My husband and I are sailing to Ceneri Island. The stink and ash of burning bodies hang in the air like the fat snowflakes that never fall on Veneti. The waves of the Adric Sea push against the gondola and my husband struggles to keep the small and narrow boat afloat. Under normal circumstances I would have wished for Paolo to guide us on our journey. But most likely he’s one of those being cremated.
We are getting close now.
The stench strengthens.
The bell clangs.
The worst is the screams. They are the moans, sighs and screams of the dying, the dead and those who have not yet been infected. All being thrown onto the great pyre. The heat can be felt even a hundred yards away. I can see the flames from the piles of wood and dead bodies shooting up like the fireworks during Carnevale.
Everything those flames touch is consumed like caught by a monster with a bottomless stomach.
Hadrian grabs my shoulder, squeezing it. I grip his hand feeling his callused hands beneath my thick glove. “It's not too late to turn back.” he says staring ahead at the island of doom and death.
I know I should turn back. I know I should return to my happy home safe and sealed away from the miasmas that are covering the entire land and city.
But I also know that if we don't go on this island, our daughter will surely die.
I face my husband hoping to sound braver than I feel. “We've come too far to turn back. Come. Maria is waiting for us.”
Hadrian nods and continues pushing us with the pole.
I never thought that I would ever see the lifelike imitations that hang on the church walls. Of the monsters boiling humans in cauldron like so much soup. Of devils running with weapons to push around the damned.
Hadrian says nothing. He just grimly stares ahead at the carnage that is waiting for us. The ash falling from the sky and the stench of burning hair and skin is overwhelming I pressed the beak of my of my mask closer to me hoping to smell the roses and poppies that lie inside.
But I know what he wants to say.
There is little hope that little Maria has survived this far. And if we were unlucky, we would be joining her on the pyres too.