Chased By Fire (Book 1) by D.K. Holmberg Page B

she told him about what she could do sooner…but it wouldn’t have changed anything.  
    Would they find Nor looking like the Aeta caravan?  
    A nauseated knot rose in his stomach and he struggled to swallow against it. He’d already lost his father. Nor was home. His mother was there. Everything he knew was there. And there wasn’t any reason for Incendin to attack Nor. The mines weren’t even really active anymore. It was just a mountain town like so many others.
    Cobin watched the struggle play out over his face. “Did your ma tell you what he searches for?”
    He grabbed the reigns of his horse from Cobin and shook his head. “Nothing. I’m not sure she knew.”
    “Or that she’d tell you if she did?”
    Tan sighed. “Or that.”
      The rain picked up again when they reached the road, sluicing down, heavy and painful. Gusts of wind from high in the mountains blew at their backs, suddenly cold and biting. The sky crackled with lightning coming in rapid succession. Sharp explosions of thunder split the air. Ripples of rumbling followed, finally fading. Tan felt the silence as much as he heard it.  
    Roine rode far ahead of them. Tan and Cobin chased after as quickly as possible. No one spoke. The horses seemed to sense their unease and pushed forward. Relief flooded him as the packed path began to widen.  
    Roine and Cobin pulled up suddenly.
    Tan stopped alongside them. “What is it?”  
    And then he looked past them. His heart seemed to stop.
    Nor was no more.
    A blackened crater spread out where the town had been. He saw no sign of the low wall that surrounded the town, none of the shops or homes within the town, and nothing of the manor house. The crater steamed like the charred fragments of wood where the Aeta caravan had been destroyed.  
    The scent of ash and soot filled the air. The smell of sulfur hung overtop everything.
    Tan hadn’t known what to expect, but not this.  
    He looked at Cobin. A pained look pulled at the corners of Cobin’s eyes and mouth. He had no family, no children, but Nor had been his home, too.  
    “I don’t—” Cobin started. “Bal?”
    Tan jumped from his saddle and started forward. Roine held him back with a firm grip. “I need to go see—” Tears welled in his eyes.
    Roine shook his head. “Not yet.”
    Tan forced back the emotion threatening him. “Why? Why Nor? We’re no threat to Incendin. There’s nothing here…”
    “I don’t know,” Roine answered.
    “What could do this?” Cobin asked. His voice had gone high and shaky.
    Roine sighed. “This…this is the lisincend.”
    “But the caravan…”
    Roine shook his head. “That was probably a single lisincend. This is what happens when the lisincend work together.” He closed his eyes. “I have seen this only a few times. The last was long ago.”  
    “Did anyone…survive?” Cobin asked.
    “This isn’t meant for surviving. They cover their tracks, obliterating any evidence of anyone who might have seen them pass.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”
    When he had first seen the remains of the Aeta caravan, he had thought it a terrible fate for the peaceful people. This was worse. This was people he knew, had loved, had lived with. People he’d called friends. His mother. Bal. So many others. All gone.  
    Tan turned away. He could no longer look.
    “Is this because of you?” Cobin asked. Something in his voice had changed. A hard edge had come to it. “Did they do this because of what you seek?”  
    Cobin worked to choke back a sob, staring at the emptiness around them. Tan had never seen him so distraught.  
    When he finally turned back to Roine, anger and rage flashed across his face. “This. This was your fault. You’re the reason my Bal died!”  
    He jabbed his finger at Roine with each word.
    To Roine’s credit, he didn’t move, just shook his head. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. It’s possible they came here searching for me.”
    “And the king. What will he