Page 38 of Heart of Defiance

How much is he the same man he used to be, after everything we’ve been through?

“I suspect this isn’t the kind of exploring the world you were thinking of when you imagined your future,” I murmur to him.

His mouth slants into a crooked grin that takes his face from handsome to breathtaking. “No, not quite. It’s certainly more exciting. And it’ll matter leagues more than anything I ever pictured myself doing.”

Bertha snorts. “Exciting.”

Landric lifts his shoulders in a slight shrug. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t skip the hand-to-hand combat parts if I could. But… my whole life, I just wanted the chance to roam around the countryside freely. Now we could be part of giving everyone in Velduny their freedom. Nothing else seems all that important.”

The tightness in my chest creeps up to my throat. “Yeah.”

Those words resonate with me more than I’d haveexpected. What do statues and paintings matter when I’m helping create a more beautiful future for all of us who’ve lived under the Darium empire’s thumb?

What we’re going to do here today will be a kind of masterpiece, and I’m the one who sculpted it.

The Darium army has continued their relentless advance. Iko’s voice carries from behind us. “It’s almost time. Is everyone ready?”

Voices lift in answer all across the hillside. Several dozen of us have gathered for this first part of the plan.

We need to present a big enough force that the Darium soldiers will be sure we’re part of the main resistance without putting too many of our people in the most extreme danger.

Captain Amalia, the only higher officer who joined us, treads across the grass behind me. “Be fast on your feet, everybody. Just harass them—don’t get any closer than you need to. Just enough for them to follow.Now.”

At her command, we spring to our feet and hurtle down the hill toward the road. Up ahead, the Darium army is little more than ten paces shy of the crossroads.

A shout goes up the moment we race into view, but there’s nothing panicked about the sound. They won’t see our small group as a significant threat.

Their mistake. I bet we can take down a few of them even now.

The Veldunian soldiers among us in their plain clothes and a few of the ordinary civilians with hunting practice brandish their bows of all sorts. As they send a volley of arrows shrieking through the air toward the enemy, the rest of us holler insults at the top of our lungs. I pull back the slingshot Iko constructed for me and fling one sharp stone and then another with all the force I can bring to bear.

The Darium soldiers on the front line jerk up their shields—black painted with interlaced bones to match theiruniforms. Most of the arrows and other projectiles glance off the steel surfaces of those and their helms, but I see one plunge into a man’s shoulder, another catching a woman in the throat. A few figures stagger amid their comrades.

I reach for another rock, but High Commander Livius jerks a rigid arm forward. His booming voice carries across the terrain, amplified by magic. “Crush these pathetic miscreants!”

The Darium army surges toward us at his command. Captain Amalia yells the order for us to retreat.

We could have fled faster on horseback, but presenting ourselves as an armed cavalry rather than common rabble would make the Darium force more cautious. So we dash away on foot, our boots thumping along the road between the low hills.

It’s half a mile. Half a mile past the field of lissweld to where the rest of our allies are waiting.

Half a mile before we’re out of pollen range and our gifted companions can cast out their magic.

We aren’t the only ones with bows. As the pounding of tramping feet reverberates from behind us, arrows plunge into our midst. There’s a cry and a thud of a falling body behind me. A bit of fletching grazes my ear as a shaft twangs by.

I swallow a yelp and push myself faster. “Come on, everyone!” I call out, but my voice sounds hoarse.

More arrows whir through the air. More gasps of pain and ominous thumps carry from around me.

I glance over just as one pointed shaft rams into Bertha’s back. A noise of protest breaks from my throat as she crumples.

“Signy!” Landric grabs my elbow, yanking me to the side. An arrow that might have speared me through my own back slices across my bicep instead.

Pain sears all through my arm with a spurt of blood. I can’t do anything but keep running.

Orange blooms flare at the edge of my vision. We’re passing the field. We’re leading the Darium soldiers straight toward it.

I throw myself forward, my companions charging onward as if we’re one being. There isn’t time to look around and see how many we’ve lost.

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