Page 42 of Lucie
Chapter Twenty
Discovery
They left the horses hidden in the forest and advanced slowly toward the makeshift barricade. It was exactly asAttyhad described it—a haphazard mixture of tree limbs and trunks, brush, and roughly-hewn planks. It was clearly obvious anything they could get their hands on was used to throw onto it, including a few pieces of broken furniture.
Yulenstopped at the base and checked the top of the structure. “It should be easy to climb, but I worry about the stability.”
“What if we follow it?”Attysuggested.
“We’d waste valuable time we don’t have trying to find the end of it, when there may not an end at all. It’ll be daylight soon.”
“But we don’t know that,” she softly argued.“There could be a gap somewhere.”
Lucien looked behind where the soldiers were spread out low, like a blanket, across the open field. Their eyes were glued to their captains, who watched the battle lord for a signal on what to do next.
A few feet away,Johnapeered through a gaping hole at the compound in the distance. Lucien saw her stiffen, and moved up next to her.“What do you see?” He also stared across the expanse that separated the barricade from the compound’s outer walls, but was unable to spot anything.
“There are people there,” she replied.
“Where?”Attyjoined them and took a look. “Where are they?”
“There’s at least a handful on top of the parapets.”
“Any in the field?”Yulenquestioned.
“No. Not that I can see. But…” In the partial moonlight, he could see her face had gone pale.
“But what?”
“They’re the wrong color.”
“What do you mean?”
“What color are they?”Attyadded.
“They’re…blue.”
“What does that mean?”Yulenasked. “Do you know?”
“It means…they’re dead.”
“I don’t understand,” Lucien whispered.
“All living beings, people and creatures, put out some kind of body heat. Even reptiles, although theirs are much less evident. But it’s there. When something dies, it grows cold. After a while, it takes on the same temperature as the air around it.”
“How can they be doing guard duty when they’re dead?”
“They’re not,”Attyremarked.
“Not what?”
“Let me clarify that,” his mother went on to say. “If they’re dead, they’re not doing guard duty. At least, not in the way we would expect them to.”
“Their bodies are being used to make it appear as if the compound is fortified,”Yulenfinished for her.
Lucien put a hand on her back and tried to see what she wasviewing, but the compound appeared to be totally dark and silent. “They must be propped up some way.”
Attyturned to her husband. “Do we take the chance that the compound is empty?”
