Chapter 23
Structures that previously seemed decorative prove strategic, inconspicuous columns now used for mounting firearms and acting as lookouts.
Ladders drop to the sand as the soldiers hoist one another to the top, careful around the hastily unraveled wires lined with razors.
A gentle haze from kicked-up sand highlights their panic as they trip over themselves.
Ginny is expressionless while tying my arms together. She cinches the knot so tightly it pinches my skin.
“Lowell is still in the infirmary,” she says flatly.
“For now,” Guy adds.
Ginny grits her teeth at the comment. “Which means we have to take care of this quickly.”
I’m instructed to sit down behind a concrete barricade, my position close enough to the front that I can be seen by the approaching vehicles. I doubt I’m worth enough to bargain for, but Ginny insists I at least give the illusion of being a prisoner. If I’m what they’re looking for, that is.
“How did they find us?” Guy worries, taking position behind me.
The dust cloud swarming behind the approaching Nilsan vehicles obscures most of the sky, as well as our vision. It’s difficult to get an accurate count.
Ginny pinches the bridge of her nose, using her hands to command the frantic soldiers to their stations. “Apparently, during Lowell’s little expedition to Rime Mountain,” her eyes flick down to me, then back up again, “he made enemies with a criminal group that had a truce agreement with Nilsan.”
Guy’s breath hitches, bewildered. “Lowell left them alive?”
My heart quickens with guilt.
Ginny shrugs. “Lowell said he killed them all, so I don’t know what the hell happened,” she says, stress adding deep inset lines to her cheeks.
Shit.
My head throbs. I begin to speak slowly, my brain trying to retract my words before I say to them, “One got away.”
Ginny mirrors Guy’s alarmed expression. “Wait, what?”
I nod. “I saw one limp away in the distance. He was too far away for me to make a shot, and I thought he’d died from the severity of his injuries.”
“And you didn’t tell Lowell?”
I shake my head.
Running a hand down her face, Ginny growls. “You should’ve said something, you damn idiot. Now you’ve screwed us all. This compound is set up for stealth, not combat.”
“How was I supposed to know they were associated with Nilsan?” I snap back, my face red. “And how do you suppose they found us? We weren’t followed.”
Guy answers for Ginny, a vein on her forehead pulsing with anger. “The surviving bandit passed directional information on to Nilsan. From that, they can create a radius from Rime Mountain and search in the direction you traveled from.”
“Most criminals around here work for Nilsan,” Ginny snorts. “Thought a devout peon like yourself would know that,” she adds, her voice laced with ire.
I don’t take her anger personally, knowing that she will have to be the one to answer to an injured and already short-fused Lowell. Part of me pities her.
I press my back into the barricade, shame burrowing into my chest. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”
Ginny waves me away, scoffing. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re fucking sorry.
Dammit, if we die, it’s your fault,” she grumbles while she walks away.
Not one to idly stand by, she assumes her role as acting leader, shouting instructions in such a powerfully militant voice that the Nilsanian soldiers would be put to shame.
Guy crouches beside me, his fire-red scales blinding in the harsh sunlight. “She doesn’t mean that. She’s just as hot-blooded as Lowell, sometimes.”
“Oh, but she does mean it,” I say, pursing my lips. “But she’s not wrong, this is my fault. I want you to untie me if things look bad and I’ll do what I can to help.”
With a worried lower lip, Guy grimaces. “Lowell gave me explicit orders not to do that.”
It’s funny that Lowell thinks he’d ever be able to tell me what to do, even through someone as soft-spoken as Guy, but it certainly doesn’t stop him from trying.
“I’ll be okay,” I say. “I can handle myself. I’d rather risk my life by helping than see you all get killed.”
Guy sways his tail shyly, the spiked barbs knocking into the barricades. “I, uh, don’t doubt that… but I fear the repercussions from disobeying Lowell more than I fear the threat of death.”
I groan, leaning my head back against the stone.
If he only knew what we were up against.
Nilsan isn’t known for its diplomacy, often opting for extreme measures of violence over peaceful resolutions in even the tiniest of disputes.
Last year, Nilsan severed the structural joints of a bridge connecting an otherwise isolated village to the mainland for the sole reason of a single late payment correspondence.
I don’t believe they’ve come to “talk” now, either.
The Nilsanian vehicles approach steadily, the engines dulling the mechanical sounds of machinery hastily mounted by panicked soldiers. It’s only a matter of time before the first shot will be fired.
The vehicles roar closer until all sound is suddenly cut, a few engines still idling.
I peer over the barricade, and Guy tries to push my head back down immediately.
“Don’t let them see you just yet,” he whispers.
I swat him away, barely able to make out the silhouette of the approaching figures. None of them bear weapons or wear armor. They appear strangely vulnerable.
“Huh,” I vocalize skeptically. “They should’ve shot at you all by now.”
Ginny approaches the leading figure, armored Lizardfolk following close behind. Her mouth moves, but I can’t hear anything.
I press myself into the barricade, turning my ear to catch even a single syllable. To my chagrin, there is too much noise to make out anything of value.
With my eyes locked on the gangly Nilsanian soldier who wears a helmet much too big, I stare at the inaudible conversation.
“Who is that?” Guy asks, both of us watching as the soldier fiddles with the helmet as it wobbles around his head.
I squint, but it does nothing to improve my blurry vision. “I think it’s someone who was probably recently promoted. I don’t know for sure, but it’s likely a new soldier Nilsan is shoving to the front lines as an expendable.”
As if the Goddess herself were listening, the soldier uses both hands to steady the helmet before lifting it off his head to cradle it in his arms.
Guy clicks his tongue. “I’m not sure why I thought I’d know him. He looks like every other Nilsanian human,” he says with a bland chuckle.
My restrained gasp draws Guy’s attention to me, his questioning eyes focusing on my stunned expression.
Both hands hover over my mouth. I blink rapidly to confirm what I’m seeing, as though it were a mirage. A dream. A hallucination.
No.
There is no way.
No.
“That’s…” I start, rubbing my eyes with the heel of my palms.
“Who?” Guy prods. “Do you know him?”
Although it’s difficult for me to speak, my heart pumping and my mouth suddenly dry, I reply, “That’s my boss, Kinsley.”