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She swore and ducked behind the wall as a hail of arrows showered down around them a moment later. Ryle didn’t bother to move a muscle, absently watching the projectiles whiz past him and looking completely unconcerned. He spread his arms wide, as if welcoming the escape the barbs offered to him.

The barrage finally subsided and he glanced down at her. “See? Told you.” He hopped down from the wall and met her eyes. “We’re going to die if we stay here.” He told her bluntly. “Are we okay with that?”

“I’m through running.” She firmed her lower lip. “I won’t leave the land my family died defending, Ryle.”

“Okay then.” He nodded. “Just wanted to clear that up so that there are no last minute feelings of guilt or second thoughts. If this is how you want it to end, I’m fine with that.

I’ve been fine with that for a while now.

” He kissed her forehead. “I love you, Taylor. I think we’ll both be dead within the day, so I want you to know that. ”

“I love you…”

A stern voice shouted her down from the shadows behind her. “ No fraternization! ”

She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Fucking Buggane.

The man was their immediate superior in the Capital Guard, and took his job so seriously that he didn’t notice that he was incompetent and that no one liked him. He’d taken command of the local militia a year ago and things had only gotten worse since.

It was hard to get worse than “death spiral into complete destruction” but he’d somehow managed.

Their numbers had fallen to such incredibly low numbers that the militia had been folded into the regular Capital Guard now.

They formed a ragtag and starving force with little leadership and no chance of success, but since they were also basically the last soldiers Cormoran had in the war, they had to fight on.

Buggane had been born in the village, but had always seemed ashamed of that fact, always dressing like they did in the capital and trying to take on their accent and mannerisms.

The man had been a laughing stock before the war.

And now he was in charge of them, simply because everyone else had already been killed.

But he was still basically a laughing stock.

Some things never changed. Sadly.

His beady eyes glared at them from under the metal brim of his cone shaped helmet. “Pay attention to your duties and not intercourse! ”

Ryle stared at the man blankly. “This is my sister , man.”

“Which makes it all the more disgusting!” Buggane snapped. “It’s no wonder the garrison fell, if this is the kind of morals its soldiers have! This is why I fled this horrid place in the first place. You people make the worst soldiers.”

“Because we’re not soldiers.” Ryle informed him. “We’re just civilians who were drafted into the militia. If you treated us with some respect for once, we’d…”

“We are all soldiers for our glorious king!” Buggane roared.

“ She’s a seamstress! ” Ryle shot back, pointing at Taylor.

“I’m a tailor,” she corrected, “I make custom clothes from scratch , not using a p…”

“I don’t care.” Her brother interrupted. “Right now, I’m thinking we should let the soldiers kill each other, and then the rest of us can go home.”

Buggane held up a finger in warning. “You will fight or I’ll have you hanged.”

“No offense, but I think the gallows would be a nice alternative to what the Baselanders are planning for us.” Ryle reminded him, gesturing towards the river.

“I’m a hell of a lot more afraid of them than I am of you, Bug .

” He accentuated the man’s childhood nickname, just to piss him off.

“You’ve always been an asshole, even when we were kids. ”

The man’s face darkened. “This is insubordination!”

Ryle eyed him coldly. “You’re goddamn right it is.”

Taylor stepped between them, trying to calm down the larger man before he executed Ryle.

“He didn’t mean that.” She told him. “He’s just all keyed up for battle and…

” She met Buggane’s eyes. “I know someone as… kind as you would never lower yourself to my brother’s level.

” She nodded. “You’re too…” Her mind raced for an adjective flattering enough to distract him.

Truth be told, she’d always thought Buggane had had a crush on her, so she was betting it wouldn’t take a lot to make that jackass’ head swell even more.

“Kind?”Ryle offered.

She nodded. “Yes, you’re too kind for that.” She finished, unsure if Ryle had been questioning her use of the word or suggesting it as a suitable adjective for her to use now. But either way, it didn’t much matter.

Buggane considered that for a long moment, his eyes traveling over the tattered remnants of her uniform, obviously imagining what she looked like out of it.

Truth told, there wasn’t much left to see.

Years of war and starvation had made her frail and sickly.

If she’d once been pretty, those days were long gone, and her formerly vibrant auburn hair now hung limply around her sunken face.

She was used up.

The whole kingdom was.

The man had always had a way of looking at her that made her feel dirty though, a feeling which overshadowed her own depression and fatigue . Just being near him was revolting. It was like every time his eyes were on her, something inside of her yelled that the man was not supposed to touch her.

Not ever .

In this case though, he could continue imagining her however he wanted, doing whatever he wanted, just so long as he went away and didn’t hang her brother.

Before the man would issue his final judgment on the matter though, an ox horn trumpet sounded, reverberating over the water and the noise from the fires.

Her face paled.

The river.

The Baselanders were crossing the river.

“ALARM!” Buggane roared, turning on his heel and dashing towards the sound of the horn. “TO THE WALL!”

Ryle cursed savagely and grabbed his spear.

“ Told you we were gonna die tonight.” He raced towards the battle.

“It’s not too late to get out of here, you know.

” He offered again, falling back into his usual mantra of escape planning.

It was really her brother’s only remaining hobby.

He spent most of his free time spinning elaborate strategies about how they could escape the war and where they could go.

But none of it would ever come to anything, and she suspected that they both knew that.

For one thing, her brother was not a planner and his ideas were terrible , and for another, there really was no escaping the war. Not anymore.

“Yes, it is.” She tried to readjust her own helmet, but then tossed it aside.

It wasn’t like it was going to be much help anyway.

The Baselanders had punched through everything else the Cormoranians had put in their way, so it was ridiculous to think that a thin piece of battered iron was going to hold them back now. “It’s been too late for months now.”

Ahead of them, she could already see guards fighting with the Baselanders.

One of the Cormoranian guards sounded his horn again from the third story of a building, half of which was gone.

He braced his foot on the crumbled stone which had formerly been the missing exterior wall, and blew another long note before being silenced by a battle ax thrown by one of the Baselanders.

The man fell from his perch and into the alley, hitting the cobblestones with a sickening thud.

Something crashed into the wall next to Taylor and exploded, knocking her from her feet and covering her with debris.

Her vision went dark.

Ryle pulled her free a moment later, swearing. She slowly got to her feet and dimly watched the carnage play out around her. Another wave of Baselanders exited their landing craft and poured into the outpost, falling on the surprised Cormoranians.

The result was pure butchery.

But it all seemed a million miles away now for some reason. She was aware of the fact that Ryle was speaking to her, but she just couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying. Her mind was too muddled for that.

She rose to her feet and began to walk slowly along the river, as if drawn by something downstream.

Ryle swore again, stabbing a Baselander in the neck as the man jumped from the shadows and started to run towards Taylor. The man’s blood pooled at her feet, but it was as if it was something in a painting.

It didn’t matter.

Taylor had important things on her mind, not this silliness.

For some reason, all she could think of was the river.

Like something was calling her. And… there was something wrong.

She wasn’t sure what it was, but… something.

The answer dangled just out of her mind, teasingly.

But she couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

It was if a voice was in her head, both beckoning her towards it but also warning her of danger.

Her ears were still ringing from the explosion, but the muffled sounds of battle raged through her head, distracting her from whatever the voice was saying.

“ Shhhh .” She hushed the soldiers who were struggling to kill each other next to her.

“Let… let me think for…” She trailed off, too distracted to finish the thought.

The grappling men toppled over the side of the wall and into the water.

Her brother grabbed her arm. “Taylor!” He yelled into her face. “Taylor! Focus! ”

Yes.

She needed to focus. But people kept distracting her.

“There’s something wrong here.” She whispered. “Very wrong.”

“Really?” Ryle ducked under a Baselander’s sword, then stabbed the man through the gut with his spear. “You think?”

“No, I mean, there’s something wrong with the river …” She turned to look at it. “Something… downstream.”

“Well, there’s the fact that the river’s currently filled with the dead people.” Ryle swept out his weapon, knocking a soldier off his feet and sending him toppling back into the water. “That could be it.”