You won`t believe this. Some Valer kid got into our system somehow. She`s been reading code snippets, downloading some bits of text& nothing super important, really, this is just surface level stuff. She`s not any deeper than that. Yeah. I know, first-layer decryption is still a worry but& look, it`s not like she`s any danger. No, of course I don`t think that! God, how sadistic are you? Like I said - this is clearly some kid - in the Wanderer`s Vale of all places! You know what`s happening there? Look& here`s what I`m saying. We`ll pass her a message or two. See what comes back, if anything. Yeah, her - well, okay. Call me a hypocrite all you like, it`s basic security procedures. I think she might have talent. Yeah, the kind of talent we need. Artifex? Nah, not really, but - she`s sharp, this one. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, just don`t say I didn`t tell you when this kid ends up building us something really impressive. Yeah, I know. She`s got to survive the war first. But come on - have a little faith.

　　-Heard in the Neo Technica meeting house in z`Ark City

　　245 YT, Winter: The Great Meeting-House of Kivv

　　 In the midst of the dance singers stepped left and stepped right, voices raised to the melody, wordless and joyous, blending together with each step that they took, and each time that the singers passed one another in the dance one would reach out to the other, their fingers would brush one another, their hands would clasp for the barest moment, and then they would trail past one another again, coats hanging behind them and brushing along the floor where they went. Among the singers, the loudest of them Hilda could hear was Miss Yekra the grocer, raising her voice to the very ceiling as though she could have broken down the roof with her song. As Hilda danced, and as she watched Lucian circling across from her, Miss Yekra passed, held out a wrinkled yet whip-strong old hand toward Hilda, and grinned when Hilda clapped the offered hand and momentarily joined the melody. Miss Yekra moved on, and Hilda stepped into the space between, moving toward Lucian, and he raised his eyes to meet hers and there was the bright blue of spring in them, even though it was cold outside and there were bitter winds and worse things waiting for when the doors eventually opened and the music faded. The nervous anticipation, knowing the situation they were in, stung at the back of Hilda`s mind, but she pushed it back down.

　　 She glanced toward her brother, who had not joined in the dance. Aleks was sitting in a corner of the room, talking with Melik and Avishag and Badem, the kids who`d warned the siblings of the soldiers` arrival a season ago. He seemed to shy away from the dancers, especially when the song picked up and grew a little louder, and Aleks pressed himself back against the wall. As though it were by unspoken instinct or an agreement made through quiet expressions of understanding, the three Oxdal kids formed a protective barrier between Aleks and the rest of the crowd, and Hilda lost sight of him.

　　 She returned her eyes to Lucian and grinned, and the dance brought them close together again, and Hilda and Lucian grasped one another`s arms, parallel in a wanderer`s greeting. Her hand wrapped round the inside of his elbow and his round hers. They spun together, feet pointed in on a point, and when they parted Hilda stepped off into the crowd. Kamila, nearby, was dancing across from Erik Murkrea - Hilda recognized him from the smith`s stall in the market, and from snatches of conversation she`d witnessed with her sister. Erik always seemed to vanish in moments when Hilda came along, their conversation too secret for Hilda`s ears. She thought of what Lucian had told her seasons ago, of the Hunters& though her sister was smiling now for the first time in a long time, smiling at her, Hilda couldn`t meet Kamila`s eyes, and couldn`t return the smile honestly. She hoped Kamila`s eyes didn`t stay on her for too long, and she let herself whirl into the crowd, among the dancers. The Sower Arien - Aleks` friend, if Hilda wasn`t wrong - passed her, one of the singers, belting out a wordless melody in his deep and rumbling voice. She felt it as well as heard it - the low vibrato of his soulful tune.

　　 Suddenly the song changed and became upbeat, fast, and the crowd shifted from their places. Hilda went with them, swept along by the energy of the room. She knew the dance, but even had she not, there would be no avoiding the wave that brought her along. Even Melik, pulling away from his Oxdal friends and from Aleks, came to join the dance, entering the circle to Hilda`s left. Across from Hilda, she saw Lucian, and they both bowed to one another, removing their caps for only a moment, and then the song began in earnest. The circle turned to the left for several measure, to the right for several measure, and then everyone stopped. Hilda followed the movements of the dancer to her right, someone she didn`t recognize, and saw that Melik was in turn following her own movements. She hoped she was not leading him astray. The whole circle of dancers stopped and clapped, once, twice, and then the circle closed, and half - alternating places in the circle - continued toward the center. Hilda saw half the dancers join in the center while the outer circle joined hands. Those in the center stood with their left sides to the middle point, their hands up and joined in a tight circle, and walked to the tune. Then they parted, and it was Hilda`s turn to do the same.

　　 The dance continued like this for a while, and then the music faded and the song changed. Hilda broke away from the dance, winded, and made her way to the edge of the room where Aleks, Avishag, and Badem stood. When she caught a glimpse of her brother`s eyes shining from between the two Oxdalers, she lifted a hand in greeting and flashed a smile. Badem turned to look over his shoulder and brushed his hair away from his face, then turned and smiled at Hilda. Avishag was slower to respond, slower to notice Hilda`s presence, but still she smiled when she saw her. Hilda returned the smile and came up to the wall. "Aleks," she said, "I hope you`re at least enjoying yourself."

　　 "I like the music," Aleks said simply, although he was almost pressed against the wall, half-flattening himself to get away from the center of activity. "Are you enjoying the dance?"

　　 Hilda nodded. "It`s good to be able to take a little time and loosen up," she said simply. "We`ve all been working hard for weeks."

　　 "Not a lot of choice in the matter," Aleks said. "I`ve been rebuilding systems, still - just yesterday we brought one of the towers back up that was lost before. And we`re going to -"

　　 Hilda raised a finger to shush Aleks, and shook her head. "No more," she said. "Tonight, just relax. Why don`t you come and join the next dance?"

　　 "I`m fine here." Aleks sighed and leaned back against the wall. "I don`t need to join the dance. I would rather stay here and listen and watch. And think."

　　 "I`m not sure you`d understand," Avishag cut in, frowning at Hilda. Hilda blinked and glanced over her shoulder, back at the dance where Lucian had joined in a weaver`s circle, cutting in and out between the singers across the floor. Hilda watched the dance for a few seconds longer, noting that the crowd was a little smaller than it had been for the previous dance. Kamila was no longer among them, nor Erik Murkrea. Hilda tugged lightly on the fabric of the Veil and brought the Reaper`s Gift onto herself, and she felt Kamila`s presence not far above. It tugged at her, stirring the hairs on the back of her neck.

　　 "It`s not that I wouldn`t understand," Hilda said levelly, hoping she did not sound annoyed. "I just& wanted to take a little time to not worry. The walls are safe for now. The Invictans are outside, and we`re safe in here, and they`re not going to attack us tonight."

　　 "And you can be sure," Aleks said, "that they`re spending every waking moment working on their plan. They`ll be trying to figure out how to get their magicians close enough to tear our walls down from their foundations."

　　 "And they aren`t getting any closer tonight," Hilda said. "And tomorrow we`ll be back to fighting them in the outskirts and the forests and driving them back from the walls." She sighed and reached up and pulled the brim of her hat lower over her brow.

　　 Avishag turned a page in the notepad in her hands and held it up toward Aleks, putting her back to Hilda. Hilda heaved a slow sigh and leaned into the Reaper`s Gift for a breath, then made slowly for the stairs. She walked along the length of the wall until she found the foot of the staircase. From there she turned, hand on the railing to her left, and made up the staircase. When she reached the top step, she looked left down the hallway, right down the stub of a hallway that ended perhaps ten feet from where Hilda stood. She could still sense Kamila`s presence, through the Reaper`s Gift, along with Erik, somewhere to her left, at a level with where she now walked. She turned off into the hallway and began to walk, each step slow. Below, the music had reduced its tempo. By the cadence of the song, Hilda guessed that it was a partner dance now.

　　 She walked to the rhythm of the music, one hand reaching out to her side as though she weren`t walking alone, but Lucian were at her side even now. Hilda`s fingers brushed against the wall - smooth-cut stone. The surface was not rough-hewn, but still scratched against her soft fingertips. Then the wall gave way to open air and Hilda glanced to her left - a balcony stuck out a few feet from the hallway. Hilda stepped out into the balcony, Kamila`s presence still hanging over her, somewhere nearby, somewhere behind. She glanced over the edge of the balcony, hand on the railing, and looked down at the dance floor.

　　 Lucian stepped slowly around the dance floor, his hand held delicately under the gnarled old hand of Miss Yekra the grocer. The two were smiling at one another as they circled, as they parted briefly and passed interleaving with the other couples on the floor. Hilda smiled as she watched them step their way through the wordless melody, clusters of five notes marking the step sequences. When the song began to fade - each five-step sequence decreasing the volume and slowing the melody`s speed just a little - Hilda let go of the railing and stepped back toward the hallway.

　　 The wall shook - just a little - as a boom sounded overhead, and Hilda`s eyes darted up toward the ceiling. She felt the danger - a prickle at the back of her neck - before she saw the little chunk of rock dislodge from the ceiling above her. It fell from the stone, though the ceiling was in no danger of falling - a little piece dislodged by the vibrations. Falling from directly above Hilda`s head, straight toward her staring eye, the rock approached. Hilda felt its approach more than she saw it, and she caught the stone in midair. She lowered her hand to her side and let the pebble fall, then reached past the Veil, into the Aether. Her red glaive materialized in her hands, and she smiled grimly to herself. One foot crossing the threshold back into the hallway, Hilda edged forward, hand stretching out, pulling the Reaper`s Gift tighter around herself as the impending sense of danger pushed in all around her. She reached out for Kamila, the familiar yet fearful presence close by now, and becoming alert. Awareness spread out from Hilda`s feet across the floors and walls, like mycelium on the forest floor, each extremity calling back with a signal something like electricity but fundamentally other, speaking of what it had touched, and Hilda heard-felt Kamila`s sword, Wallshaker, being drawn from its scabbard, and the dancing presence of memory and thought and emotion reached out and with a spark of shining electricity it touched the mycelium -

　　 Karla was limping down the road, beneath the underpass and toward the bridge that went out over the river cutting through this strange city. Where the device had sent her, she still wasn`t sure, but the signs all around were in English and the climate was on the colder side of temperate. The river shone underneath her when she crossed the bridge, and she leaned on the railing to stare down at it. Behind her cars screamed down the road, their engines echoing in the enclosure of the underpass, drowning out everything except for the thoughts of the drivers, which Karla could not shut out. They were all thinking of petty things like their next meal - the ones who weren`t dreaming of death, their own or that of strangers in another land, as the case might be. They dreamed of committing unspeakable violence against people they`d only spoken to over the internet and never known face to face. They wondered whether the store was selling those nice miniature pies. They wondered whether the river festival would be coming back again this year, or if the whole end of the world` thing was interfering with that again. They wondered whether their crushes liked them back. They thought about veering off the side of the road and running through the bridge`s railing and sending themselves, and maybe that strange girl in the strange hoodie too, careening into the river to drown or to get sick from the filthy water down there.

　　 Karla pulled her hands away from the railing and stumbled a little further, to get across the bridge, and she turned around the corner of the railing to get away from the cars and the people. Stumbling down the hillside that formed the riverbank, Karla suppressed the urge to put her hands over her ears - she knew that shutting herself off from sound would never shut her off from the thoughts and the voices - but she staggered along the banks of the Charles, and reached into her pocket and slowly pulled out her phone, and dialed the number belonging to Ofer Shvets.

　　 Kamila emerged from the nearby room with her sword out, brushing hair out of her face using her free hand, moments before the next booming crash sounded overhead and the ceiling broke. Erik Murkrea emerged from the room behind her, drawing his own sword and pistol and muttering. "What`s happening?" he asked, glancing up at the ceiling, and then the stone came crashing down along with an Invictan soldier.

　　 Hilda, Kamila, and Erik were all prepared for the falling stone. Hilda felt where each stone would fall, knew its path before the stones themselves knew their paths. Kamila, her hand on the hilt of Wallshaker and her mind flooded with the memories of its past holders, understood how to avoid the debris of a falling ceiling. And Erik, raising his pistol even as he stepped away, backed into the adjacent room.

　　 The Invictan soldiers were clad in armor so alien and so thorough that they did not look human. Black and red and gold filigree, the creature - the monster - the weapon of war - anything but the human that surely lay at this thing`s core - struck the ground with a bending of its knees and immediately raised its hands, expecting a weapon to appear. Plates of armor began to shift and whine, and a gun sprang into the hands of the soldier, but before it could level the weapon, Kamila stepped forward. With the memories of Wallbreaker, she knew this armor, and she knew exactly how she could break it. The others were too shocked by the soldier`s sudden appearance - their weapons and gear so unlike those of the ranger squad that had attacked Etyslund, and so much less human. Clad head to toe, face covered, form obscured, anything that could have identified the soldier inside as a human being, all was de-individualized so that, for all anyone knew, the soldier could truly have been a Monster or even an Aether-Touched with stolen armor - only the colors of the Invictans, the insignia of the Invictans, shone tell-tale all over the thing. Kamila stepped forward and flicked her blade`s tip across, horizontally, the space of her far range. Aggressive stance, lashing out, long-practiced movements, their repetition going back to days before Kamila had been born. Two quick steps forward, lunge with the forward leg, complete the flicking motion with the arm, dig into the plate to the side of the neck. Feel the blade nick against the inner armor - it`s only an outer plate but it has a weakness. Twist.

　　 The soldier`s helmet broke apart at an inner seam, and the right half of it - mask and backing - tumbled off to the ground. The face of the soldier underneath was angular, hair brown-red, one eye wild. Kamila did not wait for the soldier to raise her weapon - she kicked out and struck behind the shoulder, causing the soldier to spin around.

　　 When she came level with Erik Murkrea, the weaponmaster-Hunter fired his pistol and made the soldier`s head a bloody mess on the other side of the helmet. The bullet didn`t even exit the helmet, stopped by the armor - but it had already done its job and the soldier staggered, caught onto the wall by the brain stem`s dying instinct, staggered further past Hilda, and collapsed over the railing and fell to the dance floor. Hilda turned and ran to the railing, leaving her glaive floating in the air beside her while she leaned over the edge.

　　 Chunks of stone had fallen on the dance floor as well, and all was chaos as the dancers separated. Those who had weapons raised them, turning to face the Invictan soldiers, or fled for cover with all the others. Several of the dancers had already fallen, struck by falling pieces of masonry. Miss Yekra was among them, blood pooling around her head where she`d fallen, a large piece of stone laying beside her crushed face. Near the center of the room, three Invictan soldiers were beginning to raise their weapons.

　　 The Sower Arien stepped forward, the crowd parting around him as dozens of people fled for cover. Overhead, Hilda heard another boom, and the building shook once more. Arien raised one hand as he ran perpendicular to the soldiers, and all the fallen stone which had scattered around the room and mixed with the blood of the fallen began to rise from the ground, flowing into its other disparate pieces. The stone pieces formed together and then split apart into sharp spines and dove toward the soldiers.

　　 In unison, they presented their forearms toward the barrage of stone spines, and along their arms formed shields - Hilda saw the material spread out from the forearm armor they wore, expand up and down. The danger was clear to Hilda before it was to Arien, and the Sower below stepped back, but continued to work his Sowing on the stone. The spines clattered against the soldiers` shields, and most of them fell away and hit the ground. Though those spikes rose up again when they hit the ground and shot at the soldiers again, their shields continued to block the stones. Only a few stone spikes made their way through the shields - one shield split at the point where the spike struck it. The soldier holding that shield did not hold fast - instead, the utterly covered figure staggered and lifted the hand that had held the shield, and the spike found a chink in the armor. The soldier let out a guttural scream and fell.

　　 Yet all the others stood firm.

　　 While the stone barrage continued, Melik stepped out from the crowd, finally drawing his sword. In the time they`d known each other, brief as it was, Hilda had seen Melik hold his hand on his blade, as though he would draw it, many times - but he hadn`t actually done so since that first meeting. Now he came out from the crowd of fleeing people, fury in his eyes and the blade in his hands, and Hilda sensed the danger he was stepping into. At the edge of the balcony, she started to climb over, but the Reaper`s Gift was strong and her awareness, with it - she knew that if she approached the soldiers now she would stand little chance. Kamila and Erik came up behind her, their swords in their hands, and started toward the balcony, but Hilda held them back with her arm. "We have to escape," she said. "We`ll die."

　　 "They`ll die!" Kamila said, and as though to punctuate her exclamation Melik found a crack in one Invictan soldier`s armor and sliced through that one`s chest. The sword lodged - he struggled to pull the blade free, and it clattered around on the inside of the armor suit. Kamila reached to the strap over her shoulder and adjusted it so that the crossbow faced toward the soldiers, then she grabbed on by the trigger lever. Melik yanked on the hilt of his sword, and the soldier - still convulsing in their final struggle - remained half-standing, half-collapsed between Melik and the other soldiers. The one still living closest to Melik raised his sidearm and fired. The bullet struck the armor of the comrade Melik had killed, and by instinct the boy grabbed onto the soldier`s armor and held up the suit as a prop, a shield. The ricochet must have gone into the crowd, as a man fleeing cried out and fell, only exiting the chamber when grabbed, dragged, led by his fellows.If you come across this story on Amazon, it`s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

　　 Arien screamed as the soldier, their right-hand weapons out, sprayed the area in front of them. By now no one was left against the walls, everyone else had fled, but Arien was caught out, and the bullets ripped through his body. What was left of him collapsed to the ground.

　　 Kamila fired a bolt from her crossbow, and it lodged in the armor of one of the soldiers. The armor-clad thing only reacted by jerking around in the direction of the balcony and spraying the area with bullets, but Kamila and Hilda and Erik were already gone and in the hallway. Hilda pushed both against the wall and let go of the bunched-up fabric of their shirts she`d grabbed onto to get them out of the fray.

　　 "They`re going to die!" Kamila hissed.

　　 "They`re already dead," Hilda said grimly, her eyes leaking tears. As much as she might try to deny it, the heightened awareness of the Reaper`s Gift did not bring her any calm at all. In a moment of jealous rage, Hilda wished she had been a Sower like Aleks, that she had not followed in her mother`s footsteps but her father`s. Her Gift did nothing to shield her from the pain. She howled when she heard the next single gunshot, not a spray of bullets from a machine rifle but a single ping, accompanied by a horrid squelching and the fracturing of bone and Melik`s voice, a small voice, barely audible even to Hilda`s Gift-enhanced senses, whisper: Oh before his body fell.

　　 She screamed and let herself leave the ground, carrying Kamila and Erik through the wall. The material parted around her, the power of destruction entering her for a moment of white-hot rage, and the wall collapsed around her as she carried Kamila and Erik across the city.

　　 When they set down, the occasional crack of a gunshot put urgency on all their minds. They were not safe. Kamila, sword and crossbow still in her hands, stood up as soon as she was set down, wheeled to face Hilda, rage in her face. "No more running away!" Kamila screamed. "We don`t have the right to run away!"

　　 "We have to be smart," Hilda said. "We have to beat them, not just fight them."

　　 "Melik is dead!" Kamila shouted. "He`s dead, isn`t he? And Arien - and Miss Yekra -"

　　 "- and dozens of others," Hilda finished, "no doubt. And the rest are on the run, and the soldiers will be hunting, mainly for us, and for the militia. So we have to rally the militia."

　　 "How can you be like this?" Kamila scoffed. "Melik is dead - dead! You`re the one who wanted - I mean, you thought we had to take care of him - and what about his sister? Their friend from Oxdal? You -"

　　 Hilda shook her head and turned to look back toward the grand gathering hall. The whole building now looked like something out of a horror story. Holes in the roof made by whatever means by which the soldiers had entered - overhead, Invictan aircraft still flew, only now they were making for the south. Kamila stared up at them in shock. The small Invictan air fleet, though powerful compared to any military technology the Valers had access to, had only been used for simple short-range attacks up to this point, not for troop movements. And the tower guns had always been able to take them down. Now they seemed to have learned or gotten stronger. The tower guns still managed to take down a couple of the planes - they fell, burning, to crash-land into the southern woods or in the mountains to the north. Yet others still managed to escape, having dropped off their soldiers, their chaotic work already done.

　　 Perhaps sixty seconds had passed since the roof broke.

　　 "Come on," Erik said. "We`ll take them from behind while they`re busy hunting us down. We know their armor has weaknesses, and if we team up on them, we`ll win."

　　 "Right," Hilda said. "And if I get close enough, I can&"

　　 "That`s a last resort," Kamila hissed. "Easier if we just kill them."

　　 They set off in the direction of the gathering hall again.

　　 By now, the majority of the crowd from the dance had fled, scattered in countless directions. The soldiers still followed after them with the occasional scattered shot from their rifles, but mostly they seemed to have lost interest in the civilians. Their gunfire was desultory and without real consideration. Bodies fell, blood spattered the ground, and Hilda with her eyes wide, seeing that which was far as though it were next to her through the Reaper`s Gift, saw boredom in the eye of a soldier, heard him sigh in frustration.

　　 They came to the wall of the gathering hall after a time, falling into place with their soldiers flush against the stone. Erik readied his pistol in one hand and his shortspear in the other, and kneeled closest to the corner, peering around the corner. Hilda reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, dragged him back a bit. "Come on," she said. "We`ll take them from behind. Just wait."

　　 "We have to find Devani," Erik said. "She has the key to the Ordian weapons."

　　 Hilda blinked in surprise - she`d forgotten about those, something Kamila had mentioned in passing when the fighting hadn`t yet started. It felt like a long time ago now. The transforming Ordian weapons Mirshal had purchased from the warriors of the west, now prepared and stored comfortably in their locked stash. "She might be dead," Hilda said.

　　 "Read, then," Erik said, "and see if you can find her."

　　 "I can`t." Hilda shook her head. "That doesn`t mean she isn`t there. There`s too much chaos -" and at the back of her head the voice of Zoe and the voice of Plato blended together with the silent monologue inside her own head and made a single furious whisper, urging her forward. Where her hand rested against the wall, Hilda felt a momentary heat. She pulled her hand away, and where her fingers had touched the stone, there were dips in the material.

　　 Then a mass of stone blew out from the wall above them and Hilda`s eyes shot up toward the sky, her awareness stretching out like a web through the air, wrapping around the chunks of hot propelled stone that fell down toward the three. A rock fell down toward Kamila - Hilda sensed its trajectory and knew it would knock her sister`s head from her shoulders if she did not interfere. She took hold of it with the wrapped tendrils of air and tossed it back up toward the falling Invictan soldier, whose armor had caught a majority of the force from the impact which threw him from the building. Standing inside the newly-made hole in the wall of the great gathering hall was Devani, her aura shining with fear and vindication. The rock tore through the soldier`s armor and by the time he fell to the ground, he was already dead - though not knowing this, Erik spun on his heel, pivoted, and impaled the soldier with his spear, letting the stranger fall onto the blade.

　　 "Come up!" Devani shouted down from the hole in the wall. "Before the soldiers -"

　　 Without waiting for Devani to finish her sentence, Hilda reached out and grabbed Erik and Kamila by the arms. Kamila flinched and tried to pull away, but Erik knew better than to try, and before Kamila had the chance to extricate herself Hilda had already warped the air around them. With a shower of sand arcing through the air she brought them to the entrance, and below the soldiers came around the corner.

　　 "Take cover!" Devani hissed, as one of the soldiers raised an apparatus like a gun, but with a larger central chamber. It rotated and let out a thumping sound, and Devani presented her forearm toward the opening and the bracer she wore, black and red and gold like the soldiers` armor, sprung outward into a shield. Hilda scrambled for the shelter of the walls, the translucent red blade of her glaive trailing through the floor. The soldier`s gun-like apparatus, the thumping thing, shot out a pellet, and Devani raised her shield and braced her body against it. the pellet bounced from its surface, fell back down toward the ground, and the soldiers moved to scatter.

　　 Hilda did not hear the sound with her ears; she heard it with her bones. It rattled her jaw, sent shocks through her arms and legs, broke the world for a second. In her shock, Hilda let go of the Reaper`s Gift, and the world went blurry and fuzzy, her ears filled up with the buzzing of distant deafening whispers. Nearby, she saw the blurry form of her sister moving toward her, and Erik grabbing on to both of them, dragging them away down the hall. Devani shouted, and Hilda heard it faintly, "we`ll split them up, divide them and destroy them."

　　 The presence of another mind came clear to her - the soaring falcon over the building. I came as soon as I could, the voice said. What has happened?

　　 Look and see, Hilda thought back, reaching out haltingly for the Reaper`s Gift. As her awareness returned, she realized that she was moving. The buzzing in her ears faded into the background of a din of footsteps. Erik and Kamila were running, shouting - and downstairs, the soldiers were entering the building again, walking through the blood with squelching of cooling flesh under their boots. "Stop shouting," Hilda murmured, motioning for Kamila and Erik to keep their voices down, but they didn`t seem to hear her. She pulled free from Erik and moved to the wall beside a doorway which spilled out onto a balcony. Flattening herself against that wall, Hilda listened to the footsteps below, trying to Read the auras of the soldiers. Kamila and Erik still talked too loudly. "Stop shouting," Hilda said.

　　 Below, she detected a nexus of chains more tangled than any of the others - the soldier at the back of the group, who whispered orders into the radio inside his helmet. That one`s head turned toward the wall, toward the chamber where the three of them waited. He motioned toward it with a hand and ordered two of his soldiers to come and check for motion while the rest split up and searched the rest of the building. Devani appeared behind Hilda, flattening herself against the wall, and whispered:

　　 "Listen carefully, Hilda. We need you to guide us. I know your capabilities, but I don`t share them. What are they planning?"

　　 "There`s two soldiers coming to check where we are," Hilda said. "The others are going to split up and search the rest of the building."

　　 "That`s good," Devani replied. "Kamila, Erik, prepare an ambush. Hilda, you hide."

　　 "I can fight!" Hilda hissed.

　　 "Yes, but you must let the Hunters do their duty," Devani said, grabbing Hilda by the arm.

　　 Kamila cast an angry glance over her shoulder when Devani said the word Hunters - and Hilda felt the thought pass through Kamila`s mind, a momentary decision she took back almost immediately after, the thought of walking over to Devani and punching her in the face. But the decision was pushed back into the depths of Kamila`s mind and Devani and Hilda came to rest around the corner.

　　 "They`ll come from that way," Hilda said. "I`m tracking them.

　　 As Hilda watched, Kamila and Erik briefly consulted, their heads together. "Less than sixty seconds," Hilda said aloud, and cast a glance over her shoulder.

　　 I guess you didn`t need me after all, said the mind of the falcon as the bird, flying in through a gap in the wall, settled on Hilda`s shoulder. This place is going to collapse soon enough, you know.

　　 No, Hilda whispered back. The building`s badly damaged, but it`s not falling yet.

　　 You don`t need me to be your eyes and ears?

　　 The Reaper`s Gift helps. But I can`t hold onto it forever. Stay close to me if you can, but more importantly, stay out of danger. Hilda watched as Kamila and Erik split off from their huddle and readied their gauntlets. The iron plates slid across one another, and on their fingertips formed small spikes. Kamila walked up to the wall, raised her gauntleted hand, and forced it into the wall. The sound of crumbling stone set Hilda`s teeth on edge, and Kamila quickly climbed to the ceiling and crawled into the hole there.

　　 As Hilda had said, it was less than sixty seconds before the two soldiers, their rifles at the ready, came walking quickly down the hallway. Their weapons were held up steady, stocks against shoulders, scanning back and forth, fingers on their triggers ready to mete out quick death to any who crossed their path. Their armor was gleaming matte black and red and gold filigree, insignias on their chests, their helmets betraying nothing of their faces. But Hilda, with the Gift on her, could reach out and touch their thoughts. All procedural, trained, practiced and drilled. It reminded Hilda of one of the computers Aleks and Avishag spent so much time working on. If anything living crosses your path, search quickly for the insignia. If you do not find the insignia, fire. Bursts of three bullets at a time - carefully controlled. Hold down the trigger for one third of a second at a time. One burst will suffice for soft targets. If hard target, find weak spot while suppressing with continual fire. Then strike weak spot. If target fires back, assess armor integrity to decide whether shield is necessary. The chains were wound tight like strings in a tapestry, floss tangled up on the weaving-wheel.

　　 Kamila and Erik dropped from the ceiling silently, and the simple pathways of decision-making programmed into these young people in Carakhte broke all at once, chains tangling up even further in a panic of ignorance and impossible decisions. One struggled to raise her rifle, to get a good line of sight not on Erik, who pinned her down, but on Kamila, who to her left was already slipping her knife into the cracks in her fellow`s armor. Hilda didn`t need to feel the tangle of chains to know what would happen, and she pulled back from the thought, retreating from the soldiers` minds, and watched around the corner as the Hunters worked. The soldiers had time to call out for help into their radios, and Hilda switched her focus to the leader of the group, still downstairs. She could still track the man`s every movement, still feel the tangle of his decisions and potential decisions as he walked, one foot rapid in front of the other, down the hallways of the great gathering hall. He knew the layout of the building - and he knew where his targets were now. He closed the pincer.

　　 In front of Hilda, a few paces, the soldier under Kamila was already still and silent. The one with Erik`s knee on the back of her neck thrashed, life`s blood flowing rapidly onto the floor. Finally she stopped convulsing as well. Kamila and Erik both leaned in to their victims, placing their fingers in the gap in the armor under the neck. When they had confirmed both soldiers were dead, they stood up - each one with the telltale smear of bright red blood on their fingers. Hilda came out from behind the corner and approached. "They`re coming from both sides," she said. "They`ll be here soon."

　　 "Get ready to fight," Devani said. "If they are coming from both sides, the only way to escape would be to jump from the balcony."

　　 Hilda closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head. "There`s more of them down there."

　　 "Then we are trapped. And we must fight." Devani hefted her shield, went to one of the dead soldiers and picked up the rifle. Erik took one as well, and Kamila readied her sword.

　　 As though to punctuate Devani`s point, a pellet flew in from below, past the balcony, and struck the ground. Immediately it began to expel a thick cloud of smoke. It obscured sight, but it also stung at Hilda`s eyes - by instinct she lightened her grip on the Reaper`s Gift, though she dared not let it go entirely, for she could feel the approach of the soldiers with their guns. "I`ll take this side," Hilda said, gritting her teeth through the pain as every nerve in her screamed to let go of the Gift entirely, to give up on this intense feeling, to let herself go numb again. Yet numbness would mean death, and with fire in her veins Hilda whirled her glaive. "Hold the others back!" she said, as the other three turned to the opposite hallway.

　　 "Hilda!" Kamila said. "You can`t take them all -"

　　 "I can take these two," Hilda said, iron in her voice. "They`re no match for me."

　　 "But Hilda -"

　　 Devani briefly laid a hand on Kamila`s shoulder. "Trust her," Devani said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "She knows what she`s doing. Or do you think your sister has a deathwish?" Devani chuckled. "In the end, the fear of being alive always gives way to determination to remain alive. Trust her - and worry for yourself. Will that sword protect you from bullets?"

　　 "Yes," Kamila whispered, as the soldiers came into view.

　　 Two Invictan soldiers came down the hallway and spied the cloud of smoke. The voice of their commander was in their ears, directing them - inside that cloud of smoke was their enemy. Four people, by the scanner`s estimation - and with all of them gathered inside that cloud of smoke, this should be easy. They raised their rifles, shouldered the stocks, opened fire.

　　 Their bullets streaked through the air, a tracer each five rounds shining bright for a split-second, red light in the air - but the light stopped before it reached the cloud. After a few bursts of fire, the soldiers took their fingers off the triggers for a moment. The sound of bullets clattering to the floor was like a rustling of distant leaves, the projectiles piling up upon the floor.

　　 A young woman charged from the cloud, a glowing red glaive in her hands, the brim of a flat cap covering her eyes, her body cloaked by a thin closed-front leather coat. Immediately the soldiers opened fire, tracking the woman`s movements with their rifles. They`d been trained to hit fast-moving targets, especially targets that sought to get close to them and enter melee, and they were not fools or incompetents. Their aim was true. Yet the woman kept coming - when the bullets should have torn her apart, she kept coming. She was on them in seconds. The red glaive whirled around her and took one soldier in the shoulder, severing his arm. The weapon should not have pierced the armor - it was pure shock that propelled the other soldier back against the opposite wall, still firing with the rifle, but now reaching for a sidearm as well. He braced the rifle one-armed against his right shoulder and raised his sidearm, continuing to fire both. A shower of sand swept through the room with each swing of the Reaper`s glaive, and the terror of what he was truly facing hit the Invictan soldier. Then the determination to live - the fear of being alive gave way to the fear of death and he emptied the magazines of both his weapons. By the time each clicked, his fellow was already on the ground, blood pulsing from his body at a hundred and forty beats per minute and slowing. The Reaper whirled the glaive and stalked toward the Invictan soldier. Perhaps five seconds had passed since she emerged from the cloud.

　　 The soldier, hands shaking, pulled his knife from its scabbard and with his other hand, reached for a grenade on his bandolier. The Reaper hesitated in her steps, or seemed to - her foot poised above the ground, those horrible eyes under the cap`s brim watching him. He raised the knife, arm forward, hand still resting on the grenade but taking a knife-fighting stance. He dared not reload his gun, dared not take his eyes off the Reaper.

　　 She watched him for another second, and his fear grew - what was she doing? Then a creature flew past her - a falcon, swooping low and sweeping down the hall. The soldier`s eyes grew wide and for a vital sliver of a second, his focus went to the falcon.

　　 When he looked back toward the Reaper she was upon him, and the pole of her glaive was in his stomach, and his feet no longer touched the ground. His weapons fell from nerveless fingers and he lowered his arms slowly to the pole of the weapon. His vision grew more blurry with each pulse of his heart, grains of sand overcoming his vision from the corners, yet at the center of it all were those horrible green eyes, staring up from under the flat cap. There was no anger in the eyes, though there was hate, the soldier saw - a simple, matter-of-fact hate that needed no vitriol yet, at the same time, accepted no counterargument. The soldier began to chuckle, and each laugh sent a shock of pain through his whole body until finally with one sudden burst of screaming fire through his whole being he

　　 After the work was done, Hilda did not waste any time. She ran back through the cloud, not fighting the tears as she passed through the stinging chemical, and rounded the corner, making for the other soldiers. Only one of them still stood, on his knees, firing sporadically at the cloud. Devani`s shield deflected the bullets, while Kamila readied her crossbow, taking aim even through the painfully stinging chemical of the smoke cloud.

　　 The soldier shifted his aim a little to the left half a second before Kamila fired. The crossbow bolt took the soldier just under the armor gap, and he slumped against the wall silently. The nexus of chains - distant, since Hilda`s grip on the Gift was loosening by the second - dissipated. At the same time, another chain crumbled to pieces, its links separating in Hilda`s mind. Hot blood - far too warm, far too horribly warm - touched Hilda`s face, mixing with the blood of the soldiers she`d just killed.

　　 The smoke slowly cleared, its short life spent, though the film of it still hung in the air and the chemical still stung at Hilda`s eyes. Erik Murkrea lay on the ground in front of Hilda, his eyes wide and staring at the ceiling, two holes in his forehead. Hilda slowly raised a free hand to her face - flecks of his blood over her eyes, on her cheeks - and she stepped back, refusing to scream, refusing to think.

　　 Devani screamed, though, and when the next grenade came up from below, she did not need Hilda`s reminder. She grabbed it out of the air and tossed it back down moments before the explosion, and then she turned her fury on the wall. Her shortspear became a cone of concussive force - plates shifting on the Ordian weapon - and the wall collapsed, and she grabbed Kamila by the arm and leapt from it. Hilda didn`t have time to think. She leapt after them, softened their fall, and rolled with the remaining force when she struck the ground.

　　 The explosion rocked the earth and sent shockwaves through the whole building, but still the gathering-hall did not collapse. Hilda let go of the Reaper`s Gift, and her world went silent, and the falcon wheeled around and landed on her shoulder. We must find a place to hide. Overhead, there were no more Invictan aircraft in the sky, though the guns in the towers still scanned the air and the militia members on their watch by the walls held Ordian rifles pointed at the clouds.

　　 Nearby, Hilda saw Kamila - the blur of her movement overwhelming - reaching over to comfort the screaming Devani. Yet soon enough, Devani quieted, and the mind of the falcon on Hilda`s shoulder grew troubled. There is a strange smile on this one`s face, the bird said to Hilda. I don`t understand it. Why is she smiling?

　　 "I don`t know," Hilda said aloud, forgetting herself.

　　 The bird`s thought continued. She says, "thank you, Kamila. You`ve done well. You`ll continue to do well. I know it.

　　 Stunned and disoriented by the explosions, her mind racing, Hilda could do little but follow Kamila and Devani as they walked away from the wreckage of the gathering hall, blood dripping from each of their shivering bodies, blood lead-heavy in their hearts.