"Only one person gets hurt and of course it's me." Heather's voice rang out.
"That was incredible. Did you see how quickly he turned the spear into your shoulder?" Fury asked.
"Yes, Fury, I think I did" Heather grumbled. "Pull it out."
"Nope that'll hurt worse, far worse and there's a good chance you'll bleed to death, which'll get your men killed, women, which ever they prefer."
"I think my leaders will notice a spear sticking out of both sides of my shoulder!" Heather yelled.
"Come on Heather be smart, we'll cut the spear in half. That way we'll be able to pull it out without sending the head through your shoulder again."
"Fine" Heather growled.
Finch woke up and immediately wished he hadn't. He could hear every word. It forced him to be still, an impossible task with his ribs pressing against his lungs and the side of his head bleeding.
"Shoki, Lindi, help make sure everyone's dead."
Finch's whole body clenched, he opened one eye, not sure he could open the other if he wanted to. There was shuffling around him. Someone screamed, it was cut off suddenly. He could hear an axe smacking through, bone, once, twice, three times. More shuffling, begging, then more thwacking.
It dawned on him that as bad as he was for hiding, there were people worse off doing the exact same thing. Their ambushers were sorting them out individually. He'd never heard of people being so thorough. He saw one of the Black Air Raiders.
They were tall, a little too tall, with blankets of feathers tied to their backs. It appalled him to see they were tied by muscle and bone. Wings, big and black, they weren't alone.
There were others. Each shorter, huskier with diamond shaped hair where he could see past their armour. It ran down their backs, though most prominent in his mind were their immense hands, the joints coated in thick silver hair.
The cry of the last horse cut abruptly broke his spirit. It took all he had to keep from trembling. These monsters, these creatures were heinous. Systematically killing every living thing.
Finch could hear digging and the crackling of timber. A bonfire had been made. They were absolutely insane and bizarrely, he was alive to witness.
"We have two women in here." said Winter. "No armour."
Finch froze, not so much as breathing, if he could, he'd have frozen his blood. They were so close. He was twisted onto his side and bypassed, feathers tickling his neck.
"Wow, she looks important. They all do." Nomonda said.
"Ambassadors?" Qondile asked from the other side of the carriage.
"Hopefully. Killing royalty would be trouble, look at that. An arrow went right through this one's heart, probably died in seconds. Not as quick as her, she didn't last a moment. You can actually see through her head, check."
Finch felt them moving into the carriage, pushing against each other, the carriage, sinking with the weight.
He got a blast of adrenaline he hadn't expected. The energy bunching up in his spine and buttocks. There was the faintest of snaps and Heather cried out.