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She shook her head. “No, that’s not it.” Her thoughts still felt clouded. “It’s something else. Can’t you hear it?” She turned to look for the source again, a sensation like fire on her skin. “Something’s… in pain.”

“ Fight goddamn you!” Buggane screamed at his men. “Send them back to The Demon of Gold in pieces!”

She ignored his rousing but futile attempt at inspiring the troops.

This battle was over before it even started and was, at this point, merely an opportunity for the Cormoranians to kill themselves quickly rather than dying from starvation or being tortured to death later.

It was almost like Buggane was trying to kill all of his men.

Her brow compressed in thought.

For some reason though, now that she was paying attention to it, the battle wasn’t as one-sided as any logical person would have assumed.

True, the Cormoranians were dying by the score, but they were holding the wall.

Aside from those initial waves of troops, the Baselanders’ attack had slowed and all but stopped.

She remained focused on her brother. “Why would they cross here ?”

“Huh?” Ryle dodged to the side as an arrow impacted the wall behind him.

“Are you really going to sit there and try to discuss battle strategy while there’s…

” He swore as a man wielding a mace crashed through the remains of a wooden door to his left and immediately grabbed Ryle, pulling him into the darkness.

He wrapped his arm around Ryle’s neck and started to choke him.

Taylor followed, feeling far calmer than she should have been. Ordinarily, such an event would have terrified and infuriated her. But for some reason, it was like the battle had faded away and she was talking to her brother in one of the town’s quiet cafés. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Ryle made a gasping sound. “…Fo… cus…” He tried to breathe, but the man’s arm prevented him. “…Not…” He made several more gasping sounds. “…Hee….ll…t…”

“What?” She inquired calmly. “Focus on what? I can’t understand you.” She tried to decipher several more of his gasps, then rolled her eyes. “Hold on.” She stabbed the attacker and Ryle fell back to the floor, inhaling deeply. “What were you saying?”

He gasped several more times, trying to regain his breath. “I… don’t understand… you… sometimes, Taylor.” He pulled himself to his feet, looking drained. “You’re a really weird girl.”

“It’s important. ” She argued.

“So is dying .” He met her eyes. “You are not thinking clearly at the moment.”

“I know.” She nodded. “But it’s something to do with the river. Something is happening down there. All I need is a few seconds to think about it and…”

“No.” Ryle shook his head. “We’re going.”

“We can’t go.” She argued. “We just talked about it, remember? We agreed.”

“Well, now I’m un- agreeing . ”

“That’s not even a word.” She shook her head. “That’s, like, just a made up word that…”

“Focus!” He snapped. “That explosion has given you a concussion or something and now you’re out of it .

” He pressed a finger to her temple and then held it up in front of her, showing her the blood which was dripping from her wound.

“See?” He grabbed her arm. “As such, all previous agreements are now null and void and I’m in charge of making sure you don’t die.

” He dragged her through a shattered hole in the wall and into a neighboring building.

“So we’re leaving . We stood our ground, we defended the crumbling remains of your precious stupid village, but the war is lost and we’re going . ”

Behind them, Buggane continued to shout out orders to his men, his voice obviously pleased with how the battle was going.

It was… a miracle .

Her eyes drifted down to the ox horn trumpet the watchman had sounded earlier, alerting them all to the assault.

The horizon to the south suddenly lit up, as if something else exploded downstream. A strange noise drifted over the water, an inhuman scream she didn’t recognize. A roar of surprise, rage and... pain.

The fog in her head cleared. “We’re leaving.” She decided, quickly picking up the instrument in question.

“That’s what I said!” Ryle agreed in relief. “We’ll take the river road north and…”

“South.” She pulled him in the other direction. “We’re going south .”

“ Why would we ever want to go south? ”

“Because that’s where they’re crossing, Ryle!” She shot back.

He gestured towards the river. “And what do you call this ?”

“A distraction!” She yanked his arm towards her destination. “They’re drawing us away.”

“They don’t need to draw us away!” He argued. “They outnumber us fifty to one!”

“I don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing, I only know that they’re doing it! ” She started to run faster through the narrow alleys, jumping over the stones and wreckage which littered the familiar cobblestones. “And we need to figure out why!”

“This is stupid. ” He pronounced. “Even if you’re right and aren’t still out of your gourd, which is a huge ‘if’ right now, that just means that there’s a lot more Baselanders down this way!” He pointed over his shoulder. “ And I’ve already got enough of them back over there! ”

“There is something down here. I can feel it. Something important!” She sounded the ox horn in her hand as she ran, blowing a deep loud tone of alarm and drawing the remaining guards to her position as she raced forward.

Ryle winced. “Buggane’s not going to like you doing that.” He predicted, but continued running after her. “That’s going to get us hanged. You don’t have permission to blow that thing.”

“He’d have to live long enough to hang me, and if we don’t shift south, he’s not going to!” She blew the horn again. “ Move! ”

They burst from the decaying buildings and into a clearing which had formerly been a park.

She knew the space well; her father had taken her here every weekend morning to feed the ducks.

But these days, the ducks had all long since been eaten by the last starving remnants of the village’s population.

She immediately crouched behind a low stone retaining wall and pointed towards the shore. “Told you!”

Ahead of them, the Baselanders had set up a makeshift ferry and were in the process of shuttling soldiers and cargo from one shore to the other.

Once everything was in place, they’d either move north to surround the fort from both sides, or perhaps just ignore it entirely and move on the capital itself.

A couple dozen soldiers stood around several large crates on the improvised dock, waiting for the ferry to return.

The Baselanders had set up a crude cable ferry from one shore to the other; a rope which stretched over the water, that the ferry pilot used to pull the ferry raft across. It was quick and dirty, but effective.

Buggane suddenly grabbed Ryle from behind. “What is the meaning of this!?!” He yelled. “Why are you distracting my men!?! Why are you trying to rob me of my victory!?!”

Ryle made a frantic slashing motion with his hands. “Quiet! Shhh.”

“ Don’t you ‘shhh’ me!!!” He picked Ryle up by the front of his uniform. “I’ll have you executed right now for desertion!” He gestured with his head towards Taylor. “You always were a terrible influence on her. Dragging her away from her true use and the things that …”

Ryle pointed towards the shore. “They’ll hear you!”

Buggane considered that for a moment, then lowered him to the ground. “I have decided to delay your execution until after I have routed my enemy.”

“That’s big of you, man.” Ryle nodded. “Thanks.”

Buggane turned to address his men, the last survivors of the wall.

Ryle was right; the diversion was entirely unneeded.

There were only a couple dozen men and women left in this entire division of the Cormoranian army, most of whom looked too weak to stand on their feet for more than a few minutes, let alone fight a highly trained army.

The Baselanders could have easily wiped them out if they had committed more troops to the effort.

Taylor wasn’t entirely sure why they did that. Something else was going on. It was almost like they just didn’t even care enough about them to put the Cormoranians out of their misery.

“The cowards have tried to hide from our wrath,” Buggane informed his remaining guards, “but I have found them anyway.”

“Good job with that.” Ryle flashed him a friendly smile. “We would have been lost without your leadership.”

“Shut up, idiot.” Buggane snapped. “I’m still executing you.”

Ryle’s smile faded.

“We will move against our foe and crush them!” Buggane pointed towards the soldiers. “ We will annihilate them all! ”

Taylor shook her head. “No, they outnumber us and have their defenses in place. We wouldn’t stand a chance. We should wait here until we figure out what they’re up to, and then…”

“CHARGE!” Buggane leapt forward over the small wall, and barreled down on their enemies. His men shambled after him, looking far less enthusiastic about the idea.

Taylor swore under her breath. “Wait!” She called. “There’s something wrong here!”

But it was too late to stop them.

This was going to be bad .

They were committed now however, so she had little choice but to follow along with their glorious leader. She ran down the street, pointing towards the ferry and the soldiers which packed its deck. “Ryle!”

“What?” He answered in confusion.

“Give me the…” She stopped, realizing it would take too long to explain and instead simply grabbed the weapon from his hand.

“Hey!” He pointed at it. “I’ll need that in a minute!”