Gavril was still standing near the wagon. His body swayed. His thoughts were a bit slow.
He looked across the clearing. Dead bodies everywhere, a dead moose.
Then he noticed Samuel, the merchant laid unconscious near the wagon where Veyl had struck him.
Gavril frowned.
"So…everyone else is dead." He looked toward Kaavi. "And we are still alive."
A tired smile appeared beneath his beard.
"Good enough."
His knees nearly buckled. He caught hi8mself against the wagon.
"Wonderful. Drugged, beaten and somehow still standing. I should really stop following Kaavi."
His eyes returned to Kaavi. The smile disappeared.
"Something is wrong with him."
Gavril had seen Kaavi cold, he had seen him angry, he had seen him make decisions others would hesitate to make. But this…
This was different.
Kaavi was looking at Samuel. He slowly walked toward the unconscious merchant. Each step left a dark print where blood from his sword mixed with the snow. He stopped beside Samuel.
For a moment, he simply stared down at him.
His headache had become unbearable. His vision pulsed with every heartbeat. Yet his hand slowly lowered toward Samuel's forehead.
Rest of the group watching, nobody spoke.
Kaavi's gingers hovered just above the merchant's head.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Samuel's body jerked beneath his hand.
Kaavi's eyes narrowed, everything around dissolved into darkness.
He saw a road, a wagon with some men walking beside it. A young Samuel smiling, he gave a friendly greeting to someone, sharing a meal beneath a tree with them. Samuel laughing, then came night, a body lay on the ground, Samuel stood over it. Stabbing continuously. Coins passed from one hand to another.
The vision changed, a woman pleading, door kicked open and a torch thrown onto the floor. Flames climbed the walls. Samuel watched from outside. NO anger or hesitation in his eyes. A man trying to crawl away, hands closing around his ankle, cutting his tendons. And then loaded onto the wagon as he bleed to death, screaming in pain. Just because it was easier then leaving witnesses.
Another one.
Samuel counting coins, talking to someone whose face remained hidden beneath a hood. Kaavi's breath caught, the memories came faster, too fast.
He saw cruelty without end.
Murder, lies, slavery.
Selling his soul for gold. It was work for him. Trade. Living.
Kaavi's head began to pound. He pulled his hand away. The clearing returned all at once.
Kaavi swayed. His sword nearly slipped from his hand.
Viktor stared at him.
"Grandfather?"
Kaavi looked at him. His expression was difficult to read. Then his hand reached toward Viktor.
"Come here."
Viktor hesitated. But something in Kaavi's voice made him move. He stepped closer.
Kaavi placed his hand against the boy's shoulder.
The mind's eye opened again.
Viktor gasped.
Kaavi let him witness the horrors he just seen.
Viktor tried to pull back. He couldn't
"Stop..."
Kaavi's voice echoed from somewhere far away.\
"You need to see."
More memories stuck him.
Viktor's stomach twisted seeing the atrocities.
He could feel the cold, smell the blood in the air, the smoke, he could hear someone crying.
Viktor shut his eyes, but the vision continued.
"Enough…"
His voice cracked.
Kaavi held him in place.
"If you wish to understand what kind of world you are walking into, you need to know what men are capable of."
Viktor shook his head. "I don't want."
"I know." Kaavi's voice had become quitter, like he was tired himself of all this.
"But you must."
The vision came again.
Viktor's breathing had become shallow. He wanted them to stop. He wanted his mother, his father. He wanted to be anywhere else.
Then the vision stopped. His vision was normal again. He stumbled backward.
His hands went to his mouth; he bent over and vomited into the snow.
Kaavi watched him. His eyes remained bloodshot, his breathing was uneven, but there was no pity in his expression.
Only certainty.
He looked down at Samuel. Then back at Viktor.
"You understand what you have to now."
Viktor wiped his mouth. His whole body was trembling.
"I…"
He looked at Samuel.
"I can't."
Kaavi's face hardened.
"You can."
"I don't want to."
"YOU HAVE TOO! NOW STAND UP."
Kaavi bent down and picked up the sword lying beside him. He held it out.
"Take it."
Viktor stared at the blade.
"Grandpa…"
"Take it."
Viktor slowly reached for it. His fingers closed around the hilt. The weight almost pulled his arm sown.
Kaavi turned toward Samuel.
The merchant was still unconscious.
Kaavi stepped forward and he placed one foot against Samuel's head.
And pressed his boot down.
Viktor took a step backward.
"No."
Kaavi looked at him.
"Put the blade against his throat."
Viktor's hands shook.
"Now do it."