Chapter Five
They entered the inner fortress. Behind them the huge gate swung closed, a creak and groan of wood and leather settling into place, which sealed the group inside this wooden behemoth.
A mixture of farmhouses and shabby dwellings surrounded them. Most of the farmhouses had grazing fields out front, separated from each other by crudely erected wooden fences. Even in the poor light the three companions could see the outlines of scrawny livestock – ribs apparent. The animals roamed about lethargically, chewing at the few patches of coarse grass left over by the cruel winter. Squat, stone chimneys jutted out of thatched roofs, crooked and in disrepair, like fallen tombstones, injecting thick, acrid smoke into the cold air. Mixed in with the stench of animal waste the smoke and manure turned the air into an almost un-breathable poison.
As the horse tirelessly pulled the wagon and its three occupants deeper inside this maze of filth, its flanks began to foam with sweat. From within the huts they could see and hear the inhabitants of this dreadful place.
Dressed in soiled rags, most of the village people had hollowed eyes, fixed in faces that were close companions with hunger. And something else. Longing. Fear. Desperation. All these traits appeared present in their hollow eyes. Even the children that were still up at this late hour seemed overly subdued – a youngsters natural exuberance erased from their souls, as if something dark and malignant had singled them out, and siphoned this most essential essence from their spirit.
"Not all seems well in Ragnar's kingdom," Rajk noted.
"I am beginning to think those gates are to keep people
in, not out," Anna commented. She felt an ache in her chest. As if a hand had wrapped hard fingers around her beating heart and was squeezing it tightly, forcing not only blood – but also hope, away from this vital organ.
The sad structures became more and more sparse, before eventually they dwindled to just a few dark, soulless abodes. Darkness filled in where solid structures faded, yet this empty blackness felt equal in substance, solid, immobile,
unbreakable.