Chapter 16: Vi
Vi’s gray eyes scanned the scene, trying, and failing, to understand where in the world this maddened horse had brought her.
Before her stretched a dismal excuse for a settlement, if it could even be called one. The walls were a patchwork of hardened mud and splintered timber, the buildings sagged like they had given up long ago, and the air reeked faintly of ash and sweat.
But what shocked her most wasn’t the wretched state of the place. No.
It was the beasts.
Towering creatures on two legs, their glowing eyes watching her like predators, only... they wielded weapons. Sabers, large ones.
She swallowed.
If beasts like these existed, beasts with the minds of men, then why were humans still ruling the world? Instinctively, she knew the answer: they weren’t normal.
No, these weren’t simple mutations. These things followed someone.
Her gaze landed on the only human in their midst; Kaelor.
A strange man with a coat, a flaming
sword, and the kind of stillness that came from either mastery or madness. He radiated the air of the one in charge.