Where Serpents Strike (Children of the Falls Vol. 1) by CW Thomas Page A

ship’s hull and pushed it out to sea.
    “Lia!” Dana shouted.
    Brayden put his hands on her shoulders.
“She’s safe. We’ll meet up with her on Efferous.”
    After a quick headcount, Brayden estimated
that roughly fifty of the seventy refugees who had fled Aberdour
had made it onto one of the two ships.
    Standing next to him, looking over the
ship’s railing, was Broderick. His eyes were glued to the massacre
happening on the pier, where black vipers cut down the last of the
fleeing citizens. Swords cut through flesh, arrows pierced chests,
and legs, and necks. The fishermen put up a decent fight, but only
until the forces of the enemy overwhelmed them.
    “Don’t watch,” Brayden said. “There’s
nothing we can do.” He tried to pry Broderick away, but he wouldn’t
move. His brother watched the slaughter, his eyes unblinking, until
the scene was too far away to see.
    Brayden looked over at the second vessel
trailing behind them to the north. He saw Lia leaning on the
railing, pinning after them. He lifted an open hand in her
direction, trying to reassure her. They would be reunited soon. It
wouldn’t be long, he knew, a day or so.
    He sat down next to Dana, shivering as the
cold ocean wind blew over them.
    Khalous stomped up onto the deck looking
frayed and dour. “Best get below,” he said. He gazed into the winds
that blew his silver hair almost straight back. “There’s a storm
ahead.”
     
     

 
LIA

    She tried not to think about the sounds of
the dogs, their snarling and barking, but the awful wails of the
children who were attacked kept echoing in Lia’s head. Hugging her
knees on the floor of the trade ship, she kept her head low so that
no one would see her uncontrollable sobs of terror and grief.
    In one day she had lost more than she ever
knew she had. She could still smell the hay in the barn of Thomas
and Abigail, feel the soft coats of their horses. She could still
hear her father’s laughter echoing through the halls of Aberdour’s
castle, and her mother’s stew, seasoned with garlic and salt, so
hot on her tongue. Brynlee’s warm embrace. The patter of Scarlett’s
feet.
    She flinched when Khile slid down next to
her. He put one arm across her back. She would’ve shied away had
she not been so cold. Instead she leaned into him, hoping he would
put his other arm around her, which he did. She lay there for
several moments, head buried out of sight, snuggled into the arms
of a stranger who, at present, was her only friend.
    Across from her came the whimpering of a
little girl. She looked up to see a girl about Brynlee’s age,
nursing a bloody cut on her forehead while she cried next to a
young woman.
    “There, there,” the woman cooed. “It’s all
right.”
    There were about twenty-five other people
crowded onto the deck of the ship, Lia noticed, clinging to each
other for warmth and security. Most of them were children, but
there were a few adults, two nuns and two priests.
    Khile nudged her with his elbow.
    “How are you holding up, kid?” he asked.
    “My name is Lia,” she said. “And I’m not a
kid.”
    “Fair enough.”
    She kept her head down, trying to seem calm
as she picked at a fraying thread on the dark green sleeve of her
tunic.
    “Where did you learn to use a bow like
that?” she asked.
    Khile hesitated, thinking. “We all have to
be good at something, I suppose.”
    His answer didn’t satisfy her, but she could
tell he wasn’t going to say anything more about it. Not now
anyway.
    She pointed to the shackles on his feet,
both of which bore one link from the chain that used to join them.
“And those?”
    He clicked them together like he found them
amusing. “Those are for the things I’m not so good at.”
    She looked at him, irritated by his
ambiguity. “Very well. Keep your secrets.”
    He raised an impenitent eyebrow at her. “If
you wanted to get some sleep now would be a good time. We’ll be on
Efferous by morning.”
    His words were a clear