Page 13 of Heart of Defiance

I shrug. “It’d be a start. A symbol that we can fight back.”

“Or simple revenge.”

My jaw clenches. “If I only wanted revenge, I’d have hunted them down years ago for killing my parents. I’m tired of standing back and letting them screw us over again and again. I’m tired of feeling like nothing we do matters, because they can step in and ruin it in an instant. Doyoulike pretending to have some authority when you’re really just their puppet?”

A muscle ticks in the captain’s cheek. She fixes her gaze on the men. “And you agree with the sedition she’s spouting?”

Jostein manages to tense even more. “I can see the logic to her strategy, if someonewasgoing to push back against the empire.”

Iko snorts. “Let’s not pretend that all of us wouldn’t like to see all those Darium pricks with their heads on pikes.”

“Hmm.” The captain glances down at the map and back at us. “We’re staying here another day while we gather supplies for these people and determine where they might be taken. So there would be plenty of opportunity for just a few of this company to slip off after dusk falls and put their words into action.”

Jostein’s eyes widen so much I think they might fall out of his head. “You’re saying?—”

“I’m saying if you believe in this one, you can stand with her—and fall with her. Stir up the makings of a rebellion if you can. If you’re caught…” The captain lifts her shoulder. “I’ll say you deserted our company and condemn you.”

My breath catches in my throat. She’s really agreeing to this plan.

But the men have far more to lose than I do. I look over at them, my heart pounding.

Iko nods, a subtler smile curving his lips. After a moment, with a flex of his jaw, Jostein does too.

“Someone has to light the first match,” he says. “I couldn’t ask anyone else to do it if I won’t myself.”

Iko gives a muted whoop and pumps his fist in the air. “Let’s go hand those Darium bastards their asses!”

Chapter Six

Signy

Iwake up in the captain’s tent to the thump of a bowl set down by my head. I jerk upright, my mouth tasting like sawdust, my eyes bleary.

I didn’t mean to fall asleep. My exhaustion from the fraught, sleepless night must have caught up with me.

The captain sits on her stool by the little folding desk. “You’d better eat something before you go. I’d rather not have two skilled soldiers go down because you fainted with hunger in the middle of your rebellion.”

I pull the bowl toward me. The meaty smell that wafts off it has my stomach gurgling in anticipation.

Starkly conscious of the captain’s attention on me, I wolf the stew down as quickly as I can without looking like a total animal. As the gnawing of hunger subsides, curiosity tickles up in its place.

I consider her in the glow of the lantern. “Why are you letting us do this at all?”

“I don’t believe you can win much of anything withouttaking a few risks along the way. I just want to make sure they’re the right risks before I invest very much in them.”

She stands, collects my bowl, and sets a canteen down in its place. “Your parents were killed by Darium forces?”

I nod. She heard me say as much this morning.

Something hardens in the captain’s eyes. “A couple of their soldiers killed my brother.” She straightens up. “I imagine it won’t be long before your companions come to collect you. No one will be on watch at this end of the camp, but try to be discreet about it, for my plausible deniability, please.”

She ducks out of the tent without waiting for my response. But a reply doesn’t really feel necessary.

We all have our reasons to hate the usurpers, don’t we?

I take a gulp from the canteen to wash down the stew and take stock. The captain removed the rope around my wrists before I fell asleep. I’m wearing the same simple tunic and trousers I was yesterday, discards I patched up like I did my boots. I wouldn’t have minded a dunk in a river and a change of clothes, but beggars can’t be choosers.

My pocketknife remains nestled at my hip. It’s hardly a fearsome weapon, but it’s better than nothing.

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