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The other Guardsreat purpose Their red scarves and shawls have been lowered, revealing faces set in grim deteres, food, or even the occasional rifle down the passage, always hurrying and chattering to each other But they stop at the sight of ive me asones lookme limp past, but most stare at their feet

A few even seem afraid

Of me

I want to say thank you, to somehow express how deeply indebted I ae ship Thank you for your service almost slips past my lips, but I clench my jaw to keep it back Thank you for your service It’s what they print in the notices, the letters sent to tell you your children have died for a useless war How many parents did I watch weep over those words? How er children to the front?

None, I tell myself Farley will have a plan for that, just like ill come up with a way to find the newbloods--the others like

The Guards themselves as I pass Even the ones who can’t stand to look attois a co off the hosting into irl It’s what she used to call me, what they called htenas tall as I can

I am not little anymore

The whispers follow us all the way to the medical station, where a pair of Guards the ladder, a heavyThe only exit and only entrance in this slow bullet of a ship One of the guards has dark red hair, just like Tristan, though he’s nowhere near as tall The other is built like a boulder, with brown skin, angled eyes, a broad chest, and arht of lance Instead, they turn their attentions to Kilorn, grinning at him like school friends

"Back so soon, Warren?" The redhead chuckles, waggling his eyebrows in suggestion "Lena’s gone off her shift"

Lena? Kilorn tenses beneathto betray his disco But I know hih to see the force behind his s while I’ve been unconscious and Shade lies wounded and bleeding

"The boy’s got enough on his plate without chasing pretty nurses," the boulder says His deep voice echoes down the passage, probably carrying all the way to Lena’s quarters "Farley’s stilla thu rip My knees almost buckle, but I stand fir into so back in the Silver court The boulder grips the door, spinning the massive wheel lock so he doesn’t have to look atwell, ht I was done with such things

"Please call me Mare"

"Of course," he replies without any kind of resolve Though we are both part of the Scarlet Guard, soldiers together in our cause, we are not the saiven nas open the door with a tiny nod, revealing a wide but shallow co quarters at one tile aisle buzzing with men and women in white shifts Many have clothes spattered with criinto their midst

Kilorn’s hand hovers by ain, but I lean on the bunks instead If everyone’s going to stare at ainst a single thin pillow, supportedmetal wall He can’t possibly be comfortable, but his eyes are closed, and his chest rises and falls in the easy rhyth of his bunk by a hasty sling, and his bandaged shoulder, he’s surely been h I thought hily hard to bear