have peaked off on their fires, yet,” She said, a crude way to describe such a beautiful thing.

Dimal took Mesin from Letti’s hip, and she bolted off full-speed. She still hadn’t healed from having him, and we’d all had to suffer her foul tongue during that process. Unfortunately, we didn’t have another healer, and the Grells and Sentinels wouldn’t spare one for us. We’d remember that the next time they reached out to borrow her.

No time at all passed before Letti and Dimal with Mesin bolted towards their campers.

“What’s going on?” one of the Sentinel elders, Kartas, asked me, panicking. Steely dark hair and green eyes peered with unease.

I turned on my heel and glared at them.

“Rolyn has made it quite clear we’re not wanted. I had a look at the matchmaking lists. You’re going off skin color and station!? Are we trying to save our numbers, or are we trying to create a pedigree!? I snapped to him.

He stepped back when I said what I did, and he radiated unease from his aura.

“Listen, this is just to protect the highborn families, of which you are. You are the last Soulstar. She was the last SkySinger and has MoonBrand in her! You can’t just—" Kartas panicked.

“Listen,” I said, prodding his undeveloped chest as I bore over him and his short stature. As watery little eyes stared back, I could see generations of ‘pedigree’ in him and was sick of it. Lowak had sheltered me from this for so long. I often wonder if my parents’ binding wasn’t an orchestration of pedigree, and I knew it was.

I didn’t have time to finish that sentence as a loud retort boomed in the distance, a plume of smoke rising from the sky. Against all better judgment, I lashed my wings, leaped upwards, striking my wings to the ground.

“Fuck,” I spat, and I could see figures flying in on the horizon after a few moments. Not only that, as I flew higher, teams of black vans barreled down the unguarded road to the fairgrounds.

The first few waves had already been evacuated on towards the Songbirds. Time was of the essence, and I dropped to the ground.

“WANDERERS!” I shouted. My voice boomed. Our lung capacity and thoracic strength were impressive enough to make a deafening roar.

“GROUP UP. ROUGH LIGHT TO THE SONGBIRDS. CONTACT ANYONE EVACUATED AND KEEP IN TOUCH,” I ordered. We had five minutes at best, and I could hear a retort of gunfire in the distance as the figures grew larger. I saw Thanus’s dark grey wings looming over, but only three bodies accompanied him. I froze.

Not a one of them bore the slim shape and dark hair of Niala.

I saw Krell, Nodak, and Quinn. My heart seized.

“We have traitors!” Thanus roared back at us as people scrambled into groups, readying themselves one by one to evacuate.

Their campers weren’t important; No physical possessions were. We carried no evidence.

The Sentinels fled in droves.

“It was a trap. They got Niala and Gaff,” Thanus shouted through labored breath as he came to land before me.

“Do what!?”

“Sentinels came in; they took Niala. Gaff ran after, got pulled in rough light. He’s with her,” Thanus wheezed. He looked awful. His clothes hung ragged and torn—bloody.

“They put a bomb in the camper,” Thanus explained.

“Where’s Rolyn?” I demanded.

Groups took rough light left and right. Someone had already alerted the Songbirds. They told me the wanderers could enter their territory. However, the Sentinels were barred until they investigated.

People ran in panic.

The Sentinels took the rough light as well, headed to Grells or Horizons.

The vans approached at breakneck speed, busting the barriers down as our evacuation went on. Fortunately, the vans hadn’t approached through the back way through civilian neighborhoods.

“I need to find them.” Panic consumed me.

“No time. They’re together. We’ll have to just hope. Flock first, then family.” Thanus was right. As much as I hated it.

We scavenged the camp and found nothing of interest, no Rolyn, no elders. No time remained.

“Someone else’ll have to take the rough light. I’ve done it twice in an hour. I can barely breathe,” Thanus said, limping a little as he followed me towards the campers. We went through ripping open doors and banging on windows, trying to evacuate the last of us.

Gunfire echoed in the distance.

“We need to gather. We can’t fight them,” I said.

“We can take them.” Thanus snarled.

“No, we can kill a bunch of humans and leave evidence.”

Thanus grumbled in agreement, and We bolted out to our meeting spot behind one of the tents.