We were woken by Mary shortly after we had gone to bed, or so it felt. With no clocks, it was hard to say precisely how little sleep I had gotten, however, I don’t think it could have been more than a couple of hours. Did not mean I woke with a frown though, I think the smile on my face told everything.

“Satisfied?” Yathanae whispered from beside me.

I looked at her and after a quick kiss, which turned into a long one, I gave her my answer, “Very much so. You did things I didn’t think were humanly possible.”

She shimmied out of bed and out of my reach. She gave me a faux indignant glare. “I’m no puny human.”

“Alright, alright. Elvenly possible then,” I corrected with a laugh.

“Better,” she said with a haughty sniff.

“I guess age has its benefits.”

She just looked at me. “You certainly didn’t complain at any point during the night.”

“No, I did not,” I said with a lazy smile. “In all seriousness though, it was lovely. Thank you.”

“You should thank your wife,” she said and headed out the door. Still not dressed. She had my entire attention as she walked out into the main chamber. Last night's activities had convinced me that someone was indeed playing with my mind. There was no way that after just a week or so, I would be up to such activities after what I had endured under the Cardinal’s loving ministrations. The tender loving with Lily was one thing, but the hard and passionate sex I had just gone through, was something entirely different.

When she disappeared from my view, I let out a sigh, before getting out of bed myself. I knew there were no real feelings in it for her. Sure we had fun, she liked, and I liked it, but it had been all about sex, not feelings, not that there was anything wrong with that. I would be enjoying it a lot, but I could not help but feel that she was doing it mainly to keep me happy and compliant. I could not release her, I had tried, but I could make life tolerable for her and Emma, and if I got to enjoy both of them, I would not turn it down.

I looked at the door and released a sigh. Going to the Bastion was not something I was looking forward to. I had already had to spend last night’s dinner listening to snide comments about my soldiers because they were either serfs, half of them female, or Tainted. Or any combination of those three. Getting locked into a castle with 27,000 humans with the same opinion was not something I was looking forward to.

I might need to crack a few heads before they learned to keep their mouth shut. The loyalty and morale of my troops meant everything, even if I had to make an enemy out of a commander or two, or even a lord. The other lords and commanders were not going to defend my home, my troops were.

My soldiers might not be free men or women, but half of them had already been in combat when we were attacked by some winged elves back at the Hold. I hoped that Lily could put the prisoners at ease and make them cooperate, some flyers to keep watch and scout would be a nice addition. However, I had not had enough time from the time of the battle until we left, to make sure that the winged elves would not screw us over. So I had taken none of them with me.

Stepping into the main chamber, I saw that the girls had already prepared a hot bath, and Yathanae was taking advantage of it. The girls had learned I liked to start the day with a nice hot bath. In fact, I usually took at least two baths a day, sometimes more if it had been a strenuous day. I noticed that the girls were eating some fruit for breakfast at a nearby table. I walked over to the table and grabbed a couple of apples, giving each of them a large smile. “Good morning ladies.”

“Good morning, Milord,” Nathalie replied, her cheeks a little pink. The others repeated her greeting.

As I walked back towards the tub, I threw one of the apples to Yathanae who had closed eyes. Her hand shut up and caught it nonetheless. “Thank you, Milord.”

“You’re welcome, now scoot forward,” I said and eased into the tub behind her when she did as I asked. The water had a slight hint of vanilla scent to it. “I see you found the bath supplies that Siphanien had prepared for me.”

“Yes, I must say I’m happy that you’re more cleanly than humans usually are. Lily has started taking daily baths now as well, and some of your closest retinue is bathing at least every second day. Quite the improvement,” Yathanae replied and leaned back against my chest. The hand not holding my breakfast slipped into the water and lazily stroked her stomach.

“So am I, even more so for the dental herbs though,” I said and got a nod as an answer. “Did you bring any weapons?”

“Only the dagger,” she replied. “The hunting bow is no substitute for even a bad warbow.”

“How about we spend a glass or two when we get to Central City to get you armed?” I asked.

She turned around and straddled my legs, “Or you let your wood mages finish the bow they’ve already started making.”

“Sounds like a grand plan. What about blades and armour?” I asked, keeping my focus on the issue at hand, and not the pleasure she was evoking.

“Don’t need armour, and if things get so bad I need a blade, it’s already over,” she replied, before leaning in for a kiss and ended the discussion on equipment there.

When we had arrived at King Alfred’s capital, those squadrons who were going to the Bastion had been separated from the rest. We were told to stay and wait for the command staff to come and separate us. So for over an hour we just waited, I could see a group of riders ride around meeting with squadron after squadron.

When it was finally our turn, I looked over the group of riders that had stopped in front of us. There were seven officers and what looked to be a platoon of bodyguards. The man in front was large for a human on this planet, though I still had half a head and a lot of muscles on him. He had several scars in the face and the way his eyes took in everything screamed predator. This was a dangerous man.

“I’m High Commander Farnsworth, in overall command of the forces going to the Bastion. Who’s in charge here?” the large man demanded.

I waved Hrothgar forward, but I answered, “I’m Lord Karth, I’ve been tasked to go with you to the Bastion. This here is Commander Hrothgar, he’s in charge of my troops.”

Someone behind Farnsworth whispered, “Great another one, that makes three.”

Farnsworth ignored the whispering and looked me up and down. “You’re one of the Summoned?”

“Indeed.”

“Do you have any military experience?” he immediately demanded to know.

The same someone whispered again, “Probably never held anything larger than a knife in his hand.”

“Well, I took out over five dozen harpies raiding my Hold,” I answered and then leaned to the side and looked at the guy who kept up a running commentary. I looked straight at him and said, “Trust me, whenever I take a piss, I’m holding something much larger than you’ve ever held.”

The man turned red and sputtered. Farnsworth frowned at me. “I don’t like vulgarities. I demand you show decorum and respect.”

“And I don’t like little bitches running their mouth,” I countered. “I can show respect, as long as it’s given in return. Otherwise, I’ll be happy to give object lessons in it. You might be in charge, High Commander, but do remember that I am a Lord.”

The whispering moron rode forward, very angry looking. “You can’t talk to High Commanders like this!”

“Oh, you’re a High Commander too?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Yes, I’m High Commander Breckenridge, in charge of the Fifth Battalion,” the pompous arse answered haughtily.

“Could’ve fooled me, I thought you were a jester the way you kept running your mouth at your betters,” I countered. That got a few chuckles from the other officers behind Farnsworth, and the bodyguards seemed to have a hard time keeping a straight face.

Breckenridge did not find it amusing, he looked absolutely livid. Farnsworth also found it less than amusing, if his barked command was a hint. “Enough. Back in formation, Breckenridge. Lord Karth, I’ve heard rumours about you. We’ll see whether you’re as bad as I’ve heard.”

“Well, I’m probably worse if someone keeps pushing my buttons,” I said.

He ignored my comment and looked over my troops. He snorted derisively. “Serfs and women. Only a platoon worth of muskets. What a disgrace. I’m assigning you to Sixth Battalion.”

“I guess I’m the babysitter for all the Lords then,” someone muttered and rode forward. He was a short wiry man, but his eyes told me I should not underestimate him. He looked me straight in the eyes. “I’m High Commander Ballard, I command the Sixth Battalion. We’ve two more squadrons to inspect, meet me over at the flag for the Sixth in five spans. Both you and your Commander.”

“See you then,” I said. A span was a little less than three minutes, so he wanted to meet in about fourteen minutes.

When they had ridden on to the next squadron, I turned to Kiril. “Kiril, grab two guards and come with me. Hrothgar and Yathanae, you two as well. Hrothgar, have the men stand down and eat the last of the supplies. We don’t know what awaits us after we portal in.”

“Milord.” Kiril and Hrothgar gave a nod and started barking orders. When they were done, we started moving towards the indicated flag.

When I arrived there, I saw that there were eleven other groupings there. Most consisted of an officer with an aide slash bodyguard or two. I also noticed two figures I recognized, not that it came as a complete shock because the High Commanders had mentioned there being two other Lords. I nodded a greeting at the two of them.

“Anders. Nerd.”

“The name’s Adam,” Nerd retorted immediately. I had only talked to him once, on the carriage ride from the Grand Cathedral to King Alfred’s castle in Central City. If I recalled correctly he had the power to control fire and had a power rating at the lower end of the spectrum. Four or five.

Nerd had two attendants with him. One was a gruff older looking man in military uniform, the blue one that all assigned soldiers had been wearing when we arrived. The other was a young woman, very pretty, and seemed to be dressed provocatively. Well, it would be modest on Earth, but here on Camcesa, it was bordering on scandalous. She was also wearing a collar.

He gave an indulgent smile. “Right, sorry. Had forgotten. I’ll see if I can remember.”

“Karth, making friends as always I see,” Anders said a bit frostily, his eyes turning colder when he spotted Yathanae’s accessories. We had not parted on the best of term, not that we had ever been on the best of terms.

He was a fed and I was a criminal, but we had found some common ground for a single night. Then he had tried to sucker punch me because I had bought some serfs. He was really against the whole slavery thing. I was mostly against how people, especially women, were treated, otherwise, the whole serfdom thing made sense from an economic perspective of the time period. As a serf, they knew where their food and housing would be coming from, no such guarantee as a freeman.

He had a single attendant, someone dressed in a heavy cloak, making me unable to ascertain their gender or even a body type. Fat, thin, everything was possible. Well, almost everything. All I knew was that the person was rather short, but then again, almost everyone was rather short on Camcesa compared to me.

If memory served me right he was some kind of earth or stone mage with a rating of nine, compared to my twelve. Since I had less of a barrier now, since the whole mana combustion incident, I might have gone up a rating. I knew the remnants of the barrier were flimsy, on the verge of falling away completely.

“Not my problem people have a stick up their arse most of the time,” I countered with an easy smile. “So, how’s lordship treating you guys?”

“I bet you just love ordering around slaves and raping them,” Anders sniffed.

“Say that again, and I’ll fucking kill you. I don’t rape women,” I growled, my horse moving towards him. My hands clenched in an effort not to attack him outright. If there was one thing that could make me lose control no matter what, it was rape. I hated rapists.

His hand moved towards the pistol at his hip. “Yeah that’s right, there’s the murdering bastard. I bet you killed Billy just to get you jollies off that whole about to rape a minor thing was just an excuse you made.”

“Tell me, how many have you saved from slavery? Oh right, that’s none, because you’re still alive. Spare me the sanctimonious bullshit, drop the gun and I’ll teach you to keep your mouth shut,” I replied with a sneer moving the horse closer to him.

He actually started drawing his pistol, probably his fed instincts taking over, but was interrupted when Ballard came riding up to us, demanding, “What’s the meaning of this?”

He was too late, my left hand had already wiped the dagger at Anders, and it impacted his left shoulder sending the pistol flying. When it landed on the ground, it went off and a horse nearby neighed in pain. The shot also startled the horses, making it dicey for a few seconds as everyone brought their horses under control.

“Personal disagreement, Commander. Fucker tried to pull a loaded pistol at me. I disarmed him,” I said while trying to steady the horse under me. Most of the horses were trained for combat, but that did not mean that they did not react a little to the shot, especially when one of them whinnied in pain.

“The ball hit my horse, I demand recompense,” one of the others said, he was now standing next to the horse, which favoured one of its legs.

Ballard waved the concern away. “We’ll talk about that in a moment. Commander Lambert, what happened?”

One of the older commanders said with a world-weary and bored tone, “The Lord on the ground insinuated some stuff about the other Lord, who took offence and retorted. Lord on the ground tried to pull his pistol for some reason, and ended up on the ground with a very precisely thrown dagger in his shoulder. The pistol fell to the ground, went off. Luckily no one was killed.”

To Yathanae, I said quietly in elvish, “Get Nathalie to look at the wounds. The horse first.”

“You speak elvish?” the High Commander asked as he watched Yathanae ride away. All of the natives were staring at me. So was Nerd—I mean Adam. Anders was on the ground whimpering as he held his shoulder. His companion was kneeling next to him and taking care of him. It was a beautiful woman, far the most beautiful I had seen so far. Her features seemed like they were a sculpted masterwork, her black hair seemed to be gleaming. Because of the heavy cloak, I could not see any other features.

‘Don’t you?’ was the flippant answer that sprung to mind. However, I chose to be a bit more diplomatic. I had fucked up the situation enough already as it was. “I do, a gift from the Gods when they summoned us. Oh, and my healer is on the way. She’ll take care of the horse and then Lord Anders.”

“I’m not letting your harlots touch the Lord,” the beautiful woman spat in my direction.

“Suit yourself, she’s quite good,” I said with a shrug. “I’m going to need that dagger back. And Anders, this is the second time you’ve tried to attack me. The third will be the last.”

“Shut up, all of you. You might be Lords, but you’ve been placed under my command,” Ballard said in a thundering voice. “Lord Anders you’ll pay Commander Malick the equivalent of two horses. Lord Karth, you acted in self-defence, but if either one of you two fight amongst our own ranks again, I’ll have you in irons and in front of the High Hierophant as an enemy spy. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal, though I will act in self-defence,” I said with a shrug.

Anders groaned, “I understand.”

“Good,” the High Commander said. At this point, Nathalie and Yathanae were riding back to us. “Listen up. We order squadrons by seniority of their commander. Commander Lambert, you’re Thirteenth Squadron, Commander—”

I only half-listened, putting names to the faces. It seemed that the higher the number the more seniority. Ballard continued listing the Commanders, “—Fourth Squadron. That brings us to the three squadrons with the Summoned Lords. I’ll just order you in the order that I was introduced to you. Lord Müller, you’re Third Squadron. Lord Sigurdson, you’re Second Squadron, and Lord Karth, you get the honour of being First Squadron.”

While he had been talking, Nathalie had arrived and healed the horse, and retrieved my dagger. Anders was still refusing treatment from her and was trying to kill me with the looks he was sending me.

Ballard was ignoring our little side-drama and continued addressing all of us, “We’re leaving in half a glass, so get your men in order. We leave through the portal first, so form up by squadron at the flags in front of the portal. Horses are to be handed over to the stablehands who’ll give you a receipt. A cleric of Ghidana will be handing out remuneration for the oxen we bring through. They’ll be slaughtered for food on the other side. Dismissed.”

As we rode back to the rest of my troops, I asked Hrothgar, “Why slaughter the oxen?”

“Because there’s not enough feed for livestock over there, Milord. What you’re planning to do with your gardens is going to meet a lot of resistance, because of the limited space,” Hrothgar informed me. An objection he had made a few times already.

“We’ll cross that bridge when it comes to that,” was my answer to his concerns, once again. Looking around I did notice I had more wagons than most everyone else. Most squadrons had two, and a few had only a single wagon.

When we lined up in front of the portal, and had handed over our horses as well as having received payment for six oxen, I noticed that there at the end of the column was a large train of wagons. Some twenty wagons or so. We would be eating oxen for the foreseeable future. Or then again, maybe not. There would be a lot of people there.

Before long the portal opened, and it seemed to open up into a large underground cavern, lit up by large bonfires along the edges. Because I was generally a head or two taller than most people, I could see that only a handful of people were waiting on the other side. Even at the distance I was from the portal, I could see their different coloured uniforms were dirty and bloody.

“Move out,” came the call from High Commander Farnsworth who was at the head of the column, with just a single platoon of troopers. I still found the whole portal travel a bit weird and I was really tempted to reach out with my magic to see how it worked, but I decided that it might be best to not satisfy that curiosity. At least not yet.

When we got through the portal, High Commander Ballard was giving us directions on where to move, while Farnsworth was talking with one of the bloodied troopers. The others were heading over towards us.

“...relentless attacks…” one of their voices drifted over.

“...how…left?” I heard Farnsworth ask.

“...less…four thousand...” was the reply.

“Sixth Battalion, listen up,” Ballard’s voice thundered in the large cavern, drowning out the rest of the conversation I was trying to listen to. “When I call your squadron, you’ll go with the trooper indicated, you’re to relieve the troopers in the section I tell you. Leave the wagons, Seventh Squadron will take care of those.”

He then waved one of the bloodied troopers forward. “Thirteenth, Twelfth and First Squadron, you’re going to the eastern tower and wall. Commander Lambert is in charge. On the double.”

13th and 12th Squadron immediately moved out, and I gave a nod for Hrothgar to get a move on as well, so we followed after them in a jog. We moved up through a mildly sloped and winding tunnel at a fast clip. The tunnel was large enough for three carts to move side by side and not scrape the paint of the sides.

Soon we started hearing shouts and echoes of gunfire, as we got further up the tunnel. It also sounded like there was a thunderstorm going on. Shortly thereafter we turned another corner and could see daylight. I noticed the blue cloudless sky first.

Looking around as we moved out into the open I noticed the light brown stones, almost sand coloured, which had been made to build the structures around us. The castle walls were almost a kilometre away on both my left and right side. Though only around five hundred metres in front of us. There were large square buildings all around us, barracks most likely, and there were six of them.

Most of the castle was in shade, because of the large outcropping above us. Large columns rose to support it. It was definitely manmade, nothing natural about it. I noticed some of the columns had chip damage on them, even one that was missing a large chunk, so it was no longer supporting.

Even though the amount of the sky I could see was limited, there was not a cloud in it, so it came as a surprise when lightning struck one of the towers at the front wall. There was a small tower every one hundred metres, with much larger towers at the eastern and western corner, where the front wall met the side walls. The towers next to the gate were also of the larger variant.

As we were moving left towards the eastern wall, Lambert started issuing commands, “The eastern wall has three minor towers and one large corner tower. First Squadron, you’ll be patrolling the wall and towers from the mountain to and including the second tower. Twelfth Squadron will be patrolling from the second tower to the large tower, while Thirteenth will be concentrated in the large tower. Fighting will be hardest around the large tower. Commanders to the large tower in ten spans.”

His voice brokered no argument, and it sounded good to me. As we jogged, I turned to Hrothgar. “You heard the man. I want Seventh Platoon on the second tower together with two other platoons. Put Sixth in the rear somewhere, and spread the other nine out as you see fit.”

“As you command, Milord,” he said with a nod.

I turned my attention to those that were not technically part of the squadron. “I want you to follow Hrothgar and hang back with Sixth Platoon. Bodyguards, half on me, the rest protect our non-combatants, no need to keep Lambert waiting.”

Kiril barked an order for half my bodyguards and then he and four of them followed me, as I picked up the pace to fall in besides Lambert. Lambert gave me an angry look. “See to your men.”

“Hrothgar is already taking care of that,” I answered as another bolt of lightning struck a tower.

“Damn, they’re using fulmeomancers. Seen this before, they’re trying to soften the ranks for an aerial assault,” he cursed and picked up the pace. I guessed that was the name of lightning mages.

A couple minutes later we arrived at the bottom of the large tower. The walls next to them had to be fifteen metres tall, and that was from the inside. The large tower was at least thirty metres tall.

Lambert went in first, and I let half the thirteenth squadron enter before I entered as well. When he had entered, I had heard him shouting, “Replacements coming up the stairs, make room.”

Inside there were no stairs, just an even slope going up and round and round. The walls were thick if the door opening was any indication. Around three to four metres thick. As we made our way up, we came across four floors that seemed to be mostly used for sleeping quarters and armoury. Around halfway up the tower, the floor also had two thick and sturdy iron doors. From their position, I would say they led to the wallwalks.

It took some time getting to the top, but the view was definitely worth it, but not the smell. It seemed that lightning had been aimed at the tower while we were inside. Three men had been hit by it, all dead. There were only six dozen or so soldiers up here not belonging to Thirteenth Squadron.

Lambert was once again giving out orders, “You’re relieved, Thirteenth Squadron has the tower now, get out of the way. Senior Squad Leaders! Get a line of muskets ready to take down the bastards if they come within range again. Archers line up, ready for volley fire.”

While troopers started bustling around to follow his orders, I took the time to really take in the view. There was a lot to take in. The castle was as advertised a bit up the mountain, a single road with switchbacks led from the castle and down to the ancient road running south to north, presumably through the pass next to the castle I could not see, because it was to the west. It was a little hard to judge from this distance, but a low estimate would say that the ancient road was wide enough for six wagons to ride abreast, if not more.

However, that was not the breathtaking part. No, the breathtaking part was the army amassed in the foothills, the large tent cities behind them. Even a normal city could be seen as well. It was like something out of a movie. Rows upon rows of soldiers. Large siege engines, catapults or trebuchets.

At the bottom of the road leading up to the castle, a large group of people, elves most likely, had gathered around a wooden structure. Almost looked like a house, with metal plating, with a large tree trunk sticking out of where the door should be. It occurred to me what it was, ‘A fucking ram, this is crazy. I’m in the middle of a goddamn fantasy movie.’

The troops arrayed against us were not only on the ground, no they were in the air as well, and groups of them were darting in closer. Whenever they got within a couple of hundred of metres, they would stop and a lightning bolt would strike somewhere along the wall or one of the towers.

Lambert snapped out a spyglass and looked around for a moment before he started cursing. “Spread out, they’re preparing an attack run on this tower. Bolt incoming in less than a minute. Anyone not on the line or in the volley, down below.”

“Can you tell which one is throwing the lightning?” I asked and shrugged off my guns. I had taken all three with me. You never knew how many you would need.

He just gave me a glare, but still answered, “Sure, it’s the bastard in robes with yellow coloured wings. Harpies colour their wings according to the magic they can use.”

“Lend me that spyglass for a moment then,” I said and held out my hand. With the other, I pulled out three musket balls and started creating links. Reluctantly he gave it to me. Instead of wasting time, I quickly brought it up. It took me a few seconds to find the approaching harpies, but when I did the lightning mage was easy to identify. As Lambert had said, she had coloured her wings yellow. With the magnification, it was easy to create links to her clothes in the area around her heart.

“Thanks,” I said and handed him back the spyglass. I handed Kiril two of the balls, and said, “Load my rifles.”

I then started to load my smoothbore myself. Since it would need the most mana to be somewhat accurate, I thought it would be a good idea to start off with that one. The longer range and accuracy of the rifles would come in handy if I only wounded.

“...never gonna hit...far away,” I heard someone whisper with a snigger.

“If you got time to gossip, you’re not keeping a watchful eye enough,” I heard someone bellow. Most likely a squad leader.

Lambert joined in, “Archers, face the switchback, prepare three arrows, maximum range. They’ll barely be within range on the switchback. When you’ve fired three arrows, prepare three more. We only get these two chances to hit them on the way up.”

My musket loaded, I asked Lambert, “Care to be my spotter?”

“Fine, waste of powder and time, they’re still over three hundred metres out,” he said and took out his spyglass again.

“Tell me when the range is two hundred and fifty,” I said and brought the musket up. I concentrated not so much on aiming for the moment, instead, I concentrated on reinforcing the links I had created. Mainly the two links on the musket ball in the smoothbore I was holding.

I had created two types of links. One was the most simple, but also the one that needed the most power to be effective. An attraction link. It would alter the trajectory of the ball a couple of degrees to achieve a better chance of hitting the specified target. Which with any luck would be the harpy’s heart.

The other was a link that would let me know when I was aiming at the right spot. The link would turn harmonious when the two ends of the link were lined up in a straight line. I called it an Aiming Link. The good thing about them was that they required relatively little power, and increased my overall effectiveness. I kept the smoothbore trained on the harmonious spot.

“No—” Lambert started to say, and I immediately pulled the trigger. “—ow!”

The musket fired, sending the butt of the gun into my shoulder. The moment the pressure let off, I put the musket aside and was holding out my hand for the next one. I grabbed it and started pouring mana into the links, making them strong.

“Status,” I barked.

Lambert answered, but sounded like he could not believe it, “Hit. Stomach. Dropped ten metres, turned around, flying away.”

I brought up the rifle and quickly found the harmonious spot and fired once more. As I was switching rifles, Lambert said in an awed voice, “Hit. Upper back, through the wing. Drop—no wait, caught by two others. Still alive, if barely.”

“How much lower,” I asked, bringing up the third rifle.

“Only thirty metres above the ground, three hundred metres out. Rising,” he reported. With his help, I was able to find the sweet spot and pulled the trigger again.

“Hit. Upper back again. Slumped over, maybe dead,” Lambert said, barely believing it. Looking around at the troopers, I saw people looking awed. The only ones not looking surprised were my bodyguards. They had seen me do some longer shots than that in the week before we left. Really needed to find a spyglass though, or even better yet get a scope made for the rifles. Would make it much easier to create links.

Lambert looked me up and down. “How the hell did you do that?”

“Magic,” I said with a shit-eating grin. Seeing his expression darken a bit, I added, “Lots and lots of training. Cobbled together with some experimental weaponry.”

“Would it be possible to get that for my troops?” he asked.

“Unfortunately, they foul up a lot faster, so not useful for long protracted battles, but the range and accuracy are greatly enhanced. Still working on them though,” I explained.

“Shame, we—” he started saying.

However, one of his troopers interrupted him with a shout, “They are approaching the first switchback!”

“Archers, get ready. First mark,” he shouted. I ignored the rest of the orders that were shouted behind me. Instead, I walked to the parapet and leaned against it. I looked out across the foothills and all the soldiers that were arrayed against us.

I wondered, ‘How many must I kill, in order to see my child born?’