Those Who Walk the Flame Road
Hugo tried to swim closer to his family, but when he did, they dissolved and melted away as if they’d never been there.
Hugo felt like he was melting into the water, too, and he was glad. He wanted to follow his mother and sister to where they were going.
But no matter how long he waited, Hugo didn’t disappear. There was something within him like a core or a seed, waiting to sprout under the right circumstances. Hugo wasn’t dead, and the human world wasn’t done with him yet. He didn’t return to that world immediately. The water held him, and he looked around, feeling quite a bit more alert.
He noticed almost right away that the water around him now was not the pure, clean warm water that he’d awakened in. He was waist-deep in a muddy ditch, and while the water he stood in was still somewhat warm, it was practically stagnant. It was night, and he couldn’t see well, though he could tell that dawn was a long way off.
How long have I been here? Where am I?
Hugo was still in the lower level of the city. He could hear carts moving and horses kicking in their stalls, alarmed by the smell of smoke. There was a shed nearby that looked like it was used for housing livestock. The sound of the horses neighing and kicking echoed loudly because of the water in the ditch. Smoke rose into the sky overhead, and the sky itself was purple-red from reflected fire.
There was something else in the sky, though at first Hugo didn’t believe his eyes. Were those—fish? They were white and seemed to be swimming through the air. They weren’t disturbed by the smoke. They moved with it and around it as if they were dancing.
Hugo craned his neck to get a closer look. Those things have claws, so they aren’t fish. What are they?
He wasn’t sure, but he was strangely certain that they were real. He wasn’t just hallucinating because of smoke. The air was much clearer here than it had been before, and he’d recovered his senses. He wasn’t sure of much else aside from the fact that he was breathing and that these mysterious lizardfish were actually here, flying above him in the dark, smoke-filled sky. He stood in the ditch and looked up. He should probably move, but he had no desire to.
It looked like the Talsh soldiers hadn’t reached this place yet. They were still securing warehouses and the main streets inside the city, but they would catch up to Hugo eventually if he didn’t keep running. Hugo was hurt, and he didn’t want to run: not yet, and maybe not ever. He could wait for the soldiers to find him, and that would be the end of it.
The backs and stomachs of the lizardfish shone like silver in the dim light of the city on fire. Some of them gazed down at Hugo curiously, pausing in their mysterious dance. Their pupils were a deep black. Hugo only noticed now that none of the lizardfish had blinked. Maybe they couldn’t.
A lizardfish drew near to Hugo and entangled one claw in his hair. It didn’t hurt. The claw felt warm against the skin of his neck, but there was no actual sensation of contact. The lizardfish touching him felt like nothing more than a warm breeze.
Hugo heard a voice that sounded like it was calling out to him. Footsteps grew louder, coming from the direction of the barn, and a shadow fell over Hugo’s face.
The wind picked up, cool and crisp. There was a woman standing over Hugo, hair blowing over her shoulders. She was looking at him as if she wasn’t sure that he was alive or dead. Hugo forced himself to breathe deeply, even though his lungs ached with the effort. He tried to move his hands, and felt them twitch in the water of the ditch.
The woman gasped. She crouched down and gripped Hugo’s arms, pulling him out of the ditch. She set him down on the ground, but she didn’t let him go. That was lucky. Hugo knew instantly that he’d be unable to stand without help. Everything hurt—and hurt suddenly. While he’d been in the ditch, he’d barely felt any physical sensations at all, but now, it all came back to him in a rush.
“Ow.” Hugo gritted his teeth. His eyes wouldn’t focus on anything. It took everything he had to stay on his feet, even with the woman’s assistance. He wanted to throw up, and swallowed heavily so that he wouldn’t.
The woman shifted, bringing her arm under Hugo’s shoulders so that they could walk together. Hugo felt his broken ribs grinding against one another with each new step forward, and he groaned. He and the woman left the main road and the canal far behind, fleeing along a dirt path. The woman decided that Hugo wasn’t walking fast enough and stopped supporting him. She was getting farther and farther ahead of him, moving briskly and uphill.
Hugo had no idea where she was headed, and he didn’t ask. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other. He could remain upright without losing his balance now, but he felt like he was about to fall at any moment.
Rumor of the Talsh attack in the heart of the capital was spreading. Many people were crouched down behind buildings beside the dirt path. They pointed and whispered as the woman and Hugo passed them by, but no one tried to help them. Anyone caught helping survivors of the battle would very likely be killed on the spot.
No one helped them, but no one alerted the soldiers, either. The people allowed Hugo and the woman to pass unmolested and unreported. Some people acted like they couldn’t see Hugo or the woman at all.
The woman who'd saved him came to a fork in the path and glanced furtively around, as if she expected a trap. The path was no longer straight, but twisted and turned. She kept following it, and she seemed to know where she was going. Sometimes, she stopped and stood near a wall to rest. She didn't sit. Hugo got the sense that if she stopped to sit, she wouldn't get up again. He understood that feeling. It took everything he had to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
The woman finally stopped in front of a house. There was a storehouse next to it, and a small tributary of the city's large canal ran right beside it. She put her back to the wall of the house and sat down. She looked at Hugo, who was exhausted, gasping and in pain.
The canal and its tributaries were all lit along the sides, so it was easy for Hugo and the woman to see. The fires of war hadn't reached this part of the city yet. Hugo noticed that there was another house across the street from the one he was facing. There was no light coming from most of the windows of the houses, but there was a light inside the house across the street. It was faint, but there.
The woman shifted a little and reached out to Hugo, resting her hand lightly on his shoulder. One of those strange lizardfish was wrapped around his neck, so the woman looked like she was touching it. The lizardfish responded to her touch by making a strange, guttural sound low in its throat. It reminded Hugo of a cat purring.
Hugo hadn't noticed before, but the woman had a lizardfish around her neck, too. He sensed that these strange creatures had been frightened, and were relieved to be away from danger. How did he know that? He looked at the woman. He hadn't felt anything about the creature around his neck until she'd touched it. Could she understand them, and interpret how they felt for other people?
The woman hadn't said a single word since they'd met, but there were times when he could understand what she was thinking. It was like she was relaying her thoughts to him through the lizardfish that were wrapped around their necks. He couldn't claim that he understood her, exactly: what he received from her were brief sensory impressions, like an inconstant breeze blowing in through the gaps in a set of storm shutters.
A chill went up Hugo's spine. Should he be scared of this woman? His shoulders went rigid, and he took an involuntary step back.
The door to the house in front of Hugo and the woman suddenly opened. A middle-aged man came outside and called out, "Ryuan! Where did you go? It's the middle of the night!"
The woman, Ryuan, gestured for silence. The man noticed her movement and turned toward her. He also saw that she wasn't alone. "Who are you, then?" the man whispered.
Hugo didn't answer.
"I guess I've got no choice but to hear you out." The man smacked his lips and turned toward Ryuan. "Did you go where the fires are, again? The smoke's real bad, even here. So you saved some kid over there, huh?"
Ryuan didn't say anything, but the man kept talking as if she were capable of replying. His eyes fixed on Hugo. He was still wearing his sword belt and scabbard. The man took him in, frowning severely. Commoners didn't carry swords. Granted, Hugo had lost his sword for the moment, but there was no reason for him to be carrying a sword if he were simply an ordinary child. There was also a dagger tucked into the belt--it was still there. Hugo had thought that he'd lost that, too.
"You..."
Hugo sensed that Ryuan wanted to go in the house. It wasn't safe for them to talk outside. The man didn't seem to sense her feelings, and if he did, he ignored them. She made hand gestures, and the man nodded in understanding. Maybe that was how Ryuan and the man communicated.
"Fine," the man said, "let's go in. Wouldn't want to wake the neighbors." His expression was resigned. Hugo thought he seemed irritated, but he did help support Hugo as he walked inside.
Moving made Hugo so dizzy that he blacked out, and when he came to, he was lying down inside the house, and it was dark. There was no one around, so Hugo closed his eyes and went to sleep.
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