The line of knights slinking along the rope behind spurred me onwards, keeping my arms and legs moving as I heard the end of the climb nearing. The unfortunate part was that it was Arardish and Jacora’s voices I was listening to, among the chatter of a crowd that wasn’t there when I’d started the climb.

  My antlers smacked into stone, sending a jolt through my head and neck. I blinked up at the blue sky, my limbs trembling. I reached behind to touch the stone, formed a tiny outcrop in the wall, unhooked my ankles, and stretched my toes for the foothold I had created a little too low down.

  I let go of the rope and flattened my back against the stone, my arms spreading out for something more to hold. Leonarda was right behind me, so I made another foothold to climb through the dip in the turret’s battements despite my legs' protest. Leonarda ignored my route and swung himself upright, crawling atop the rope straight onto the battlement it was tied around.

  “Is that you under there?” someone demanded. “Where is it? Did you lead it back here?

  I nodded and then shook my head, leaning on my knees as those who followed Leonarda climbed up just as effortlessly.

  “Val…erica?” Arardish said, his boots appearing in my vision. “This is all the help you could rally? Where’s the gargoyle? You and Tometh’s rabble were supposed to distract it.”

  I waved him off as Jacora pushed through the families huddled in the chilly weather, the sun at least out from behind the clouds for once. The auctioneer knew precisely who he needed to talk to, ignoring Leonarda and Oteli despite their golden insignia and cosying up to Yistopher with an offered hand.

  “It’s dead,” I said after a deep breath. “And no, we’re just a small portion. The main column is three streets over that way.”

  He clicked his tongue, sidestepping the part in the conversation where someone would say ‘thank you,’ and went over to where the last knight was stepping onto the battlements. Our arrival and the steady stream of civilians climbing up through the hatch in the centre of the stone platform quickly took up the remaining space.

  I stretched my back within the confines of my chainmail, wincing as my muscles tightened. The soreness faded slower than expected as I chewed through mana to soothe them. My vision blurred slowly, and I lost my balance, stumbling to the side, but not because of exhaustion. I was left bereft of mana momentarily as my body tried to pull in the dregs to replace what it used. With all the ghouls surrounding us, we may as well have been in a giant iron box.

  I tried to hold onto more than what flowed around us. However, unlike harbouring a bit extra to throw out while casting or stopping myself from sucking away the mana in my necklace, trying to do that over my entire form felt impossible. I closed my eyes and basked in the sun briefly, waiting out the healing and getting used to the new low in ambient mana.

  Arardish’s group, or rather honour guard, moved to stand behind him as he faced Yistopher and the Drasdan knights, an apparent disagreement between the groups. The wooden hatch was shut, a set of fingers blocking the way stomped on by a militia member. An oaf of a militia member sat on the hatch as a fist pounded against the inner side.

  Those lucky enough to be on our side were troubled by the persistent pounding and muffled shouts but didn’t say anything, choosing to concentrate on the knights’ quarrel instead. I sighed and moved to avert any fighting in our cramped accommodation.

  “Is that the girl?” Jacora asked Araridsh as I approached. He nodded. “Look here, former commander, whatever your title is or was. I don’t care. Ask the girl; she can attest to the kind of funds I have at my disposal. The kind you could all benefit from.”

  The eyes of over twenty-something knights turned to me, waiting for my inconsequential answer while the bastion shook and the ghouls screeched all around us. “Yes, I can attest to that.”

  “See—”

  “The gargoyle ransacked his auction house. It’s where all the artefacts came from. So, he’s either poor or at least poorer.”

  While Jacora sputtered, his features slowly deciding on anger, Arardish stepped forward to try his hand. “Regardless, I am the commander of the entire independent capital region and the Remnant Knights, and I order you to cast down on the creatures trying to get into my headquarters.”

  “Where’s Tometh?” I asked before Yis could respond.

  “Quiet,” Arardish spat. “You’ve exhausted your usefulness, the deal is done, let the adults talk. Your people took too long to come to our aid, so you can help thin their numbers. Will you comply, or does the duke need to hear about this later?”

  “Where. Is. Tometh?” I asked, stepping into the narrow space between the two men.

  “Below us, doing his job, you waste of mana. Join him for all I care,” Arardish said, spittle hitting my uniform. “Occupying our escape route, bleeding valuable time. What good are you?”

  “Escape?” Yis said slowly, as if not understanding the word, and moved me to the side by grabbing my shoulders. “Aren’t you the commander?”

  “Of course,” Arardish said, tightening the clasps of his jacket. “And where’s your commander? With the majority of his troops? That is where I shall be heading.”

  “Sir?” the oaf sitting on the hatch shouted. “They’re asking if we have space for a child?”

  “I said no more!” Arardish yelled. “Tell them to keep their damn children and have some patience.”

  “Guess what they say about the rems is true,” muttered one of Oteli’s knights. “Bunch of cowards.”

  Perhaps on purpose, Arardish and his group overheard and pressed into the Drasdan knights to get to the perpetrator. Yistopher was squashed in the middle while I was pushed to the side. I squeezed out of their squabble, stepping towards the hatch. Someone tried to grab my back, but their hands slipped off. There was more shouting for formal apologies than punches and spells, so I left them to it.

  The guard at the hatch raised their spear to me as I entered the only empty space on the turret, people leaving a perimeter to avoid him. I slapped the tip away with my gauntlet. “I’m going down, not up. You don’t have any orders to stop me, and I can swap places with the kid.”

  He still hesitated before getting up and moving to the side of the hatch, redirecting his spear at the people stuck on the ladder as it opened. I kicked it away again, focusing on the real obstacle to getting down.

  People were pressed shoulder to shoulder in the small chamber containing the ladder and spiral staircase. During the distraction, the man at the top climbed up, his arm wrapped around a screaming toddler trying to pry his hands off them. The next woman, the child’s mother by the way they reached for her, tried to climb up after, but I dropped my boot onto the rung, blocking their way.

  “Please! You can’t do this.”

  “I’m not. I’m going down, then you can come up.”

  “Let me up first.”

  She was already most of the way, so I moved my foot for her, only to end up in the same situation with the next person scrambling up.

  “What are you doing?” Arardish said, taking a break from his argument with the captains.

  Yistopher pushed through the throng of people between us, probably to ask the same question. I wasn’t going to be able to reason with the people fleeing for their lives, so I climbed down, using the side of the ladder and their limbs as rungs. I dropped into a small gap after stepping on a few shoulders and heads. The back of my antlers almost poked someone’s eye out behind me, so I took it off to hold above me as I shuffled sideways through the chaos.

  After being squeezed and jostled, blocked from going the way I wanted, and elbowed in the ribs seemingly on purpose, I fell out of the back of the mass partway down the staircase. I tumbled down several of the steps, the impact of their edges barely blunted by my armour. My helmet fell from my grip, clanging around the bend.

  An armoured individual came around the same bend, dragging a trunk behind them and squeezed past as I tried to pick myself up. I didn’t expect a helping hand, but bumping into me while I pulled my legs off the stairs above was uncalled for.

  I held back a string of curses, content to watch him try and fail to squeeze his way through to the ladder. More people rushed past, some smart enough to leave their belongings behind. I got to my feet, rubbing the lump on my forearm and testing my little finger, which had hit a step and bent the wrong way. I leaned against the stone wall, careful where I put each step as the minor injuries healed.

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  The top floor’s corridor, typically filled with quiet offices for the captains, was in turmoil. People ran between open doors, kicking aside refuse and abandoned possessions. Two men fought over a spear, the shorter of the two taking a blow on the chin and hitting the wall behind. The victor apologised and retreated into a room, a lock clicking behind him.

  “Move!”

  The woman didn’t wait for me to leave the doorway before pushing past, dragging a boy behind her.

  “Hey, go the other way,” I said, pointing to the opposite end where the other turret was. “That way’s blocked.”

  She paused, almost around the bend in the staircase. We locked eyes, and before I could be more clear, she went on her way, dragging the boy behind her as he looked back. I stared after them and threw my arms in the air, tired of dealing with people.

  I continued on my descent, searching for where my helmet had bounced to. The next floor was empty, the screech of ghouls echoing off the walls from open windows, and the same scattered belongings clogged the corridor's sides.

  Raised voices echoed down the staircase as I approached what should have been the entrance to the second floor. However, the stone had been morphed to plug the doorway.

  The same seal was on the ground floor, with furniture clogging the stairwell most of the way to the floor above. My helmet sat amongst the broken table legs and splintered desks, constantly coated in a fresh layer of dust from the impacts reverberating through the turret walls. I slipped it on, hurrying back up the steps two at a time.

  The bastion was a mess of mages, artefacts, and iron—purposefully built to keep some areas secret from curious mages. I couldn’t tell if the ghouls had breached, and while the blockages may have been out of caution, the panic was for something far beyond the siege.

  “Valeria!” Footsteps thumped down the stairwell; they’d made it through the crowd quicker than I’d anticipated.

  “I’m not going back!”

  “Valeria, don’t move!”

  I paused at the unsealed entrance to the third floor and leaned back into the doorframe, already halfway through an imagined argument with Yis. If he thought I would willingly hide away when we were this close to the fighting, to doing something worthwhile, he was about to find out how heavy I was in my armour and how sharp my claws were.

  Cavia rounded the corner first, his rectangular shield blocking most of the passage with a crossbow leaning over the top.

  “She’s here,” he said, moving past me to position himself further down the stairs. The shield bearer for Oteli’s squad came next, taking the hallway. The third stopped near me, a hand clapping Cavia’s shoulder, his sword sheathed and a dagger in hand, two more crossbows slung over his back for Cavia to swap to. The fourth knight continued the pattern, standing behind her squad’s shield bearer.

  “How did you get those through the crowd?” I asked them, ignoring the fifth person to come down the staircase.

  “People tend to listen when you announce you’re freeing up room and going down to stand guard,” Yis said. “Why are you running off?”

  “I wouldn’t have been any help tossing spells down at ghouls,” I said, folding my arms. “We need to find Tometh if we want the knights here to help us. Arardish has no interest in helping anyone that doesn’t own an auction house.”

  “Those are hardly knights, and I meant, why are you running off to find him without us?” he asked. “You saw how we let the shield go through first to take the first hit safely. Why are you so adamant to throw your life away here?”

  “I’m not throwing it away; the worst that’ll happen is I get hurt and need to break open a window and climb up to the rope again. I’m not risking anything by being here.”

  “You’re overconfident, and one day you will suffer the consequences. Unlike your other reckless pursuits, this one had tangible benefits and minimised risk. However, that all goes away when you rush into danger alone after I let you join us.”

  “Let? Over—” I sputtered, pushing off from the doorframe. I’d been ostensibly alone for most of my life and suffered consequences for my actions and many more for my laziness. The knights and duke could make all the appropriately calculated judgments to minimise the danger they wanted, but they could leave me out of it. “No, no more talking. Your shields either get in that corridor, or I’m taking the lead.”

  I marched off without waiting for either, brushing past the two knights in the passage, my legs tensed in case I needed to break into a run.

  “Go,” Yis said, rattling metal quickly catching up and moving past me. Yis and the remaining mages came after, moving as a single file through the bastion towards the central Map Room.

  “Take a left,” I said. “I know you’re only here to cause I am and would rather be throwing spells from the turrets, so you can tell Faraya it’s my fault you're in danger. But don’t worry. Here, with narrow hallways and limited entrances, I can make sure nothing bad happens to you.”

  “You’ll… protect us?” Leonarda asked.

  “I have better armour than you, better defensive spells and better blades, which I don’t need to swing around in a narrow area. I’ve also killed more ghouls than you many times over.”

  “Sir,” Leonarda said, pleading with Yistopher. “Please explain to the whelp we are nothing like that coward and were going to hold the lower floors regardless of her escapist tendencies.”

  I made a sound between a scoff and a chuckle. “You’ve all been pushing me to be more like him these last few days. Valeria, be more cautious. Valeria, that’s not safe. What’s changed?”

  “She’s got your voice nailed down,” Oteli commented from the back. “...Sir.”

  “Massive difference between assaulting a city without support and checking hallways to make sure they're clear,” Yis said. “This is being more cautious while still helping. We can’t get surrounded, have a fallback position, with aid a few streets over.”

  “I feel like we’re missing context here,” one shield bearer said to the next.

  Cavia shrugged. “All I know is we have her protecting our backs instead of Fanalor. I'm fine with that.”

  “If you’d lost the weight you said you would, that arrow wouldn’t have hit you!”

  “Staircase on your right,” I muttered. Their ‘sensible’ approach to situations sounded too similar to Arardish’s cowardice, only going by another name. However, I knew better than to say it out loud after the single word had sent them all for the hilts of their blades.

  The heavy footfalls of those above faded, and the clamour from the ground floor seeped up to ours, filled with shouts and thundering spell impacts. The knights had continued their chatter, consisting almost entirely of insults and barbs at past events during their excursions, interlaced with phoney advice in order to bring up the mistakes of others.

  “Quiet,” Yis said, jaws clamping shut. I settled into a crouch like the knight ahead, checking the closest doorway of the hall we passed. “Anyone else hear that?”

  My helmet didn’t have openings for the ears, so I only heard creaking armour and unintelligible shouts. “No?”

  “Yes,” Cavia said from the front. “Crying?” ‘

  “Sounds like a child.”

  “Oteli, your squad holds the stairs? Leonard and I can push forward.”

  “Understood,” Oteli said. Her team stepped to the left and Leonarda’s to the right, leaving me alone in the centre. The alternating knights from each squad shifted past each other to reform their squads. I quickly stepped to the right and slipped into Leonadra’s squad, finding their objective more interesting.

  Bowfore, who I hadn’t seen much of since the train ride into Drasda, squeezed my shoulder as Cavia led the way. The young knight flexed her fingers, the start of a mana tendril forming. “Lovely to see you again. A little easier to sense you this time?”

  “It’s the armour,” I said, flexing my steel-plated fingers. “It draws too much to hide in this barren place.”

  We didn’t move quickly towards where Yis thought the crying was coming from. A pair of us checked each room, whether the door was open, closed, or locked. I made it to the front of the squad, the two pairs that were ahead returning to join the back after peeling off to rooms behind us. I turned the handle and shouldered into an unlocked door, feeling no presence in the room as I checked it, leaning down to look under the desk.

  Bowfore looked in over my shoulder, and I closed the door again. “Empty.”

  “It changed places,” Yistopher said. “Was that a laugh?”

  “Is anyone there?” Cavia shouted down the hall.

  The giggle turned to a wail, and Cavia pushed forward, ignoring the unchecked doors.

  “It's behind us,” Bowfore called from behind, stopping the group.

  “Two children?”

  “It’s too consistent, and kids don’t start and stop wailing like that for no reason.”

  “Valeria, any explanation here?” Yis asked.

  I strained my senses, finding people and ghouls directly below us but nothing else. “No?”

  “It’s on you,” Oteli screamed from around the corner.

  “Kill it!” “It’s on the shield.” “Where did it go?”

  “Fuck!”

  “Casting fire! Stand back.”

  Bowfore was already running, a spell illuminating our hall. We turned the corner together, the neat line of knights in disarray. The one screaming in pain rammed his back into the wall, reaching behind to drag off a pale creature. It was knee-high with the same ghoulish features I knew well, but jutting out of its side were a pair of sharpened appendages, moving as dexterously as its arms.

  It slashed at the knight holding it with the extra limbs, catching the elbow joint of his plate armour. He released it with a pained scream. The ghoul jumped to the ceiling before scurrying off across it with a gleeful giggle. A spell flew after it, obliterating a doorframe and showering the ghoul with splinters but not doing any damage before it escaped.

  “Healers!” Oteli called, and both squads moved to tend to the wounded. “One burn to mitigate.”

  “No rejuvenation! Only cures, the wounds are infested.”

  “Valeria,” Yis said, pulling me to the side so they could work. “Those weren’t in your report.”

  “I think it's from the castle, like the gargoyle, but I haven’t seen any child-sized ghouls before.”

  The same cry that drew us there initially echoed down the hall behind us, and Yistopher dragged a hand over his face. “There were two royal children at the time of The Fall, so if you’re sure they’re from the castle, I'm worried about who they used to be.”