The Scent of Blood and Rust - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The breeze carried the stink of char and blood. Occasional smoke stung her eyes as Sakina picked her way between the charred stumps and burned timbers of what had been an isolated cottage. There were only a few joists still upright. Everything remaining laid low, fizzing and smoking in the early morning sun. She reached the centre of the blackened ruin and stood silent. The burnt ruin was just outside the small village of Temerton Falls. Shielded by high hedge and conifer, barely visible from the narrow road nearby. Now as the dawning sun climbed higher in the sky she knew the sooty smoke wafting upward into the steel shod sky was bound to attract attention. If it hadn't already.

She dipped a finger to the corner of something table-like and touched it to her lips "Blood..." she commented to no-one in particular. "And rust," at this she sniffed, more alert now as she took in her surroundings in a slow circling motion. Where was it? A small motion in a humped pile of timbers caught her eye. She slowly eased her way forward as the sound of sirens began to make themselves heard. Time was running short, she had better be quick.

There. A square of ply a foot square propped against a tumbled stone wall had moved slightly. She darted over planting a foot firmly in the ash and dirt before snatching it away from the wall with her left hand. Her right was above and behind her head, her kris, a silvery foot of wave patterned blade drawn in her fist.

It was a baby. Pink, naked and soot smeared, only months old by the looks of it. Its enchanting storm blue eyes fixed on her as she stood above it, her muscles taut. The sirens grew louder, mere minutes away. "You always assume because I am a woman that this form will work on me?" She struck fast, the deadly kris spearing down through the baby's eye and crunching into the sullen earth beneath. The baby's mouth jerked as if chewing. A grating squeal issuing forth, words almost perceptible in the subsiding rasp. Then it ended, the ritual blade having done its work. Sakina flicked her head up. Touched an imperceptible black earpiece. "It's done."