“I never intended to kill you.”
Shea scoffed, letting the sound speak for her.
“I didn’t. I just said at one time I had planned to kill you. You know, before. It’s been a while since I’ve actively plotted your death.”
Shea opened her mouth with a sharp retort but was prevented from speaking as a horse and rider clattered around the corner, torch held aloft. Seeing them, he called over his should, “Here, I’ve found them.”
“Time to go.” Shea bounded away from the building, Braden on her heels. Another rider cut them off at the end of the street as the first closed in behind. They started for an alley but pulled up short when another horse and rider trotted out of the shadows.
They were surrounded.
Braden put his back to Shea’s, notching an arrow and holding his bow at the ready. He’d given her his sword so at least she wasn’t completely unarmed.
Charles turned the corner, letting his horse walk towards them at a leisurely pace. “General, what a surprise. I had not thought to see you out here.”
“Who is this?” Braden asked Shea, not taking his eyes off the armed men approaching them.
“Charles. You met him. He was in charge of the beast board.”
Charles smile was ugly. “I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised he doesn’t recognize me. It would be too much to expect a general to know those that serve under him.”
“I know the name of every man and woman in my command. You’re not one of them,” Braden said, still not looking at Charles. His attention was wholly focused on the two riders behind them.
“Of course not. You wouldn’t want a cripple getting in the way.” Charles hands tightened on the reins.
“Is that what this is about?” Shea asked. “Misplaced anger over your lot in life?”
Charles snorted. “Maybe a little, but it’s not the only reason.”
Scorn showed on Shea’s face.
Charles smiled. “You don’t believe me.”
She shrugged.
“At first, I only intended to get you out of the way. As I’m sure the general here can tell you, you’re a distraction to the Warlord. His men have noticed, and they don’t like it. This idea of conquest. It is ridiculous. We take, we pillage, and then we return home. That’s how it’s always been.”
“Fallon always intended to claim the Lowlands,” Shea said. “I’m not the one who convinced him to stay.”
“But you are the one who made it possible. Your beast board. Your ideas. Even this place. Do you think he’ll let this end once he reaches your homeland?” Charles shook his head. “No, he’ll take, and take, and take until there is nothing left.”
A shadow flickered in the light behind Charles.
“Your lands are rotting,” Shea said. “There’s nothing left there except madness and death.”
“You’re lying.”
“She’s not,” Braden said. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Our healers are trying to figure out what’s wrong, but they have been unsuccessful. Many have succumbed to the madness.”
The man next to Charles shifted. “The men from Rain did say something wasn’t right.”
“Quiet. Nothing they say matters. She’s still an outsider. A throwaway. We do our people a service getting rid of her,” Charles said.
He dug his heels into the horse’s sides and spurred it towards Shea. She held the sword in a guard position, watching closely.
“Stop,” a voice yelled from the building.
Charles pulled his horse up sharply as Clark climbed out of a window and dropped to the ground.
“Clark, stay back,” Shea called.
“It’s alright, Shea.” Clark held out a hand as he made his way over to stand between the two of them. Charles watched him come, a guarded expression on his face.
“What are you doing?” Clark asked him.
“I’m standing up for people like us.”
“By killing Shea? She’s never done anything to you. If anything, she’s helped us gain status.”
Charles almost looked like he might listen. He parted his lips to speak when one of the other men said, “Enough chitchat. Kill them.”
“I’m afraid he’s right. We’ve come too far to turn back now.” Charles unsheathed the sword at his side.
Clark took a step back, placing himself between Shea and Charles.
“Clark, move.”
Clark shook his head. “I refuse.”
“I’m doing this for us. For what we went through.”
Clark shook his head. “I want no part in this. If you do this, you’ll have to go through me first.”
“Very well, then.”
There was a sharp cry as the man to Shea’s right slumped off his horse and fell to the ground. Fallon stood next to him, bloody sword in his hand.
A dark figure leapt from the building next to them, landing on Charles and taking him to the ground. Braden took advantage of the distraction and let his arrow fly. It found its target in the shoulder of the rider behind them.
Charles and his assailant rolled, their limbs a furious blur as they fought.
More of Charles’s men poured out of the street in front of Shea. Even with Fallon, Clark, and the person Shea assumed was Fiona, they were outmatched.
There was a woman’s cry of pain. Charles rose to his feet, the sword in his hand bloody. He aimed a kick at his attacker.
“Fiona,” Clark cried, running for the other woman.
“You can’t win,” Charles shouted at Clark, who ignored him.
Shea’s eyes rose to the buildings beside them, shadows lurking on top of them. Bright eyes flashed from above.
“No, I think it’s you who can’t win,” Shea said in a soft voice, her focus still on what waited above.
A frigid wind picked up around them, rustling Shea’s hair and plucking at her clothes with harsh hands. She could almost hear voices in the air. A tingle skated along her skin, a sensation very similar to that of the mist.
Betrayal. Weapons. A path.
All the ingredients were there.
“What would you know?” Charles said, ignoring Shea. His voice was ugly, no hint of the shy, studious man of before in it. “They treat me worse than the throwaways simply because of a birth defect. He’s the worst of them.”
Charles pointed at Fallon, his face a mask of disgust. “Patting me on the head, saying good job with that stupid beast board. Elevating your little friends who lied to him, lied to us all, to protect you. When meanwhile, I exist on the scraps of the kindness of his elite.”
“You need to stop this,” Shea said, edging towards Clark and where he knelt by Fiona. “You won’t like the consequences of what comes next.”
He scoffed. “Big words from a throwaway who is about to die. There are changes coming. We’ve already got the backing, people willing to support us when you and he are gone.”
“Whose backing?” Fallon asked. “Who has been whispering in your ear?”
Charles regarded Fallon with narrowed eyes. Shea couldn’t believe she had never seen the snake at his heart. It was obvious now, here at the end. How had she not seen it before?
“Shea, Fiona needs immediate help if she is going to survive,” Clark said in a soft voice as she neared.