After the Fall(27)
Gigi took a deep, sweet breath of frosty air, but her chest seized, and she started coughing again. The kids were hacking, too. She dropped to her knees and looked up. The clear winter sky was indescribably, painfully blue. Her eyes streamed tears as she continued to cough. She glanced around and saw no one else. Were they the only ones to make it to safety?
She looked back at the sprawling camp. Fires blazed in the near ground, and she could still hear the shouts of battle farther away.
“Berga?” Gigi asked when she finally stopped coughing.
The girl shifted on her back, but her grip was still tight. “Where’s Mama?”
“She’s fighting the Romans,” Theodoric piped in.
Gigi studied the hills. “We need to find a place to hide.”
“I know a cave,” Theodoric said excitedly. “We’ve played there all week.”
Gigi nodded, and together they staggered away.
• • •
Magnus, where are you? Where are you!
Gigi awoke with a cough and didn’t recognize her surroundings in the dim light. She lay back, heart racing, remembering her nightmare. Magnus had been there, just beyond her reach — she could hear his shouts — but she couldn’t see him because of the smoke …
“Mama,” Berga moaned in her sleep.
Attack. Fire. Berga and Theodoric. Memories, horrible memories, came flooding back. Gigi looked around the cave, recalling how the kids had collapsed on the ground after arriving, sick from smoke and fear. She’d joined them there, her mind a blank as to what happened next. How long had they slept?
Her throat felt raw and scratchy as she got up and checked on the kids, snug in their blankets and dead to the world. Magnus and the others had surely returned by now and sent the Romans packing. She thought of Verica, who must be beside herself searching for her children, and knew she needed to get them back immediately.
Emerging from the cave, she squinted at the sun, bright and high in the sky. Oh God, had they slept right through the night? What day was this? Panicked, Gigi ran to a vantage point, looked down on the camp and gaped at the smoldering remains. Had … had everyone been killed?
Magnus!
“Oh, no, no,” Gigi moaned. She ran down the slope, searching for people, for clues, for him. Everything was burned, in ruins. The smell of smoke clung to the air.
A large mound of freshly dug earth rose from the far side of the devastation. Gigi raced toward it, hoping someone was still nearby, perhaps on the other side. As she got closer, she could see it was surrounded by branches tied together to form crosses, many hung with little trinkets and mementos: a woven bracelet, one of the silken wraps given as payment for the lifting of the siege, a tiny charred sandal. It was a Visigoth grave, a mass burial site. Obviously some had survived to perform this final task for their loved ones, but there was no one here now. In the grass beyond, debris was scattered everywhere, holes remained where tent stakes had been pulled out, and wheel tracks crisscrossed the ground. Gigi followed the ruts for a little while and then looked about. The land was flat, her view unobstructed for several miles. They were gone. The Visigoths had left.
She touched her ring with trembling fingers and looked up at the sky. It was clear, blazing blue, the same shade as Magnus’s eyes. Where are you? Where are you?
It took her a few moments to gather herself. She had to get the kids up and moving, if they were to have any chance of catching up with the others. Gigi hurried back to the children and roused them from sleep. “Berga, Theo, you have to wake up. We need to talk. Wake up.”
They opened their sleepy eyes and gazed at her, then pulled the blankets back up. The soot on their faces made them look clownish, like raccoons with vertical stripes. But Gigi couldn’t smile, having a better understanding of what had happened. Yesterday, when they’d first gotten to the cave, she had tried to wipe away the grime on their faces, but it had been futile. After that, they must’ve slept for fifteen, twenty hours. If anyone had been nearby, searching, the three of them were too far gone to hear or respond.
They didn’t know about the cave, she thought in torment. It was the kids’ special, secret place, and now they think we’re dead, along with all the others! Magnus thinks I’m dead! A crushing dread overwhelmed her.
“Children?” She shook them again. “We need to leave now.”
• • •
Gigi warmed her hands, still nervous about the fire, but it was needed. They hadn’t seen anyone in days, and the kids were so hungry and cold.