“No talking. There may be enemies watching us even now.”

Frater Jonas bent over the children, made the Sign of the Sun, and then closed their eyes with surprising gentleness. He noticed Kormak looking at him.

“What?” he said.

Kormak responded to the harshness in his voice. “I thought they were only heretics.”

Zeal and humanity warred on the priest’s face. Humanity gained the upper hand, and Kormak found he liked the little man more for it. “Maybe so, but they were men and women, aye, and children...”

“Look at their faces,” someone said, despite Zamara’s order. Kormak understood what he meant. Terror twisted many of the dead’s features. It was hardly surprising under the circumstances but clearly the men found it uncanny. They were ready to be spooked at the slightest thing. The soldiers knew they hunted a mage.

The gates of the village had been torn off their hinges. More bodies sprawled in the earthen streets. The small huts had been burned. The large central communal hall, possibly a temple of some kind, was now only smouldering wreckage. Vultures rose from their feasts and flapped slowly away, as if too gorged to fly any faster.

“The attack came from the beach,” said Zamara. “No sign of assault from the forest. I think it’s safe to say this was the work of pirates.”

“But was it the pirates we’re looking for?” said Kormak. 

“Split up! Search this place! Don’t wander out of earshot,” said Zamara. “See what you can find, though I doubt there will be anything. This place never had much to start with and it’s been picked clean. But look anyway!”

“I’ll need a party of men to gather up the bodies and prepare them for burning,” said Frater Jonas. “I’ll speak the rites myself.”

“Of course, Frater,” said Zamara. In the face of the death surrounding them, the mask of contempt had dropped from his face. He pointed to half a dozen men and said, “Gather the corpses.”

He selected half a dozen more. “Gather wood and prepare a pyre. We can spare some oil from the ship to send these people into the Light.”

Kormak was surprised. It was not the sort of wasteful gesture he would have expected from the young and ambitious Siderean nobleman.

“Sir,” said one of the soldiers who had fanned out through the village, a grizzled veteran named Terves. “You had better see this.”

His words were addressed to the captain but his eyes were on Kormak.

“Lead on, Terves,” said the captain.

The soldier brought them to the corpse. It lay near the wall, in the shadow of the forest’s edge.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said and then clamped his lips shut, as if sorry he had spoken.

“I have,” said Kormak. The body looked desiccated. The skin had an ashen quality to it.