Lucy Wickshire 171 Chapter Twenty-One 4

Not just him, the maid by the corner too. Just when he was about to let her go, she grabbed his hand in place.

"You are a strong man. You think you can tell your fellow guards, so they will run. The more people you tell, the more they will know people ran. You can instead come with us. A strong man like you can protect us out there. I have property to hide in for a while." she said then rubbing his hand between her legs.

"Don't you want this? You can have have both of us if we leave now." she said. He pulled away from her forcefully and dashed for the door only to stop. She stared at his paused back, waiting for his decision. Will he help them or not?

"I know an underground path." he said making her release a breath she did not know she had been holding.

Messengers arrived in a flutter fur from their of beast skin garb. They looked round at the half naked city lord and his men, then towards the rising flames afar.

"Report!" one ordered.

"They tried to..." the city lord tried to say but was stopped.

"Not you. Who is in charge of the water mages? Speak!" the man ordered. The mages could not complain about his tone. Even though they were known as powerful mages, they could tell by a glance that these men could end their lives without lifting a finger. They bowed their heads while their leader spoke.

"An hour ago, we detected fire at the centre of the city. When we arrived, the fire was only a building fire. We tried putting it out but it did not seize. It instead spread as though we had added more oil. So we used reserves of spirit water to stop it in it's tracks, but the spirit water only made it spread faster. We called out some earth mages to suffocate the flames with earth, but it spread from under the ground and took the city instantly. It was like a demon flame with a mind of it's own. There was nothing else we knew how to do." the leader explained.

The messenger was silent for a while, then snapped his finger and shadows flew by and slit the throats of those in the courtyard before they even knew it happened. People watching from the window only saw the city lord, the great water mages and guard's heads fall. Screams broke out at the sight, causing all the servants to run.

The commotion caught the attention of all the guards; who rushed out to see their city lord and the colleagues dead on the ground. They looked up at the messengers and paled. They were the owners of the city and they put the city lord in power. Some guards dashed away in escape; the others were somewhat confused.

"Kill everyone. Let no one survive." the head messenger said.

It was a b.l.o.o.d.y night. Men and women found themselves at the after life gate not even sure how they got there. They did not even have the ability to scream for their lives as they dropped dead.

The messengers flashed towards the burning city and surrounded it from every direction. Making uniform hand signs, they created a dome around the city and watched from outside as the fire raged. Their principle was simple; this much fire will be eating a lot of oxygen. They place a dome over the city so that no more oxygen enters.

When the fire did not stop after a while, they tried new hand signs. Hot air rose from inside the dome and left the dome in mist. When all the air had been taken out from the dome, they expected the fire to stop, but it raged on.

"It really could be a demon fire." the head messenger said.