Flames roared skyward, fierce and unrestrained. From the direction of the kitchen, tongues of fire lashed outward, devouring the wooden beams, climbing hungrily along the corridor pillars, driven forward by the night wind toward the main house.
Thick smoke billowed, rolling and choking, stinging the eyes until they could barely remain open.
"—Sister! Fire! Fire!"
Caelith burst from her room at the shout, and the instant she saw the inferno, the color drained from her face.
They fell into frantic motion, fetching water again and again, their hands trembling, their breaths ragged—yet the flames raged beyond control. Each bucket they flung upon the inferno vanished as though swallowed whole, leaving not the slightest change behind.
Then, over the courtyard wall, figures leapt.
But they had not come to save the fire... They had come to take lives.
