Kyra’s heart pounded as she walked with her father and brothers, Anvin and all the warriors, all marching solemnly through the streets of Volis, all preparing for war. There was a solemn silence in the air, the skies heavy with gray, a light snow falling once again as their boots crunched through the snow, approaching the main gate of the fort. Horns sounded again and again, and her father led his men stoically, Kyra surprised at how calm he was, as if he had done this a thousand times before.
Kyra looked straight ahead, and through the iron bars of the lowered portcullis she caught a glimpse of the Lord Governor, leading his men, a hundred of them, dressed in their scarlet armor, the yellow and blue Pandesian banners flapping in the wind. They galloped through the snow on their massive black horses, wearing the finest armor and donning the finest weaponry, all heading directly for the gates of Volis. The rumble of their horses was audible from here, and Kyra felt the ground tremble beneath her.
As Kyra marched, her heart pounding, she held her new staff, had her new bow strapped over her shoulder, and she wore hew new bracers—and she felt reborn. Finally, she felt like a real warrior, with real weapons. She was elated to have them.
As they marched, Kyra was pleased her to see her people rallying, unafraid, all joining them on their march to meet the enemy. She saw all the village folk looking to her father and his men with hope, and she was honored to be marching with them. They all seemed to have an infinite trust in her father, and she suspected that if they were under any other leadership, the village folk would not be as calm.
The Lord’s Men came closer, a horn sounded yet again, and Kyra’s heart slammed.
“No matter what happens,” Anvin said, coming up beside her, talking quietly, “no matter how close they get, do not take any action without your father’s command. He is your commander now. I speak to you not as his daughter, but as one of his men. One of us.”
She nodded back, honored.
“I do not wish to be the cause of death for our people,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” Arthfael said, coming up on her other side. “This day has been a long time coming. You didn’t start this war—they did. The second they crossed the Southern Gate and invaded Escalon.”
Kyra, reassured, tightened her grip on her staff, ready for whatever might come. Perhaps the Lord Governor would be reasonable. Perhaps he would negotiate a truce?
Kyra and the others reached the portcullis, and they all stopped and looked to her father.
He stood there, looking out, expressionless, his face hard, ready. He turned to his men.
“We shall not cower behind iron gates in fear of our enemies,” he boomed, “but meet them, as men, beyond the gate. Raise it!” he commanded.
A groaning noise followed as soldiers slowly raised the thick iron portcullis. Finally, it stopped with a bang, and Kyra joined the others as they all marched through.
They marched across the hollow wood bridge, their boots echoing, crossed over the moat, and all came to a stop at the opposite side, waiting.
A rumble filled the air as the Lord’s Men came to a stop a few feet before them. Kyra stood several feet behind her father, grouped in with the others, and she pushed her way to the front lines, wanting to stand by his side—and to stare down the Lord’s Men, face to face.
Kyra saw the Lord Governor, a middle-aged, balding man with wisps of gray hair and a large belly, sitting smugly on his horse a dozen feet away, staring down at all of them as if he were too good for them. A hundred of his men sat on horseback behind him, all wearing serious expressions and bearing serious weaponry. These men, she could see, were all prepared for war and death.
Kyra was so proud to see her father standing there, before all his men, unflinching, unafraid. He wore the face of a commander at war, one she had never seen before. It was not the face of the father she knew, but the face he reserved for his men.
A long, tense silence filled the air, punctuated only by the howling of the wind. The Lord Governor took his time, examining them for a full minute, clearly trying to intimidate them, to force her people to look up and take in the awesomeness of their horses and weapons and armor. The silence stretched so long that Kyra started to wonder if anyone would break it, and she began to realize that her father’s silence, his greeting them silently, coldly, standing with all his men at arms, was in itself an act of defiance. She loved him for it. He was not a man to back down to anyone, whatever the odds.
Leo was the only one to make a sound, snarling quietly up at them.
Finally, the Lord Governor cleared his throat, as he stared at her father.
“Five of my men are dead,” he announced, his voice nasally. He remained on his horse, not coming down to meet them at their level. “Your daughter has broken the sacred Pandesian law. You know the consequence: touching a Lord’s Man means pain of death.”
He fell silent, and her father did not respond. As the snow and wind picked up, the only sound that could be heard was the flapping of the banners in the wind. The men, equally numbered on both sides, stared at each other in a tense silence.
Finally, the Lord Governor continued.
“Because I am a merciful Lord,” he said, “I will not execute your daughter. Nor will I kill you and your men and your people, which is my right. I am, in fact, willing to put all this nasty business behind us.”
The silence continued as the Governor, taking his time, slowly surveyed all their faces, until he stopped on Kyra. She felt a chill as his greedy, ugly eyes settled on her.
“In return, I will take your daughter, as is my right. She is unwed, and of age, and as you know, Pandesian law permits me. Your daughter—all of your daughters—are our property now.”
He sneered at her father.
“Consider yourself lucky I do not exact a harsher punishment,” he concluded.
The Lord Governor turned and nodded to his men, and two of his soldiers, fierce-looking men, dismounted and began to cross the bridge, their boots and spurs echoing over the hollow wood as they went.
Kyra’s heart slammed in her chest as she saw them coming for her; she wanted to take action, to draw her bow and fire, to wield her staff. But she recalled Anvin’s words about awaiting her father’s command, about how disciplined soldiers should act, and as hard as it was, she forced herself to wait.
As they came closer, Kyra wondered what her father would do. Would he give her away to these men? Would he fight for her? Whether they won or lost, whether they took her or not, did not matter to her—what mattered more to her was that her father cared enough to make a stand.
As they neared, though, her father did not react. Kyra’s heart pounded in her throat. She felt a rush of disappointment, realizing he was going to let her go. It made her want to cry.
Leo snarled furiously, standing out in front of her, hair raised; yet still they didn’t stop. She knew that if she commanded him to pounce, he would; yet she did not want him to be harmed by those weapons, and she did not want to defy her father’s command and spark a war.
The men were but a few feet away from her when, suddenly, at the last second, her father nodded to his men, and six of them stepped forward, Kyra was elated to see, and lowered their halberds, blocking the soldiers’ approach.
The soldiers stopped short, their armor clanging against the metal halberds, and they looked to her father with surprise, clearly not expecting this.
“You’ll be going no further,” he said. His voice was strong, dark, a voice no one would dare defy. It carried the tone of authority—not of a serf.
In that moment, Kyra loved him more than she’d ever had.
He turned and looked out at the Lord Governor.
“We are all free men here,” he said, “men and women, old and young alike. The choice is hers. Kyra,” he said, turning to her, “do you wish to leave with these men?”
She stared back at him, suppressing a smile.
“No,” she answered firmly.
He turned back to the Lord Governor.
“There you have it,” he said. “The choice is hers to make. Not yours, and not mine. If you wish to have some property or gold of mine as recompense for your loss,” he said to the Governor, “then you may have it. But you shall not have my daughter—or any of our daughters—regardless of what a scribe has set down as Pandesian law.”
The Lord Governor glowered down at him, shock in his face, clearly not used to being spoken to that way—or defied. He looked like he did not know what to do. Clearly, this was not the reception he had been expecting.
“You dare to block my men?” he asked. “To turn down my offer?”
“It is no offer at all,” Duncan replied.
“Think carefully, serf,” he chided. “I shall not offer it twice. If you refuse me, you will face death—you and all of your people. Surely you know that I am not alone—I speak for the vast Pandesian army. Do you imagine you can face Pandesia alone—when your own King has surrendered your kingdom? When the odds are so stacked against you?”
Her father shrugged.
“I don’t fight for odds,” he replied. “I fight for causes. Your number of men does not matter to me. What matters is our freedom. You may win—but you will never take our spirit.”
The governor’s face hardened.
“When all your women and children are taken from you screaming,” he said, “remember the choice you made today.”
The Lord Governor turned, kicked his horse, and rode off, followed by several attendants, heading back on the road on which he’d came, into the snowy countryside.
His soldiers, though, remained behind, and their commander raised his banner high and ordered: “ADVANCE!”
The Lord’s Men all dismounted, lined up in a row, and marched in perfect discipline, over the bridge and right for them.
Kyra, heart pounding, turned and looked at her father, as did all the others, awaiting his command—and suddenly he raised one fist high, and with a fierce battle cry, lowered it.
Suddenly, the sky filled with arrows. Kyra looked over her shoulder to see several of her father’s archers take aim from the battlements and fire. Arrows whizzed by her ear and she watched as they hit the Lord’s Men left and right.
Cries filled the air as men died all around her. It was the first time she had seen so many men die up close, and the sight stunned her.
Her father, at the same time, drew a short sword from each side of his waist, stepped forward, and stabbed the two soldiers who had come for his daughter, each dropping, dead, at his feet.
At the same moment, Anvin, Vidar, and Arthfael raised spears and hurled them, each felling a soldier who charged across the bridge. Brandon and Braxton stepped forward and hurled spears, too, one grazing a soldier’s arm and the other grazing a soldier’s leg, wounding them, at least.
More men charged and Kyra, inspired, set aside her staff, raised her new bow for the first time, placed an arrow, and fired. She aimed for the commander, leading his men in a charge on horseback, and she watched with great satisfaction as her arrow sailed through the air and impaled his chest. It was her first shot with the new bow, and her first time killing a man in formal combat—and as their commander fell to the ground, she looked down in shock at what she had just done.
At the same time, a dozen of the Lord’s Men raised their bows and fired back, and Kyra watched in horror as arrows whizzed by her from the opposite direction—and as some of her father’s men cried out, wounded, dropping all around her.
“FOR ESCALON!” her father yelled.
He drew his sword and led a charge across the bridge, into the thick of the Lord’s Men. His soldiers followed close behind, and Kyra drew her staff and joined in, too, exhilarated at rushing into battle and wanting to be by her father’s side.
As they charged, the Lord’s Men prepared another round of arrows and fired once again—and soon a wall of arrows came at them.
But then, to Kyra’s surprise, her father’s men raised their large shields, creating a wall as they all squatted down together, perfectly disciplined. She squatted behind one of them, and heard the thwack as deadly arrows were stopped.
They all jumped to their feet and charged again, and she realized her father’s strategy—to get close enough to the Lord’s Men to render their arrows useless. They soon reached the wall of soldiers and there came a great clang of metal as men clashed in battle, swords meeting swords, halberds meeting shields, spears meeting armor. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same moment.
Squeezed into the bridge with nowhere to go, the men fought hand-to-hand, groaning, slashing and blocking, the clang of metal deafening. Leo lunged forward and sunk his teeth into a man’s foot, while one of her father’s men cried out beside her and she looked over to see him stabbed by a sword, blood dripping from his mouth.
Kyra watched Anvin head-butt a man, then plunge a sword into his gut. She watched her father use his shield as a weapon, smashing two men so hard he knocked them over the bridge and into the moat. She’d never before seen her father in action, and he was a fierce thing to watch. Even more impressive was how his men formed around him, and it was clear they had fought by each other’s sides for years. They had a camaraderie she envied.
Her father’s men fought so well, they caught the Lord’s Men off guard, who clearly had not expected an organized resistance. The Lord’s Men fought for their Governor, who had already left them—while her father’s men fought for their home, their families and their very lives, all right here. Their passion, their stakes, gave them momentum.
In close quarters with little room to maneuver, Kyra saw a soldier come at her, sword raised high, and she immediately grabbed her staff with both hands, turned it sideways and raised it overhead as a shield. The man came at her with a long sword, and she prayed Brot’s Alkan steel would hold.
The sword clanged off the staff as it would against a shield, and to her relief, the staff did not break.
Kyra spun the staff around and smashed the soldier in the side of the head. He stumbled back, and she then kicked him, sending him tumbling backwards, shrieking, into the moat.
Another soldier charged her from the side, swinging a flail, and she realized she wouldn’t be able to react in time. But Leo rushed forward and pounced on his chest, pinning him down on all fours.
Another soldier came at her with an ax, swinging sideways at her; she barely had time to react, as she spun and used her staff to block it. She held her staff vertically, barely able to keep back the soldier’s strength, as the ax came closer to her. She gained a valuable lesson, realizing she should not try to meet these men head on. She could not overpower them; she had to fight to her strength, not to theirs.
Losing strength as the ax blade came closer, Kyra remembered Brot’s contraption. She twisted the staff, it split into two pieces, and she stepped back as the ax came whizzing past, missing her. The soldier was stunned, clearly not expecting this, and in the same motion, Kyra raised the two halves of the staff and plunged the blades into the soldier’s chest, killing him.
There came a shout, a rallying cry from behind her—and Kyra turned to see a mob of village folk—farmers, masons, blacksmiths, armorers, butchers—all wielding weapons—sickles, hatchets, anything and everything—racing for the bridge. Within moments they joined her father’s men, all of them ready to take a stand.
Kyra watched as Thomak the butcher used a cleaver to sever a man’s arm, while Brine the mason smashed a soldier in the chest with a hammer, felling him. The village folk brought a fresh burst of energy to the battle, and as clumsy as they were, they caught the Lord’s Men off guard. They fought with passion, releasing years of pent-up anger at their servitude. Now, finally, they had a chance to stand up for themselves—a chance for vengeance.
They pushed back the Lord’s Men as they hacked their way through with brute force, felling men—and their horses—left and right. But after a few minutes of intense fighting these amateur warriors began to fall, the air filled with their cries as the better armed and better trained soldiers cut them down. The Lord’s Men pushed back, and the momentum swung back the other way.
The bridge became more crowded as more of the Lord’s Men reinforcements charged onto it. Her father’s men, slipping in the snow, were tiring, more than one crying out and falling, killed by the Lord’s Men. The tide of battle was turning against them, and Kyra knew she had to do something quickly.
Kyra eyed her surroundings and had an idea: she jumped up on the stone rail at the edge of the bridge, gaining the vantage point she needed, several feet above the others, exposing herself but no longer caring. She was the only one of them nimble enough to leap all the way up here, and she drew her bow, took aim, and fired.
With her superior angle, Kyra was able to take out one soldier after the next. She took aim at one of the Lord’s Men, bringing a hatchet down for her unsuspecting father’s back, and hit him in the neck, felling him right before he put a blade in her father’s back. She then fired at a soldier swinging a flail, hitting him in the ribs right before he could impact Anvin’s head.
Firing arrow after arrow, Kyra felled a dozen men—until she was finally spotted. She felt an arrowed whizz by her face, and she looked out to see archers firing back at her. Before she could react, she gasped in horrific pain as an arrow grazed her arm, drawing blood.
Kyra jumped down from the rail and back into the fray. She rolled to her hands and knees, and she knelt there, breathing hard, her arm killing her, and looked up and saw more reinforcements arriving onto the bridge. She watched her people get driven back, and watched as one of them, right beside her, a man she had known and loved, was stabbed in the gut and tumbled over the railing, into the moat, dead.
As she knelt there, a fierce soldier raised his ax high overhead and brought it down for her. She knew she could not react it in time and she braced herself—when suddenly Leo lunged forward and sunk his fangs into the man’s stomach.
Kyra sensed motion out of the corner of her eye and she turned to see another soldier raise his halberd and bring it down for the back of her neck. Unable to react in time, she braced herself for the blow, expecting to die.
There came a clang, and she looked up to see the blade hovering right before her head—stopped by a sword. Her father stood over her, wielding the sword, saving her from the deadly blow. He spun his sword around, twisting the halberd out of the way, then stabbed the soldier in the heart.
The move, though, left her father defenseless, and Kyra watched, horrified, as another soldier stepped forward and stabbed her father in the arm; he cried out and went stumbling back as the soldier bore down on him.
As Kyra knelt there, an unfamiliar feeling began to overcome her; it was a warmth, beginning in her solar plexus and radiating from there. It was a foreign sensation, yet one she embraced immediately as she felt it giving her infinite strength, spreading through her body, one limb at a time, coursing through her veins. More than strength, it gave her focus; as she looked around, it was as if time slowed. In a single glance, she took in all the enemy soldiers, saw all their vulnerabilities, saw how to kill each and every one.
Kyra did not understand what was happening to her—and she did not care. She embraced the new power that took over her and allowed herself to succumb to its sweet rage and do with her as it would.
Kyra stood, feeling invincible, feeling as if everyone else moved in slow motion around her. She raised her staff and pounced into the crowd.
What happened next was a flash, a blinding blur that she could barely process and barely remember. She felt the power overtake her arms, felt it instruct her who to strike, where to move, and she found herself attacking enemy soldiers in a blur as she cut through the crowd. She smashed one soldier in the side of the head, then reached back and jabbed one in the throat; then leapt high and with two hands brought her staff straight down on two soldiers’ heads. She twisted and spun her staff end over end as she cut through the mob like a whirlwind, felling soldiers left and right, leaving a trail in her wake. No one could catch her—and no one could stop her.
The clang of her metal staff hitting armor echoed in the air, all happening impossibly fast. For the first time in her life, she felt at one with the universe; she felt as if she were no longer trying to control—but allowing herself to be controlled. She felt as if she were outside of herself. She did not understand this new power, and it terrified and exhilarated her at the same time.
Within moments she had cleared all the Lord’s Men off the bridge. She found herself standing on the far side and jabbing one last soldier between the eyes.
Kyra stood there, breathing hard, and suddenly time became fast again. She looked around and saw the damage she had done, and she was more shocked than anyone else.
The dozen or so soldiers who remained of the Lord’s Men, on the far side of the bridge, looked back at her, panic in their eyes, and turned and ran, slipping in the snow.
There came a shout, and Kyra’s father led the charge as his men pursued them. They hacked them down, left and right, until there were no survivors left.
A horn sounded. The battle was over.
All her father’s men, all the villagers, stood there, stunned, realizing they had achieved the impossible. Yet, oddly, there wasn’t the jubilant outcry that normally would follow such a victory; there came no cheering and embracing of men, no shouts of joy. Instead, the air was strangely silent, the mood somber; they had lost many good brothers on this day, their bodies scattered before them, and perhaps that caused the men to pause.
But it was more than that, Kyra knew. That wasn’t what caused the silence. What caused it, she knew, was her.
Every eye on the battlefield turned and looked at her. Even Leo looked up at her, fear in his eyes, as if he no longer knew her.
Kyra stood there, still breathing hard, her cheeks still flush, and felt them all staring. They looked at her with awe—but also with suspicion. They looked at her as if she were a stranger in their midst. All of them, she knew, were asking themselves the same question. It was a question which she herself wanted answered, and one that terrified her more than anything:
Who was she?