You never ran before the fires were all but set

　　In the early dark with a candle dancing

　　And when they burned you walked so calm and so swift

　　Past the pyres, O so entrancing

　　And with your warriors you made yourself a home

　　To spite the mountains overhead

　　I dared not speak a word of honor or of truth

　　Cause truth is only for the dead

　　-From "Claim the Sun", a Karzakh Gaurl song

　　In a camp just to the south

　　Avishag lay on her belly in the prefabricated house when she intercepted the first signal. Melik was sitting nearby, his back against the wall, head leaning against the metal. He`d been in that position for so long that his hair was pressed against his head like a single matted sheet. Badem stood nearby, leaning against the wall just the same, but with his arms crossed in front of him, staring out at the light beyond through the miniature slatted windows of the teens` hideaway house.

　　She was working the radio receiver, a makeshift machine scrabbled together from spare parts, old bits of wire scrounged from the other houses when people weren`t looking or didn`t care. The pride and joy of it all, the central construction, was a crystal that vibrated to the correct frequencies, which Avishag had torn out of an old broken radio. The wiring of that old unit was too badly corroded to be useful, but the core parts weren`t bad, so she`d just slotted them all together on an old board. The exposed wiring meant that this radio was one of the most fragile things she`d ever built, but she couldn`t get everything to fit inside the case. Melik got upset every time she started trying to strip out the corroded wiring, said something about how she was going to cut herself on that stuff.

　　So the first signal came with Avishag in one corner of the room, a makeshift headphone pushed against her right ear, and it said, "Wiktor, you still in position?" The voice was staticky, but clearly comprehensible.

　　That voice was completely unfamiliar to Avishag, but hearing the accent made her hair stand on end. She ran a hair over her scalp, massaging with the pads of her fingers, grumbling quietly to herself to keep the nerves at bay.

　　"Yes," another voice said, and Avishag tilted her head, adjusted the headphone. "I can see your building. No one on the walls appears to have spotted you, just give me the word if you suspect otherwise. I`m still in the clear, and I`ll let you know if that changes." She lowered the headphone for a moment.

　　"Hey," Avishag said aloud. The sound of her voice made Melik jump, the rattling of the sword her wore against the metal of the wall setting Avishag`s teeth to gritting. "I just heard something on the radio."

　　"What did you hear?" Melik asked, suddenly alert.

　　Avishag set the headphone to her ear again, leaned in toward the crystal, moved her hand to the dial and turned. The mechanism grew just a little tighter and the voice resolved, less staticky. "we created," a voice finished speaking as Avishag raised the headphone.

　　"I`m not sure what this is&" Avishag whispered. She heard the feedback, just a little bit, and lowered the headphone again, scrambling a short distance away from her own radio. She took a deep breath, reminding herself internally that this radio`s sending ability was very weak, assuming it would work at all. She hadn`t bothered to test any such thing, and didn`t particularly care to try. "But it sounds like military chatter. Unsecured, too. I must have gotten lucky, tapped into a secret signal."

　　"That`s weird," Badem murmured. "This city has radio monitors. But that little thing of yours picked up the signal?"

　　"Well," Avishag muttered. "I`m not sure. This little crystal acts a bit different from anything I`ve played with before. I don`t know if it actually is a different set of signals, but&"

　　"If you picked up military chatter, you have to report it," Melik said. "Is it the Adma? The Kivv militia?"

　　"I think it`s the Invictans," Avishag said. "Just by the accents." She put the headphone back up to her ear. "I think& maybe I just caught some spies? They`re talking about sneaking around the city."

　　"Look," Badem said, "there`s not much we can do right here except hunker down. We don`t even officially exist. What are you expecting us to do, march into the Reaper Monastery and tell them our little swallow here intercepted a transmission, illegally, and that actually the Invictans are in the city? Come on. They wouldn`t believe us."

　　Melik stood up and struck the wall with a gloved fist, gritting his teeth. "Badem, this might be it! This, right now! Invasion! War! We can`t just sit here."

　　"We`re not," Avishag said as she listened in.

　　"Don`t take the shot," one of the voices on the radio said.

　　"I know," said another. "I`m not going to. Waiting for Wiktor."

　　A pause.

　　"We`d get caught instantly if we went that way."

　　Behind Avishag, Melik muttered, "You are."

　　Avishag shook her head.

　　"You`re just listening in? Don`t we need to tell someone? Those are Invictans - they`re probably here to help the invasion. Somehow. And you`re just sitting there playing with your damn toy as if that`s going to help anyone in the end."

　　"I have the shot," a voice on the radio said.

　　"What was that?" Avishag hissed, looking over her shoulder toward Melik.

　　"Avishag," Melik half-shouted, "who is on the radio? We need a damn answer. Whatever they`re doing, we have to know. Somewhere out there -" he pointed north, into the city - "someone wants us dead, and the only way we`re going to save ourselves is by taking this to the militia, or Mirshal. They need to know."

　　"They probably already intercepted the signal themselves, right?" Badem said.

　　"Maybe not." Avishag shrugged, adjusting the headphone against her ear, pulling further back from the radio apparatus itself. She spoke in a low voice, placed her hand over the little microphone she`d attached. Why bother with that in the first place? "If they don`t have someone listening in right now, they could miss it. If they don`t have the right frequencies monitored, they could miss it. Maybe I`m just lucky. Besides, something`s different about this crystal, I already said."

　　"And&"

　　She leaned into the headphone, and heard: "Take the shot."

　　The three of them might not have noticed the sound of the gunshot if they hadn`t already been at the alert. The sound of air parting above them, of something streaking through the air faster than sound itself. Melik rushed to the door, one hand on his sword as if that would help against whatever had just split the sky like quiet thunder, while Badem followed behind, hands held up near his face like an ineffectual shield. Avishag, holding the radio with her thumb pressed tight over the microphone, keeping one hand with the headphone to her ear, took up the rear of their little panicked procession outside.

　　The camp was still quiet when they stepped outside and the morning air was crisp, cold, with a wind coming from the west. Melik glanced up, craning his neck as if he could have seen the trail of the gunshot overhead. Badem turned his head to glance over his shoulder, out to the south. Beyond the wall there, trees and hills stretched out for a long distance. The sun shining above must have been glistening on the nearby river waters - but Badem could not see them. He scanned the hills, and then - seeing nothing there - he looked down at the camp. A few others had stepped outside of their small houses, looked to the sky, their eyes fixed on the sky just like Melik`s.

　　"I don`t see anything," Melik whispered. "Do either of you see& wait."

　　He had turned to the north. Avishag glanced at her brother, then in the direction he was looking.

　　On the hill north of the camp, there was a cluster of buildings. Overlooking the camp was the familiar watchtower, whose sentinel`s eyes remained fixed on the north and only turned south once in a while. There were the businesses and the old houses emptied out for militia purposes, and for processing those fleeing from the south. There were the medical facilities, the lonely doctor`s office sitting among them. All was quiet and still, no one walked in the streets.

　　Except&

　　In the watchtower, for just a moment, Avishag saw over her brother`s shoulder a familiar banner, in the form of a single strip of cloth hanging from a soldier`s armor. The soldier held a body by its ankles, dragging it into the watchtower and out of sight. And then there was nothing left to see.

　　Melik drew his sword with a rasp of metal and leather, but Badem reached out and grabbed Melik by the arm. Though Avishag`s brother struggled against the grip, he couldn`t pull free. Badem stepped in front of Melik, his face uncharacteristically grim and masklike. Only Badem`s eyes betrayed the panic and fear. Avishag clutched her radio receiver close as Badem spoke. "Melik. Don`t be an idiot."

　　"It`s the Invictans - you saw their banner -"

　　"Melik, shut the fuck up. Please. Just this once, will you listen to me?" Badem hissed, squeezed tight on Melik`s wrist. The taller, older boy stared into the younger`s earth-brown eyes and leaned in. "Look at you! All ready to run off and fight, as if that`s going to help anything." Badem smiled.

　　Avishag stepped forward and grabbed Melik`s other arm. "Let`s go tell that Sower what`s happening. Aleks, the one who came here a while back. He knows who we are, I`m sure he`ll listen to us." She took a deep breath, steeled herself. Her arms shook and her eyes darted between her brother and her friend, unsure of herself, not even knowing where this sudden surge of confidence - or determination - had come from. "We are not going to rush into a battle just to satisfy your stupid revenge complex, alright?"This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author`s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

　　Melik`s sword fell to the ground, the earth squelching beneath their feet, as Badem and Avishag held onto him from both sides.

　　"We`ll talk later about how much it sucks," Badem said. "I`m sure we`ve all got plenty to say. But we need to get out of the open."

　　"Damn right I`ve got plenty to say!" Avishag blurted out. "But you aren`t listening! You two are so stupid, I swear. We`ve been in this city for how long, how many weeks? And all you can think about is violence! And you -" she turned her gaze toward Badem. "You just stand there and tell everyone to relax, as if that`s enough to help anyone! As if you know what`s best - just lie back and close your eyes and wait for everything to be over, because it doesn`t matter anyway?"

　　"Avishag, quiet down, we have to go -"

　　All the words she hadn`t said in the weeks of journeying across the wetlands and fields, in the weeks of holing up in some abandoned old box pretending to be a home, tumbled out. "We`ve been playing make-believe in someone else`s house like we ever had any chance of hiding from the world and now there is somebody right there -" she pointed toward the watchtower - "who could kill us all as quick as breathing and you two can`t decide which way you want to die? Go in there and fight them yourself, as if you have the slightest chance, just some punk teenager against an actual army - or, what, we just hunker down and hope they don`t drop a grenade on our heads?"

　　Badem frowned.

　　Melik opened his mouth to speak, reached down for the sword. "I`m not going to - you really think we can trust Mirshal, trust some Sower just because he was nice enough not to rat us out for squatting?"

　　"I think that we can -"

　　"Hey!" Badem hissed, silencing the both of them. "Why don`t we all go play a nice game of shut the fuck up?"

　　Avishag blinked.

　　"I`m not telling you to hunker down and wait. The longer we stand out here arguing the more likely we get spotted and shot. We are standing out in the open. Now are we going to go and deliver your special little warning to our friend Aleks, or no?"

　　Avishag`s cheeks burned, but frowning, she clutched the radio receiver to herself and nodded quickly. "Let`s go."

　　The rush up the hill was the hardest and most terrifying part of the trip. Avishag tripped and stumbled a few times as the trio made their way up, and every time she caught herself with one hand while clutching the radio receiver to her chest with the other. She cast her gaze up and saw the watchtower - the body no longer lay out in the open, but she thought she could see shadows dancing on the interior wall, and she glanced away instinctively, hoping she would not be seen by those inside. The three of them were not seen, thankfully. Avishag kept the headphone pushed against her ear when her hand was free and she could manage it but she couldn`t make out what the voices were saying. They sounded calm, relatively calm.

　　The trio found a hiding spot in an alleyway and started off to the west. Avishag glanced over her shoulder as Melik, hand on his sword, took up the head of their little procession with Badem in the middle. She saw the Invictan soldiers - three of them - creep out of the watchtower and head to the east.

　　"Where`s the Sower building?" Melik asked, pushing his shoulder against the stone wall.

　　"It`s not too far from here, I think. We just keep going west until we reach it. Right Avishag?"

　　"Yeah," Avishag said. "You`re the& you`re the one who knows what this place is supposed to look like, right?"

　　"It`s easier when there`s people around," Badem countered. "I don`t understand why the streets are so empty."

　　"Everybody`s scared and staying inside." Melik grunted. "Come on then, let`s go."

　　As the two boys picked up their pace, Avishag saw over her shoulder one of the Invictan soldiers tear off from the rest of the group and head toward the north. "Continue with plan C," said one of the voices, the one who had seemed in command earlier when she was listening in.

　　"Avishag, come on!" Badem hissed, and she jolted, dropping the radio to the ground as she rushed to keep up with the two boys.

　　"I`m coming, I`m -"

　　They came to an intersection where the path widened. Instead of two stone buildings close to one another, past the crossing street there was only a single wall. Melik glanced both ways, looked over his shoulder, lowered his center of gravity, and kept his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I think they`re following us," he muttered.

　　"I don`t hear anything," Badem replied, though he lowered himself halfway to the ground as well, deeply bending his knees, looking around and taking in a quick, half-panicked breath.

　　"I don`t hear it, I feel like there`s someone there looking for us," Melik muttered.

　　"And we`re just supposed to trust your feeling?" Avishag hissed. "Is it safe to move or not?"

　　Melik held up a hand, palm forward, calling a halt among the group. "Badem. Remember in Oxdal, when that soldier was waiting in your house and I told you where he was looking? You wouldn`t have caught him if I hadn`t told you that, would you?"

　　"Yeah, of course I remember." Badem was nearly still, his breath no longer audible to Avishag even though Melik and herself both breathed heavily from the exertion of running across the city.

　　"I never saw that soldier. I didn`t see where they were looking, I just knew it. So trust me on this one& it`s just a hunch but& wait and stay as quiet as you can. There`s an Invictan soldier walking that way." He gestured with a thumb to the right. "They`ll see us if we go now."

　　"Alright," Badem muttered, but glanced over his shoulder. Avishag, propping herself against the wall by holding a hand against the stones, turned her head to look back as well. She saw nothing, heard nothing of whatever was moving out there. But when she looked behind she saw where the radio receiver had fallen. She moved her hand from the wall, started to slowly creep back toward the spot -

　　Badem`s hand caught her by the wrist. "Don`t be an idiot, Avishag," he whispered gently, and let go.

　　"It`s safe now," Melik said, and rose as though he had been a runner waiting for the crack of the cue with a leg back and hands against the earth. With that one hand still resting on the hilt of his sword he dashed across the intersection and put his back to the next wall, and Badem followed behind, with far less grace but just as swiftly. Avishag caught up with them, but not before she saw the Invictan soldier Melik had warned of - a woman facing north with a heavy gun in her hands, a weapon clutched tight that seemed not to weigh her down at all. She started to turn back to the south just before Avishag made it across the way and flattened her back against the next wall, breathing heavily.

　　"The& Sower Monastery& shouldn`t be far from here," Badem muttered. "We`re safe now, right? Right?"

　　"Yeah," Melik said. "That soldier, I think she`s going south, but& she`s looking for something. Something specific, like& a place where& she`s supposed to leave something&"

　　"I am just going to take your word for it," Badem said between heavy breaths. "And we have bigger things to worry about right now than what she is doing."

　　"What she`s doing is the biggest thing we have to worry about," Avishag said, but didn`t protest as the group went along to the west. Keeping pace with Melik and Badem, she found that her lungs were starting to get heavy and she strained with each step, but in spite of the discomfort she carried on without slowing. "She`s a saboteur. They targeted the watchtower. Weapons, defenses& they`re some kind of advance scouting group& look at how she was moving, how she`s moving now&"

　　Their feet squelched in the thin layer of mud atop the dirt. All around them, fallen leaves. When they passed over one, it crunched and a piece broke away, floated for an instant and went still.

　　"They`re here to soften us up," Avishag said. "They`re going to break the defenses before the main army arrives, that`s their entire game plan& soften them up, let the real warriors sort us out, soon enough there won`t be any need for subterfuge."

　　"The Sower Monastery is just up ahead," Badem said. "I remember now, where we are. We`re close to the Rust Gates. It`s insane that there`s no one out."

　　"Those soldiers picked one damn good time to show up," Melik replied. "How they haven`t been spotted yet I can`t fathom. This isn`t their city and we`re hiding from them. I hate this."

　　"I mean, it wouldn`t be great if we got spotted by the militia either," Badem said. "So let`s be glad they aren`t out in -"

　　"Wait," Avishag said.

　　Melik didn`t stop running, but he did turn his head and look over at Avishag. "What?"

　　"Why aren`t the militia out. Everybody else is inside because they`re scared, okay. But the militia? They should be out all the time. Why aren`t they&"

　　"There are the watchers on the walls, aren`t there?" Badem asked. "I saw a few of them earlier, on the south wall, although it seems like they weren`t around when that gunshot went off&"

　　"We weren`t paying attention," Avishag murmured. "We weren`t paying attention and now&"

　　"Come on, the Sower Monastery is just up ahead," Badem said again. "Let`s go."

　　The Sower Monastery was an enormous stone building that went partway into the ground, so that at the level of the dirt there were windows, partially submerged in the stuff, and inside those windows the three Oxdal children could see lights. At the east side, past the end of the wall they`d been running along and contained in a fence no higher than Avishag`s shins, was a little garden. Flowers of several kinds, still colorful in spite of the first frosts of the waning season, bloomed there. Melik dashed across the intervening space and stepped over the fence, trampling one of the flowers as he went up to the window. "This is the place?" he huffed, looking toward Avishag and Badem.

　　"Yeah," Badem said, leaping the fence more gingerly and stepping between the flowers as he approached the window. "Hey, there`s someone down there. Is that a Sower?"

　　"That`s the guy who was there at our house earlier," Melik replied.

　　"Aleks?" Avishag jumped over the low fence and knelt down next to the window. She bent her head down and looked through the window. There was a door not far from the window, below where the three now sat, and in front of that door, wrapping himself tightly in a cloak, stood a young man with sand-colored hair. His hand reached out for the doorknob, and quickly Avishag rapped on the window, hissing loudly as though he could have heard: "Hey! Aleks!"

　　The door opened. Avishag rapped again on the window. Aleks reached up to the clasp of his cloak as he pushed the door open and started to enter. Avishag rapped again on the window, glanced over her shoulder to check the coast was clear, and half-shouted: "Aleks!"

　　The man paused but didn`t glance up. His head moved just a little bit, but his eyes were fixed on the door and Avishag couldn`t catch them.

　　Then Melik withdrew his sword from its scabbard, just a little bit.

　　The hilt of the blade, strong and tempered metal, smashed against the window and cracked it. The window didn`t break, but the sound was startling enough that Aleks stumbled, his cloak falling open, and half-fell to the ground. He raised his hand, and his eyes shone bright in the light of the hanging lamp by the window. Avishag placed a hand against the stone so she wouldn`t stumble, and she felt a rippling in that stone, which caused her to pull her hand away in surprise.

　　Aleks waved up at the group and pulled his cloak shut around his neck, then motioned with his hand, holding up a single finger. He turned to his left and started to run.

　　Moments later, Aleks came running, panting, around the corner of the Sower Monastery`s wall and stepped over the small fence, gingerly entering the garden. "I wish you wouldn`t step on the flowers," he said as he stopped. "What`s wrong?"

　　"Invictan soldiers," Melik breathed. "They`re in the city, attacking the watchtowers. Only a few of them, but we think they`re trying to take out the city`s defenses to prepare us for the main invasion force."

　　Aleks`s fingers clutched hard at the spot where his cloak was bunched together. "Hold out your hands," he said. "I`m going to Scry in your memories and see if I can learn anything about the soldiers."

　　"You want us to give you our memories?" Melik hissed. "Why? I`m not just going to let you root around in my head -"

　　Badem smacked Melik on the side of his head with an open palm. "Shut up and just do it, alright?" He grabbed the younger boy by the shoulder and then held out his other hand toward Aleks. "Whatever you need to do, do it quickly. There are others we`ll have to alert, aren`t there?"

　　"The militia," Aleks said, taking hold of Badem`s hand. "Avishag, Melik& your hands."

　　Avishag reached out, placing her own hand atop Badem`s. Her fingers shook a little, but she trusted Aleks just enough to let him grab hold of her. Besides, she`d heard enough of what the Sower magic was, what it did, that she could trust this. He wasn`t going to harm them.

　　Finally, Melik held out his hand and put it, palm down, over the top of Avishag`s. They sat there for a few seconds, as Aleks clasped their three hands with his own two, and closed his eyes, tilting his head back. Avishag felt the sudden silence between the four of them, and Aleks drew in a slow, deep breath. He let the breath out, and his hands twitched around their own, with Avishag`s sandwiched in the center of the pile. Aleks drew another breath, then a sigh out, then another breath in. Avishag tensed, glancing to the north, across the street to where the Reaper Monastery stood.

　　"I`ll alert the watchtowers, and the Sowers and the Reapers," Aleks said. "It`s good you found me. I know how to operate the radio. But while I`m doing that, I want you to go and find as many militia members as you can and warn them. Go across to the Reapers first, actually. Tell them I sent you. Wait. Hold on. Do you know these soldiers? By name?"

　　"No, of course not," Melik muttered. "I didn`t get a good look at any of their faces."

　　"Of course, my mistake," Aleks said. "Here. That`s enough." He took in another breath and let go of the three. "Get moving, now. To the Reaper Monastery - just across the way. If you find Antonin Voloshko, tell him what`s happening. If not, if you see Hilda, my younger sister - have her accompany you, she`ll keep you safe. I`m going to get to work alerting everyone and then I`ll see what I can do to stop these four."

　　"Four?" Avishag asked. "How - there`s only -"

　　"No time. Go!" Aleks was already running, back around the corner of the wall and back into the Sower Monastery. "Tell everyone!" And he was gone.