The second I was dumped back amidst the healers, I started trying to talk, but it was more difficult than I expected. What I’d intended as a shout came out as a ragged whisper.

“Tamara! Where’s Tamara?”

“What’s that, honey? Can’t hear you. Hang tight a mo.”

A woman laid a hand on my cheek and the blessed itchiness of Healing Touch spread through me. My leg still hurt, but it scabbed up, and I felt something in my chest pop back into place. I hadn’t even realized I’d broken ribs.

I took a deep breath. It still hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable. “TAMARA!”

“Here!” The voice came from behind me. “I saw them dragging you back. What do you need?”

“Are you in touch with your husband?”

I’ve got an eye on both of you. I’m listening.

I jumped and Tamara gave me a wry smile. “Guess he just told you he’s listening in?”

I nodded. “So, when I got close to the Dragons, I could hear - they have an Announcement running over and over. Very short range. There didn’t seem to be much point to what they were saying, so… I’m wondering if one kind of communication can block others. Dane said they seemed to hear his Announcement begin, but they didn’t react to the things he said, and Colin said they didn’t react to his Mental Speech at all.”

Tamara frowned. “That could be, but how does that help us?”

I gestured toward the fighting. “I’m pretty sure their Announcer is that person with the pale-blue scales. If we can just distract that person, and Dane does an Announcement to their followers…”

That’ll tap me out for sure. Mental Speech and surveillance aren’t too taxing, but I’ve been doing both all evening, and I did a couple Announcements earlier, both over wide areas. The bigger the area, the more tiring it is. If I have to do another… I’ll be out after that. Probably fall asleep.

“Well, if you don’t think we should…”

No, it’s a good call. We need to end this, fast.

“He says to go for it,” I told Tamara. “But he’ll be too tired to do anything else after we try.”

It was one thing to make the decision, but another to implement it. We had a small opportunity, fortunately. While I’d been carried back, a few of the Dragons had climbed up onto the roof of the house they were hiding behind. Our people had fled, but other than a broken leg jumping down, we hadn’t suffered casualties, and the Dragons mostly lacked the ranged abilities to make holding the nearby roof an asset. There were two standing up there watching us, and the one with the fireable spines had taken a few shots at us, but… we had some breathing room.

“Tamara, talk to our melee. Find me people willing to make a charge. I’ll lead it. We need people with knockback, especially.”

Tamara nodded and left. She didn’t say anything, but her silence communicated her worry clearly enough. I was worried too, but we didn’t have much choice. They were right there, less than a hundred feet from our walls. Our defenders were holding them off for now, an intimidating wave of missiles burning into the darkness anytime our attackers popped their heads out, but that couldn’t last forever. Our people would get tired, and the attackers likely wouldn’t. They weren’t using any Abilities.

The healers had only stabilized me at first, conserving their strength for other wounded, but they healed me up to lead the charge.

Someone found my sword for me - I’d dropped it earlier, while fighting with Chris - but my shield was a lost cause.

I’d been worried Tamara wouldn’t find volunteers, but I guess the seriousness of the situation was clear, because over thirty people had gathered by the time I was healed, and more people were swelling their ranks by the second.

“We have one goal: take out the light blue Dragon,” I told them. “If we can do that, I think their human troops will turn on them.” I could tell that assertion confused people, but there was no time for details. We had our enemies pinned down for now, but there was no guarantee the situation would stay stable. “We’re going through the house: in the front door, out the back. As we hit them, I’ll Draw Attention. That should add enough confusion that the rest of you can get a hit or two in before they can really react. People with Knockback, use it liberally. I want them scattered. Uh… if anyone has Force Shield, keep an eye on me please. …They’ll all be looking at me, so I’ll probably take a lot of attacks.”

I’d been proud of how I’d started off my speech. It sounded confident, nearly professional. My last line, however, came off as weakly as I’d felt. I shook myself, trying to recapture my faux-confidence.

“Everyone ready? When we start moving, we’re going to run. They’ve got people on the roof who will see us coming and warn their main force. I want them to have as little warning as possible.”

Some people looked at each other uncertainly, but no one objected.

I turned. Better to do this now, before I lost my nerve.

“Alright! Let’s go!”

A spine whizzed past my face as I charged toward the neighboring house, courtesy of the Dragon on the roof.

Inside, two hallways led off of a front foyer. I started down one, but someone behind me grabbed my shoulder. “Other way!”

I corrected myself, heading through a great room filled with blankets and sleeping bags that belonged to Combat Group A, our dirty shoes trampling people’s cherished belongings in the darkness.

In almost no time at all, I had reached the back door. I couldn’t make out anything through the frosted glass, but I knew our enemies were out there. I’d started hearing the inexorable repetition of their Announcement as we drew close.

I paused for the barest second, offering a prayer for my own safety and glancing over my shoulder to be sure I hadn’t outpaced my allies.

They were with me.

I opened the door.

A throng of people filled the backyard. They were down one Dragon - three with the pair on the roof - but there were still nearly ten of the scaled soldiers and over twice that in scale-less combatants.

Everyone had eyes on the roof as I emerged, giving me a second to take them in before they turned to me. Moonlight shone off light blue scales at the far side of the group, and I charged forward. At the last second, I Drew Attention on everyone I could see: that is, all our enemies.

Heads and bodies turned toward me as I ran madly into their midst, praying my people would follow. If they didn’t, I was screwed, but it was too late to do anything but commit to my attack as hard as I could.

A wall of normal-looking humans stood in my way. I pushed through the first of them easily, then threw myself into a slide tackle to slip past the second row. Low to the ground, I slid a foot into the light blue Dragon’s ankle in a move that would get me carded on a soccer field. She - this close, it was clear she was female - wasn’t knocked over, but she stumbled at the impact and I rolled away, trying to use the Dragons’ own captive fighters as shields. From what Ava had said, few of them should have more than two abilities, and none had blades longer than a kitchen knife. It should be difficult for them to badly injure me, assuming I could protect my face and eyes.

I took some hits as I rolled: a baseball bat slammed into my shoulder, and something hit my leg. The pain was manageable, though. I didn’t think anything had broken. I scrambled to my feet, activating Parry to get my sword up in the way of the light blue Dragon’s claw before it could rake my face. The edge of my sword bit in between her fingers as I blocked her hand, the strength of her own hit combining with my Parry to drive my blade deep into her hand.

She screamed as I wrenched my sword free, and her Announcement shifted to something simpler, an imperative cadence:

Fight. Fight. Fight.

I took a step backward toward the rear fence of the backyard, but stopped myself. Getting free from the melee would give the frighteningly powerful Chris a clear shot at me. Better to use the others here as cover.

It had been mere seconds since I exited the backdoor. Draw Attention was fading from the last of my targets now, but I could see it had done its job. The rest of our attack force was charging out the back door, but only a handful were ready to meet them. I saw a woman hit a man in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and he went down.

Now our people were mixing in with theirs, a confusing melee in the darkness that left almost everyone uncertain of who their targets should be, with the notable exception of the Dragons themselves.

One of my allies had taken advantage of the light blue Dragon’s focus on me to hit her in the face with a Fire Bolt. She raised her hands to her face and I took the opportunity to land an Assisted Strike on her unguarded torso. Her scales and ribs prevented it from being a lethal blow, but she doubled over and began coughing.

Most importantly, the inexorable pulse of her simplistic Announcement faltered.

I thrust both arms into the sky, the signal I’d agreed on with Colonel Zwerinski.

I couldn’t keep them up for long. I had to throw myself back in amidst the less-powerful fighters as I saw the dark shadow of Chris’s form approaching.

I stumbled, tripping onto the ground in the midst of enemies. Something hit my back and I quickly rolled over, bringing up my legs and arms to guard my face and body. I was in a bad situation.

Blessedly, the familiar voice of Colonel Zwerinski echoed through my brain, although he sounded exhausted even in my mind.

We have rescued the Dragons’ hostages. I repeat, the hostages are safe with us.

At his words, everyone froze for a moment.

The Dragons and their former soldiers stared at each other. They had no way of knowing if what we were saying was true. My people had no real reason to stop attacking - or at least none to stop attacking the Dragons - but they hesitated also.

I took the opportunity to scramble to my feet, trying to find someone I recognized. I wanted to stand with someone friendly guarding my back, but I didn’t know the people in our neighborhood well enough to tell them from the Dragons’ human-looking forces.

Then, I heard a yell to my left and saw a man and a Dragon grappling.

I didn’t know who had struck first. I had no way of knowing.

But neither did anyone else.

Suddenly, everyone’s allegiances were clear.

The Dragons were on one side.

Everyone else was against them.