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Here is a small excerpt from Maroz....
The words seemed to crash down on Willim like a mountain and
he felt light in the head as the captain raised his voice to make the
announcement to the rest of the people. Mothers, including Willim’s, who
thought their child to be safe, began crying and begging the captain to not
take them. One woman fainted and fell hard to the ground while nobody noticed
for being caught up in his or her own worries. Another woman, who Willim
recognized to be his friend Carlon’s mother, grabbed Carlon and began dragging
him away from the soldiers while shaking her head and repeating the word “No”
over, and over. What Willim thought was pandemonium before, now reached a new
level as he watched it all happen in shock. He had thought he had another two
years to get away and join a merchant’s guard, rather than be drafted, and now
here he was being told he would be drafted this year as well.
In the corner of his eye, Willim saw the Captain point and
say something to his corporal, and then an arrow flashed across his vision to
embed itself in the back of Carlon’s mother. Carlon screamed as he watched his
mother fall face first, dead as she hit the ground. Wrapping his fingers around
the shaft, Carlon pulled the arrow out and spun on his feet to charge the
Corporal, who still held the bow. Carlon’s
yells were filled with rage as he charged the bowman. Willim shouted for him to
stop, but was too late as another arrow took his friend in the throat. Carlon
stopped where he was, wide eyed as he fumbled with the shaft, as if wondering
how it had gotten there before falling backwards to stare at the sky through
empty eyes.
Everyone now stood in silence. Some out of shock and others
out of fear they might receive the next arrow, but they stood silent all the
same. The rest of the soldiers on horses all lifted bows nocked with arrows to
give those fears a reality. The captain cleared his throat to draw their
attention to him before he spoke in a harsh voice. “I will have no more
insubordination from anyone! As I had said, the age this year will be
seventeen, now anyone over thirteen get in line and be ready to give your age
and name. Remember, we will be comparing your answers to the records from last
year. If we find anyone lies, he will be arrested and hung.”
Willim looked at his mother, her eyes red with tears and
mouthed the words. “It’s okay!” Right then he wished his father was there to
comfort her and knew she would have to find her comfort from friends. His
father had gone to the city of Golston to sell some horses. Horses brought a
strong premium in the bigger cities and they needed the money. He was sorry he
would not be able to tell his father good-bye. “It’s okay.” He whispered to her
again, though this time he was trying to convince himself as well.
Suddenly, someone gasped as a ghostly howl broke the
silence. Every eye turned to the sky as the people, and even the soldiers,
stepped as far away from the dead bodies as they could get without looking like
they were trying to escape. Someone pointed to the north and they turned to
watch as a writhe and a death hound descended. Before they reached the ground,
the hound changed directions and hurried off to the west, but the writhe
continued to descend to the bodies. There was nothing solid looking in a
writhe. The black tendrils of mist spread and billowed in every direction and
even the face and hands did not look quite solid.
Then without warning, the writhes hand shot forward and the
long pointed looking fingers closed as if clamping on to something. Everyone
knew what it had caught. The writhe had snatched a soul before it could get
away. They just did not know which soul it was, the mother’s or the son’s.
The howling of the Death hound continued in the distance and
the people knew the reasons for that as well. The other soul had tried to get
away and the hound had gone off after it. The writhe turned its head in the
direction of the howling and then to the people around it. Its ghostly mouth
spread open wide as it screeched at the people, and then it hurried away in the
direction of the hound.
Nobody moved for a long time as every eye followed the
writhe, stretching away into the distance. Even the soldiers were licking their
lips.
