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Amara nodded to Pirellus "But will they be able to raise the wall?"

Pirellus shrugged "Again-it can&039;t hurt The wall isn&039;t going to slow the Marat down as it stands in any case"

Nearby, Bernard and the engineer had led nearly a hundred e to a wizened old grand with the help of a cane and the arnized from Bernardholt "Are you sure it isn&039;t a terrible risk? We held it before," Aainst Marat who had never seen a battle," Pirellus said "Half-trained, green troops And ere nearly destroyed as it was Don&039;t fool yourself We got lucky There are five times as many of them out there now They&039;re experienced, and they won&039;t be operating in separate tribes" His fingers druhts are still out there"

Amara shivered and abruptly looked behind her "Exactly Which is why, Mistress Isana, we should-" She broke off abruptly "Where&039;d she go?"

Pirellus looked around behind hied "Don&039;t worry about it There&039;s a very limited amount of trouble the woe of certain death, Cursor-it&039;s difficult to become impressed by further risks"

Amara frowned at him "But with this help-"

"Doomed," Pirellus said, flatly "We&039;d need three times thatis adh to Riva" He shook his head "Without reinforce time until sunrise See if you can spot the hordemaster, and I&039;ll try to help theet more men back on their feet"

She started to speak to him, but Pirellus spun on his heel and walked back to the other courtyard His knee ollen and purpling, but he did not allow himself to lirimaced and wished she could will away the pain of her broken arm so easily

Or the fear that still weakened her knees

She shivered and turned to walk toward the gates, purposefully The barricade had been hastily reun to set up for their atteionares stood outside the broken gates in forh undetected The possibility seemed unlikely Even as Amara walked beneath the walls and out into the open plain beyond, stepping around the gri ht, like so steadily closer, in no great hurry

A her

steps light and careful She tried not to look down at the ground The blackened remains of the Marat who had perished in the first firestor Crows flapped and squabbled everywhere,most of the dead If she looked, A sockets of the corpses whose eyes had already been eaten away, usually along with parts of the nose and the soft, fleshy lips, but she didn&039;t The air smelled of snow and blood, of burned flesh and faintly of carrion Even through the screen Cirrus provided her sense of smell, she could srew short of breath She had to stop and close her eyes for a ain She lifted her unwounded arm and bade Cirrus make her vision more clear

The fury bent the air before her, and alh she stood close enough to it to hear their footsteps

Alh the fleeing elements of the Marat horde had rejoined it half an hour before and been absorbed into the oncotoward Garrison, without needing to engage them to understand part of Pirellus&039;s fears They were older men, heavier with muscle and simple years, but they walked with more of both confidence and caution, ferocity tempered isdom

She shivered

Wo the mien of experienced soldiers, which Aence could deterainst one another-small-scale conflicts that lasted only briefly and see hostilities, alh She focused on the horde grimly The dead behind the walls of Garrison proved that

As she watched them come on, Amara was struck by a sudden sense that she had not felt in a long time, not since, as a small child, she had first been allowed out onto the open sea with her father in his fishing boat A sense of being outside, a sense of standing balanced at the precipice of a world wholly alien to her own She glanced at the walls behind her, eyes twinging as they refocused There stood the border of the hty Realm of

Alera, a land that had withstood its enemies for a thousand years, overcome a hostile world to build a prosperous nation

And she stood outside it, all but naked, despite her ar plains that lay beyond this last bastion of Aleran strength made her feel suddenly small

The voice that came to her whispered in the rustle of the lonely wind, low, indistinct "Never be intiht you better than that"

Alancing around "Fidelias?"

"You always hold your legs stiffly when you&039;re afraid, Amara You never learned to hide it Oh, and I can hear you," the voice responded "One offor your replies"

"I have nothing to say to you," Aionares too close behind her and stepped forward, away from theain, focusing on the oncoht be their leader

"Useless," Fidelias commented "You can&039;t hold the walls And even if you do, we&039;ll break the gate again"

"Which part of &039;I have nothing to say to you&039; did you not understand?" She paused a moment and then added as viciously as she kne, "Traitor"

"Then listen," Fidelias said "I know you don&039;t agree withto fall You know it If he doesn&039;t fall cleanly, he&039;ll crush thousands on his way down He ht even weaken the Realm to the point that it can be destroyed"

"How can you dare speak to me of the safety of the Realhters lie dead behind that wall"

"We kill people," Fidelias said "It&039;s e do I have dead of my own to bury, thanks to you If you like, I&039;ll tell you about the families of the men you made fall to their deaths At least the dead inside had a chance to fight for their lives The ones you murdered didn&039;t Don&039;t be too liberal with that particular brush, apprentice"

A She reh she hadn&039;t taken much note of it at the time

She closed her eyes Her stomach turned over on itself

"If you have so to say, say it and have done I have work to do"

"I&039;ve heard dying can be quite the chore," Fidelias&039;s voice noted "I wanted to make you an offer"

"No," A my time I won&039;t take it"

"Yes you will," Fidelias said "Because you don&039;t want the women and children behind those walls to be murdered with the rest of you"

Amara stiffened She felt suddenly cold

"Leave," Fidelias said "You Lead the wohts see that the Marat are delayed long enough to give you a safe lead"

"No," she whispered "You&039;re lying You can&039;t control the Marat"

"Don&039;t be so sure," Fidelias said "Amara, I don&039;t like what has to be done But you can make a difference You can save the lives of innocent people of the Realm You lead them If you don&039;t, personally, then there&039;s no deal" There was silence for a moment, before he said, weariness in his voice, "You don&039;t knohat you&039;re doing, girl I don&039;t want to see you die for it And if I can save the lives of so you, so much the better"

A The stench of the burned corpses, of the carrion the crows had torn into, caent of the Crown, a decorated heroine of the Realm-but she did not want to die It terrified her She had seen the one pleasantly She had joked before, lightly, that she would never want to end her life in less than a viciously bloody fashion, as alive as she could possibly be, but the reality of it was different There wasn&039;t any consideration in it, no abstract philosophy Just glittering, animal eyes and terror and pain

It made sense, she reasoned Fidelias wasn&039;t a monster He was a man like any other He had cared about her, when they worked together Almost more than her father had, in some ways It was reasonable to assume that he did not want to see her die if he could avoid it

And if she could save some more people, if she could lead those ould surely die away frole, surely it would be worth it Surely there would be no sha, no dishonor before the Crown

Or before Bernard&039;s iving her a way out An escape

"Aently "There isn&039;t o quickly, if you are to save theh she didn&039;t understand it yet, though she wasn&039;t sure exactly where it lay, she recognized what he had scattered out to blind her-raw emotions, fear, the desire to protect, the need to save her own pride He had played on them, just as he had tried to put her into a raw, erief when he had betrayed her before

"I o Me Or there&039;s no deal" She took a breath and said, "Why would you want to make sure I was not a part of this battle, Fidelias? Why now, instead of an hour ago? Why did youthe enemy?"

"Don&039;t do this to yourself, Amara," he said "Don&039;t rationalize your way out of life Don&039;t let it kill those children"

She sed He was right, of course Perhaps she was beinghis offer would e But could she really argue against that stateainst him, here, nohen she would almost certainly die? And when it would cost the lives of children

Run Save them Grieve with the Crown over the Valley&039;s loss

"Your purpose as a Cursor is to save lives, Amara Stay true to your purpose And let me stay true to my choice"

The crows croaked and swooped all around her She opened her ree

But a sudden sound stopped her Without warning, the ground began to ruered and had to crouch to keep her balance She looked back at the walls of Garrison

A shout went up froionares, who i into ragged forer left and right They came out to the same distance she stood at and turned to stare at the walls with her