In a world of her own, like a bubble, her passage through the night seemed destined to be and remain untouched.
‘You’re certain?’ the soldier asked the masked one once again, as though he didn’t trust him. ‘You’re sure those were his very words?’
‘I will tell you this last time;’ the cowled figure replied, ‘it has begun! Every man, woman and child is to be slain on sight. No mercy, no exceptions. All livestock is to be taken, and if not, slaughtered, and fowled or burned so that it’s flesh cannot be consumed. All buildings are to be put to the torch, all wells filled with debris, all stores taken or burnt: you are to cut down every tree that bears fruit or nut, you are to burn every crop, and you are to despoil what you will.
‘As for me, I leave you now. There are many others to whom I must carry this message. Go now. Do as you have sworn to do.’
When the hooded figure had left, riding into the blackness at a gallop, bearing his message of doom, the soldier rejoined his waiting company.
‘He is gone?’
‘Yes.’
There was a long stillness, and silence, and more; and still the soldiers hadn’t moved.