“Run!” Winter screamed.
The closest soldier blocked Seka’s spear thrust with his musket, slashing his bayonet diagonally across her stomach. Leti was going for her weapon, but Winter grabbed her arm, her legs feeling slow and clumsy. Dirt slid under her feet as she turned, her boots tearing through the tall grass. She shouted again at Yath, who’d drawn her own spear, but the girl was already pivoting on one foot for a throw. The weapon whipped out and caught the soldier who’d shot Elka, several inches of bloody spearhead emerging from the back of his neck. He fell to his knees, clawing at the spear as he choked and gurgled.
“Back to the fortress!” Kollowrath said, voice high with panic. “Back!”
Yath turned to run. Another musket went off, and she toppled with a grunt. Leti saw, and half turned herself, pulling Winter with her.
“Leti—”
“We can’t—” Leti began.
Seka’s guts were sliding out of her, but she had a long knife in her hand, jamming it over and over into the soldier’s ribs. The sergeant and his two remaining men were following their commander back toward the gate. One of them had snatched up an unfired musket from his companion and turned to sight on them. Winter flung herself down, pulling Leti alongside her, just as the weapon went off with an ear?splitting crack.
She buried her face in the dirt, tasting it on her lips, listening. There was a short shriek, a soft gurgling noise, and then only the sound of retreating boots fading into the distance. Winter raised her head, brushing soil from her face.
“We have to get out of here,” she said. “Kollowrath will send more men. He’ll—”
She stopped. Leti didn’t move.
No. Not again. Winter was back in Bobby’s arms, huddling against the motionless statue. At the regimental aid station, watching as Hannah Courvier removed arms and legs. Signing the strength reports, counting the dead. No, no, no...
Leti lay facedown, arms splayed, with a hole the size of a gold eagle in the back of her head. Winter dropped to her knees, eyes filling with tears.
Again.
They always trust me. And then they die.
*
She wasn’t sure how long she lay there. Eventually, something drove her to her feet, the part of her mind that kept her alive while the rest was broken. Kollowrath would be back, with more men, and she couldn’t be around when he arrived.
Leti was dead. Elka was dead, eyes still open in blank, blank surprise. Seka was dead, along with the Murnskai soldier who’d killed her, tangled together in a gory mess. The soldier with the spear through his throat had long ago stopped twitching.
Yath was alive, the musket ball having punched clean through the meat of her thigh but missed the bone. She sat up when Winter staggered over, and gritted her teeth while Winter tied a makeshift bandage around the wound. It still leaked blood, but Yath managed to stand up with one arm around Winter’s shoulder, and they made reasonably good speed to the edge of the wood. Looking back, Winter could see soldiers running along the wall walk, but the gates were still closed. Lucky for us Kollowrath’s a coward. She wanted to sob, but it stuck in her throat.
Once they made the tree line, Winter found a hidden spot in the crook of a dead log, and laid Yath down. The girl was white as a sheet, and Winter didn’t think she’d make it all the way to camp.
“Back,” Winter told her, gesturing. She didn’t know how much Murnskai Yath could understand. “We’ll come to bring you back. The others.”
Yath’s eyes closed. Winter turned and ran in the direction of the camp, cursing her decision to come so far from it, to come here at all, to involve anyone else in her fucking life and its ongoing disasters. She ran until there were spots of gray at the corners of her vision, and she almost didn’t notice that she’d arrived. One of the sentries shouted at her to stop, and she pulled up short, breathing great gulps of air.
“Alex! Abraham!” Winter ignored the sentry, who couldn’t understand her, and raised her voice. Before long, her two companions came running, followed by Vess and a dozen nervous Haeta. Alex pulled up short, eyes widening.
“Winter, are you—”
There was blood spattered all over her, Leti’s and Yath’s and who knew who else’s. “I’m fine,” Winter said. “Yath’s hurt badly. Take Abraham to her as fast as you can.” She described the dead tree.
“I can run,” Abraham said. “My legs are doing better—”
“I can go faster,” Alex said flatly.
“I know.” Abraham looked a little green, but he nodded. “Go ahead.”
Alex put one arm around his waist. She raised her other hand, and a beam of darkness shot out into the forest, anchoring to a distant tree with a crunch. She took a running start, jumped, and let the beam contract, carrying her and Abraham high above the forest floor in a long arc. Another beam snapped out, pulling them farther along, and then they were out of sight, moving much faster than a sprint.
They’ll save her, if she can be saved. Winter’s legs wobbled, and then she was sitting. She was still breathing hard, and her lungs still burned.
Vess pushed forward, past the sentry and the other Haeta.
“What happened?” she demanded. “Where’re Leti and the others?”
Winter hesitated. She might kill me. At that moment, she couldn’t have said she would have begrudged Vess that. I made the decision. I took Leti along. My fault. It rang in her ears. Not just Leti but all the others, Bobby and Jane and names she’d shamefully forgotten. My fault.
“Dead,” Winter said. “The Murnskai... attacked us. Yath and I escaped, but the others...”
She shook her head and closed her eyes, waiting for the scream, the bright pain of a knife at her throat. My fault.
*
“Winter?” Alex’s voice.
Winter opened her eyes. Overhead was the battered canvas of her tent. She lay on her bedroll, curled up on her side. When she tried to stretch out, her abused muscles protested, cramping hard. Alex leaned over, looking worried, as Winter slowly forced her legs to straighten.
“Should I get Abraham?” Alex said. “He’s worn out, but—”
“I’m okay,” Winter panted. “Just... never run quite that far.” She closed her eyes. “What about Yath?”
“She’ll be fine. We got there in time.” Alex hesitated. “There were soldiers out by the gate, dragging... people inside. You’re certain none of the others might have...?”
“Yes,” Winter said. “I made sure, or I wouldn’t have left them there.”
“Of course,” Alex said quickly. “I’m sorry. Leti was... She seemed kind.”
“She was.” Kind, and young, and stupid enough to put her trust in me. Just like you. “What is Vess doing?”
Alex looked away. “You should rest.”
“Alex. Tell me.”
“She’s planning to attack the fortress,” Alex said.
Winter sat up abruptly, then doubled over, clutching her stomach as more cramps seized her.