The day had been full of meetings and planning sessions and diplomacy and arm-twisting, all designed to kick slow-moving western governments into a major, combined effort that would knock a frantically mobilizing Empire back on its heels. In contrast to their leaders, the people of the west were too eager for a fight, welcoming an open conflict and not hesitating in their calls for all-out war, apparently oblivious to the awful human cost such an effort would produce. And in the middle she stood, a Master Mechanic who still felt way out of her depth, trying to rein in popular fervor for total war with the moral authority only the daughter of Jules could wield, a mother wishing she could race off to save her daughter but stuck here doing what no one else could.
Alain entered, coming to sit beside her, his arm about her in silent understanding and comfort.
“You’ve seen nothing else?” Mari finally asked him.
“I saw, briefly, a confusing mix of images,” Alain said. “Something still hangs in the balance. What Kira does still matters. But I cannot grasp where she is or what is happening.”
She had been with him long enough to hear something else in his voice. “And?”
He hesitated. “The images were dark. I do not know if that meant they showed events in the night, or warned of awful outcomes, or…”
“Or both,” Mari finished. She leaned into him. “What will we do if Kira dies?”
“Try to continue to live as she would wish us to.”
“And Jason, too. I don’t think he’ll leave her no matter how bad it gets. He’s got that craziness in him. Just like you.”
“The Empire will pay if that happens,” Alain said. “Maxim will die.”
“Yes,” Mari agreed. “We’ll ensure Maxim dies. But nothing we do to him, or to the Empire, would bring Kira back.”
“Asha should already be in Alexdria. Calu has gone there as well. They intend to join the Free Cities forces searching for Kira.”
“Good. I’m amazed that Bev and Alli aren’t going, too.”
“They have gone to Marida.” Alain gestured toward the map. “The armies of the Free Cities are advancing, I see.”
“Yes. Armies are advancing,” Mari said, hearing the despair in her voice, feelings that she could never display to anyone else but Alain because the daughter always had to be strong, always be the one others could turn to. “Fleets are sailing. I'm not giving the orders directly, but they are answering to me. Can they save her? Would you know if Kira died, Alain? Would you feel it through your Mage powers?”
“I do not know,” Alain said.
“What could I have done differently?”
“Nothing.”
“What more can I do?”
“Nothing.”
Mari took a deep breath, her eyes on the markers showing the world moving to war. “Please let what we have done be enough. Now it’s all up to Kira. And Jason.”
* * *
The sun had settled behind the peaks to the west, the field of shadow on the plateau gradually darkening into night. The temperature had fallen again, and despite the rocks which sheltered them from both Imperial bullets and mountain winds, enough of the breeze made it through for Kira to feel the biting cold. The Imperial rifle fire had slowed as darkness fell and they could no longer see her well enough to aim, but shots still rang out as the legionaries tried to keep her and Jason pinned down.
Jason leaned back against the cliff face, breathing raggedly, his eyes open but occasionally going out of focus. Kira cast brief looks his way, fearing that at any moment his breath would falter and stop, but Jason stayed with her as he had promised.
Kira kept a careful watch, hearing between harassing Imperial rifle fire occasional sounds which told of legionaries using the dark to sneak closer. Indistinct movements in the dark also told her the legionaries were gathering, preparing to attack once more now that the night provided some concealment. She had taught them to respect her accuracy with her pistol.
Fortunately the moon was rising, providing some illumination. That would have been a problem if she and Jason had any chance of sneaking out, but with them unable to move it was better to be able to see their enemies approaching. Kira felt a jolt of fear as dark shapes suddenly moved against the night, crouched low and coming on fast. She waited, her pistol ready. “They’re coming,” she told Jason.
His gaze centered on her, Jason nodded, and she saw his hands grip tightly the daggers in each one.
Not wanting to waste a single one of her remaining shots, Kira waited as the legionaries drew closer.
Her first shot sounded shockingly loud in the night, the muzzle flash lighting up her attackers and the lead legionary buckling as the bullet hit. Kira fired again and again at the shadowy figures looming up in front of their rock barricade.
One tried to vault over the low rock in front by running up the back of a falling comrade. Kira’s first shot stopped that legionary in mid-leap, the second knocking the legionary back into the milling group before her rock fortress.
The slide stayed back on her pistol as she fired the last shot in that magazine. Kira slammed home her last magazine. Another legionary started to scramble forward, only to halt and fall back as Jason’s thrown dagger stood out from the Imperial soldier’s throat. She caught a glimpse of a legionary coming over the rocks to one side of Jason and as the slide of her pistol rocked forward to load a round Kira put a bullet into that attacker.
Facing forward again, Kira put a shot into a legionary, but the Imperial kept coming, grappling with her. She managed to twist aside to avoid a thrust from his short sword, the legionary’s weapon scraping along her side under her coat instead of plunging into her upper body, the blade sliding painfully across Kira’s ribs as she fired again at point blank range, the muzzle almost touching the legionary’s face, the impact hurling the legionary back.
She tossed her dagger to Jason so he’d have two weapons again, then lined up and fired once more to the front as the legionaries paused in their attack, confused by the darkness and recoiling from her fierce defense, their vague figures forming indistinct targets in the night.
How many shots did she have left? Kira restrained herself from firing again, seeing the dark shapes receding into the night. Fading sounds of pain told her that the retreating Imperials were pulling their wounded comrades to safety.
Her hands had been steady when firing, but now shook as Kira rested her pistol on the rock before her. Her breathing shallow and fast, she felt incredibly tired. Her side stung painfully where the Imperial short sword had sliced it open, warm blood wetting her shirt and jacket. Without any bandages, she used her arm to press her jacket tightly against the injury and hoped that would be enough in the time remaining to them. “Jason? Are you all right?”
Jason gasped a reply, his voice quivering with pain and weakness. “I’ve been worse.”
“Liar,” Kira whispered.
“How many shots are left?”
She ejected the magazine, did a quick count, then reloaded the pistol. Two in the magazine, one in the chamber. “Three.”
“Three,” Jason repeated. “Okay.”
He didn’t have to say that the end couldn’t be far off. They couldn’t stop the next Imperial attack. Terror tried to tighten on Kira’s throat like a merciless hand but she blocked it as ruthlessly as she could her Mage powers. At least exhaustion and cold and hunger no longer mattered. She and Jason wouldn’t have much more time to suffer from those.
As if mocking their dire situation, the thread between her and Jason glowed in the night, strong and bright where it ran the short distance between them. Real love, it seemed, endured far more than fear and hopelessness. Would it survive death?
“Mage powers,” Jason whispered. “Hide yourself.”
“I’m too tired,” Kira said. “I don’t have any strength for that, even if I could manage the spell again.”
He took a moment to answer. “So this is it.”
“Yeah. As soon as they charge again.” Kira si
ghed heavily. “Sorry. We should have done it last night.”
“That would have been giving up,” Jason said. “I’m happier knowing we kept fighting as long as we could.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“If you’d stayed on Urth,” Kira said, listening and watching for any more Imperial movements, “you would have found someone else and probably not have ended up facing death with her at the hands of an Imperial legion.” The rifle fire had fallen off completely, causing her to wonder what the legionaries were up to.
“Yeah,” Jason said. “I wouldn’t have been happier, though. Better six months with you than a lifetime with anyone else.”
“You’re hopeless,” Kira said, glad that her eyes were staying dry. Was she so thirsty that there was no moisture left in her for tears? Or had she simply been pushed so far that tears could no longer come?
“So you take out the first three attackers—”
“The first two,” Kira said, her voice sounding unnaturally cold, matching the sense of inner ice that seemed to be freezing her soul.
“You said you had three shots left.”
“I do.”
Jason’s voice grew louder, rougher. “No.”
“There’s only one way to keep them from capturing me again.” Kira tried not to imagine the pain, tried not to imagine everything ending, all that she had ever wanted to be and to do coming to a finish here by her own hand.
“No,” Jason repeated.
“I’m sorry, Jason,” Kira said. “You know that they’ll kill you. We’ll go together.”
“No, we won’t.” She could hear his anger. Anger at her. “You can’t quit.”
“This isn’t about quitting! No one else should have to die because of me!”
“Do you think you being dead would stop a war from happening?” Jason demanded. “If you’re out of the way, Prince Maxim could concentrate on taking out your mother, too.”
“My mother will avenge me!”
“And how many people would die because of that?”
Kira stared at him.
“Can you imagine how your parents will feel? Your mom and dad? When they hear you’re gone?”
“Stop it, Jason,” Kira said, her voice trembling. “That’s not fair. Do you know what will happen to me if the Imperials take me? What they’ll do to me in the Imperial household?”
“I know that as long as you’re alive and can keep fighting and trying you have a chance,” Jason said. “You have a hundred different paths forward. A hundred ways to still survive and win and get revenge. But if you end it here, you can never win, you can never influence what happens, you can never get another chance. Kira, you wouldn't let me give up. Don’t you give up.”
“You’ll be dead,” she said, the words barely able to leave her throat. “Because of me. You’re going to die because of me, Jason, and that alone is more than I can bear.”
He shook his head at her, his eyes fixed on hers. “Don’t make this my fault. Don’t do this because of me. Like you once said, wherever I end up, I’ll know you’re still alive. Please promise me that you won’t stop trying, that you’ll keep taking each step, that you won’t leave the people who love you. You made me promise that. You do the same.”
Kira heard the raggedness in her voice. “Why are you making me do this?”
“Because I love you, and I know a world with you in it is a far better world than one without you.”
She bit back an angry sob. “All right. I promise. I’ll keep fighting. And I will never, ever forget you. Jason, there will never be another for me.”
“Don’t promise me that,” Jason said. “I want you to be happy, not tied to my memory like I’m a rock you’re chained to.”
“I don’t deserve you,” Kira said.
“No, I don’t deserve you.”
“Shut up. I can’t afford to cry, and I’m about to, and if I do it’ll mess up my aim.”
“I’m not dead yet,” Jason said. The conversation had left him with very little strength, but he still managed a smile at her.
“You’re not going to die,” Kira said, and she meant it, even though she knew that was nothing but an illusion she was creating. Because sometimes illusions were all that kept someone going.
Kira could again hear the faint sounds of movements and distant conversation as the legionaries prepared for another assault. Would the legionaries take her prisoner? Or would this be a fight to the death despite her promise to Jason? There might be only moments left, and so much of what she’d hoped for in this life was still undone, so many things still unsaid. “Jason, if the worst happens, I’ll be looking for you in the next dream until I find you. I promise.” She reached out her free hand toward him and Jason nodded in reply.
A long roll of thunder rumbled, overriding the sounds of the legionaries marshalling for the attack. Kira shook her head to clear it, then stared up at the sky, where stars were visible. “That’s not a storm. Not a nearby one, anyway.”
More thunder. Jason blinked. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Kira said, not daring to hope. The thunder came again, long and low, breaking into individual crashes that went on and on. “It’s rifle fire. Jason, it’s a battle.” More shots, the sounds clearer. “I’m hearing carbines, Jason. A lot of those shots are from cavalry carbines, not Imperial rifles. ”
“You can tell by the sound?”
“It’s a different barrel length and carbine ammo uses different propellant! Of course I can tell by the sound! The fight is getting closer, Jason!”
She leaned out recklessly, seeing lights sparkling along the heights to the south and where the plateau extended to the west. Muzzle flashes from firearms.
Shouts sounded from down the slope, legionary officers calling orders. The harsh notes of the brass horns that the legions still used to pass orders echoed between the sounds of battle, mingled with other faint music, the higher and sweeter notes of the cavalry bugles that Kira knew.
Figures rose up, running, and Kira’s heart faltered for a moment. But as she steadied her pistol Kira realized that this time the legionaries were sprinting away from her and Jason’s position. She faintly heard more orders being shouted as the flaring lights that marked muzzle flashes came closer. The thunderous crash of battle grew louder, but through it Kira heard a bugle call she recognized. “They’re sounding the attack!” Kira called to Jason, her voice breaking. Tears of relief sprang to life, running down her cheeks. Bracing herself on the rock with her free hand, Kira raised the hand holding the pistol to rub the tears away.
She could barely make out the dim silhouettes of legionaries rushing into position down the slope, trying to form a line.
The bugles sounded again and suddenly the shapes of mounted cavalry appeared out of the night, charging along the slope and hitting the Imperial line in the flank. The Imperial line fell apart, the legionaries running and falling under gunfire, lance and saber.
The battle swept past along the plateau, just as if it had indeed been a violent storm, the crackle of rifle and carbine fire and sound of bugles receding down the slope but also falling off rapidly as the Imperial resistance collapsed.
Kira braced herself on the rock before her and stood up on shaky feet, seeing a small group of night-shrouded cavalry riding past. “Who are you?” she cried. “Identify yourselves!”
The riders wheeled to face her, their weapons at ready. One rode slightly forward of the others. “We’re part of the Fourth Lancer Regiment. Soldiers of the Free City of Alexdria. Who are you?”
Kira couldn’t speak for a moment as emotion overwhelmed her. When she attempted to answer, only a hoarse croak came out at first. She tried to wet her mouth and swallowed. “Kira. Kira of Dematr. And Jason of Urth. Friends of the Free Cities.”
“Lady Kira?” The cavalry soldier’s voice rose to a shout. “Colonel! We’ve found her! Lady Kira of Dematr! Pass the word!”
“We’re coming out.” Kira holstered her pistol
and reached down for Jason. “Can you walk?”
“I can be carried,” Jason said. “This is real? I’m not dreaming?”
“You’re not dreaming. They’re friends. We’re safe. Come on. Help me get you up.”
Jason nodded and forced himself up with Kira’s help. She pulled him over the rock barricade, then with Jason leaning heavily on Kira they stumbled over the bodies littering the ground. Kira blessed the darkness that kept her from seeing those bodies clearly. She knew she’d have enough trouble living with the memories of this night. Her side was still bleeding, but she disregarded that, caught up in the euphoria of unlooked-for survival.
The Alexdrian soldiers dismounted to meet them as some of their mounted comrades raced off to spread the news. “There are columns of Free Cities soldiers all over the mountains dealing with the Imperials and looking for you!” one of the soldiers said. He stared around at the fallen legionaries. “How many are there?”
“There are more over here,” another soldier said from near the rocks, her voice full of amazement. “You two did this?”
“She did, mostly,” Jason said. “I just had a knife.”
“They’ve been hitting us since late this afternoon,” Kira said.
“The sounds of fighting are what drew us here,” the soldier said, shaking his head. “No wonder those Imperials folded so easily when we hit them. You’d already beaten the blazes out of them. How did you do it?”
Kira shrugged selfconsciously. “I’m a Lancer, too.”
Their smiles were easy to see in the night. “That’s right! From the Queen’s Own in Tiae! Forgive us, Lieutenant…Lady…”
“I was only an honorary lieutenant,” Kira said, “and now—”
Jason slipped down, unable to keep standing and Kira no longer having the strength to hold him up. The soldiers rushed to help her lay him gently on the ground. “He’s been shot,” Kira said. “And cut. He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Healers!” the shout went up.
“What about you, Lieutenant?” one Lancer said.
“I’m fine,” she said, wanting attention to be focused on Jason.
Cavalry riders were dismounting to surround them and rush to Jason’s side. A small wagon pulled by a pair of horses rattled up as well, the symbol of a snake on a staff standing out on the white canvas cover.
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