Page 61 of Heart of Defiance

We need them convinced that it’s not worth continuing to fight us—that our rebellion is going to defeat them. That they’ll lose so much more than they stand to gain.

Several Darium soldiers jerk and sag with arrowsprotruding from their chests. Others charge onward into the ruin of the town.

I leap up and throw myself at the nearest attackers. The lessons Jostein and Iko offered me guide my sword arm. I manage to duck beneath the swing of a blade and plunge mine into a man’s gut.

As I kick him aside, a woman in Darium armor rushes at me with a screech of anger. I lash out at her with my sword and bash her helm with a slab of burnt wood from amid the wreckage. When she sways with the impact, I slice my blade across her throat.

The spurt of blood makes me recoil. I clench my jaw and will my nausea down.

She’d have done the same or worse to me if I’d given her the chance.

All around me, my comrades are cutting down the attackers as well as we can while the archers continue to shoot some before they can reach us. The edge of the pit crumbles more, tossing unlucky soldiers into its depths.

A yell I recognize as Landric’s voice brings my head jerking around. I spot him farther along the edge of town, slamming his elbow into the side of a soldier’s helmet. The soldier jabs out with his spiked club, but to my relief, Landric drives his sword home faster.

It isn’t only the enemy facing slaughter. Near me, one of Jostein and Iko’s colleagues teeters over with a spear protruding from his throat. The Darium blades gouge into chests and limbs, sending blood spraying across the ruins of my town.

I jump in to ram my sword through an attacker’s back just before he stabs a woman he’s knocked over, but right next to us, another Darium soldier guts a teenaged boy who only joined our rebellion a few days ago.

Before I can raise my sword again, Jostein is there,driving his longer blade into the man’s side. As the attacker slumps over, the squad leader catches my gaze with a hint of worry but a nod of resolve.

We’re seeing this through. We’re going to keep fighting as long as any of us are still standing.

I swivel around, bracing myself for another onslaught. At the same moment, the high commander’s voice bellows over the fray with its magical amplification.

“Pull back, soldiers! To me!”

He’s calling for a retreat already? I don’t know whether to rejoice or curse their cowardice.

His soldiers swarm around him at a safe distance beyond the pit. They appear to have given up on any of their colleagues who are too injured to pull themselves out of the cave-in.

With a few orders I can’t make out, High Commander Livius assembles his remaining troops back into their strict lines. Though dwindled greatly from their initial horde, they still make for an imposing force, maybe three times greater in number than our ragtag band.

There’s no way we’d face anything but a bloodbath if we tried to challenge them out there on open ground. We’ve only kept a bit of the upper hand by drawing them to us and using the ruins to our advantage.

Is the high commander going to turn this battle into another stand-off? Try to wait us out? We’re much better situated here than we were on the mountain. We’ve got the river to turn to for water and fish, the forest for berries, nuts, and hunting, a little shelter from the elements amid the crumbled houses.

If they give us time, our gifted allies who prompted the cave-in might be able to weaken the ground farther out, right under them…

Even as I think that, the high commander lifts his voiceagain, obviously intending it to carry. “We’ll march on Piam and then Segward. Let’s see how the rest of Velduny enjoys this rebellion.”

Gasps and disgruntled hisses escape my comrades. A chill wraps around my lungs.

Those are the two towns closest to here—the towns where our neighbors who weren’t up to fighting have taken refuge.

He means to slaughter every civilian he can, probably to torch their homes like he did ours.

The soldiers are already turning, heading to the west. High Commander Livius strides along behind them like a brutal shepherd guiding a flock of wolves. He shoots one cruel smirk over his shoulder in our direction before pulling the visor of his helm back down.

No. I can’t let the victory that was within our grasp turn into a horrific tragedy.

I glance around for something, anything that might help. Through the blare of panic and desperate resolve, my gaze snags on one of the horses that’s made it this far with us, tied to the burnt frame of a house.

There’s no room for thought, only action. I bolt for the animal as if my life depends on it.

But my life isn’t the one I’m concerned about. There are so many others that stand to be lost if we don’t stop this tyrant of a high commander.

I yank the reins free and heave myself onto the horse’s back. Someone calls my name, but the thrum of my pulse drowns out so much of the sound I can’t identify the voice.

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