My first impression of the war camp was tent peaks and black lips. It looked to be on par with the size of my tribe when we made camp, if not a bit larger. Two hundred odd whisper women along with their fire starters to keep the fight and camp running smoothly.

The guard who transported me through the shadow paths gave me a small shove forward. I held in a glare and walked forward until we reached a waiting fire starter. He exchanged a few words with the whisper woman before giving me an ill concealed look of censure while she disappeared back into the shadows. No doubt he could of hid the look if he wanted to, but I ignored his passive aggressive ploy in favor taking in the camp in further detail.

The tree whose shadow we used to enter the camp stood in the center of all the tents and was huge compared to any normal pine tree, if nothing more than a twig to the Seedling Palace. Its roots radiated out from it, not all hidden by soil and snow. Following the roots with my eyes, I saw two other trees breaking through the forest of tents in different directions and an oddly formed wall encircling everything. It looked more like briar patch scaled up several times rather than something made by any of the whisper women. A sharp breeze smelled heavily of salt and decaying fish as it rustled the scrub grass underfoot and won a few claps from the surrounded tents as several unsecured tent flaps gained life.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I turned to find Breck striding towards me as the whisper woman who brought her disappeared back into shadow. The other girl was just as heavily armed as she had been when we went to the arena, but this time she had a spear in one hand as well as a pack on her back. We had been given all of ten minutes to gather our things. The others had also been given a chance to say goodbye, but I was corralled and kept under tight watch, so with much of a chance to say goodbye or anyone to say it to, the most I got were awkward, sad looks from Wren and Dera. Loclen seemed like she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to throttle me or push me over the edge. She didn’t seem to take being forced to continually put off her personal revenge plot against me well.

At least with those ten minutes I was able to gather all things that had come with me to the Seedling Palace, but it was annoying not being able to take any supplies from the garden. Time not being an issue, I knew I could force myself past those stupid thin paths again. Maybe even snatch up that horridly placed hidden pouch on the way.

Breck stopped next me and didn’t say anything. She was too focused on taking in the camp with swift glances, like I had. For once, she didn’t seem perpetually bored, either. Satisfaction showed in the eager way she gripped her spear, the set of her shoulders, the way she had unconsciously shifted her weight forward on her feet. Breck had been promised a fight and she was eager to play her part in it.

Not longer after Juniper and Prevna also joined us. The guard who brought me and Juniper had needed to make two trips into the shadow paths to reach the camp while seemed the second one needed three. She always took several minutes longer than the first.

Prevna slung an arm around my shoulders in a blatant display of ignoring personal space. When I flinched from the unexpected contact and pain in my ribs she squeezed me tighter for a moment, playfully, before letting go. “You certainly know how to keep things interesting.”

I watched a whisper woman sharpening a spear next to a community fire. “You didn’t have come.”

She snorted and gestured to the camp and the stars overhead. “And miss this? I’d rather be here than cooped up in that tree.”

Breck nodded her agreement. “Well said.”

Juniper’s lips pressed together in disagreement or displeasure, but she didn’t speak up. Instead her gaze stayed trained on where we arrived. It didn’t take much longer for Idra and Ento to be pulled out of the shadows by their guides.

The two whisper women didn’t disappear again. No one else had taken up the odd decision to follow me to a battlefield—not that I thought anyone but Prevna had actually made the decision because of me. They had all taken up the opportunity, such as it was, for their own reasons that they had no interest in discussing with me.

The guard who had brought me spoke with the fire starter again and we got moving as the pair flanked us at the back. The fire starter strode through the camp with a purpose. I resented him for the lack of time to take in everything around us and get a better idea of the layout of the camp, but, after the beating my body had taken already, it was all I could do to keep up.

He stopped in front of a tent large enough that it looked like it could hold two families comfortably inside. “Squad Mishtaw’s tent. You’ll be staying here.”

The fire starter gestured sharply for us to follow him again and ducked inside the tent. We did. The guards stayed outside.

The four people already inside the tent stared up at us from where they sat on cushions around an aborted game of sticks and stones. A dark skinned woman, black hair pulled up into a crown braid, narrowed her clear blue eyes at the fire starter.

“You’re Nadia’s man.”

The fire starter gestured to us as we stepped in behind him. “The commander has found you the troops you requested.”

Incredulity was quickly swamped by frustration. “I requested fighters. Not. Children.”

He dismissed her words with a shrug, obviously confident in the authority his mistress gave him. “Hands are short, as always. Fight with them or without them. Regardless, you will all be expected to keep up with your share.”

She sucked on her teeth for a moment before clicking her tongue. “Fine. Let the commander know that if this is all she can scrounge up then we’ll take them.”

He smiled thinly and left.

The woman shifted so that her attention was fully on us and I could feel her note the visible marks on our skin. “What did you do to land yourselves here? This isn’t any place for barely trained, untried seedlings.”

I felt the others glance at me but it was Prevna who broke the weighty silence. She pointed at me as she started to speak. “She’s being given a second chance after being charged with insubordination and attacking her superiors. Everyone else came because boredom’s the worst.”

The whisper woman’s lips twitched into a brief smile at Prevna’s last statement, but her expression hardened again as she focused on me. “Insubordination and attacking superiors? I can’t allow that in my squad.”

So she was Mishtaw then. I kept my chin raised. “I don’t do anything without a reason.”

“So you’re saying as long as I don’t give you a reason you’ll behave?”

I swallowed back the sour taste in my mouth that the knowledge that this was my last chance gave me. “Yes, squad leader.”

Prevna’s head jerked towards me in surprise and I felt the others shift around me as I ignored them. The squad leader’s people didn’t seem thrilled about our addition to their ranks either, but the big man in the middle, who was more muscle bound than looked strictly comfortable, chuckled quietly when I called her by her title.

She pressed her lips together. “Mishtaw is fine. I’ll need the full story before I risk my people’s lives with you, but you can all settle down for the night.” She gestured to a closed tent flap on the left. “You can sleep in there.” Gesture to the right. “Our quarters will be through there.” Vague gesture behind her. “Latrine is back that way a few minutes walk. Can’t miss it. I’ll let the others introduce themselves.”

Mishtaw turned and looked at them expectantly. The muscle bound man took the lead. “I’m Creed, Mishtaw’s fire starter.” He patted the hip of the pretty woman who was practically leaning into him. “This is Petra, my wife and the one who makes sure we don’t forget anything important.”

Petra brushed a few strands of wavy chestnut hair out of her face that had escaped from her half up-do as she nudged him with her elbow. “Oh stop.” She indicated the last woman in the group, wide faced with a matching nose and black hair pulled into a loose tail over her shoulder. “I’m Eliss’s fire starter.”

Eliss placed a gentle hand on Mishtaw’s thigh. “Since we’re introducing ourselves in a roundabout way, and Mishtaw won’t think to speak about herself even if her life was on the line, Mistaw is our squad leader as you already surmised. She’s also got a soft heart for troublemakers and happens to be my life partner. Abuse her kindness or threaten our safety needlessly and you will answer to me.”

The threat was spoken without emphasis or particular malice. Just clear cold fact. I nearly wanted to thank her for it. The sheer comfort and familiarity exuding from them had been suffocating until that point. It hurt, in some tiny, unmentionable part of me, to see a group so at ease with each other. Rawley and her friends had had a similar dynamic, but I had some connection with them. Here, I was very aware that I was only an outsider looking in.

Eliss tilted her head to the side in question. “Your names?”

We introduced ourselves and Mishtaw waved us off to the left sleeping quarters again after Petra handed Prevna a small lit lantern. As we headed for the door flap I couldn’t hide the stiff way I held my body or the tiredness dragging at my limbs. I saw them note the fact that I was injured as well as the fact that I had noticed them noticing, but no one spoke a word on the matter as we disappeared into the sleeping quarters. No doubt it would come in the morning when we all had a chance to settle into the new, unexpected situation.

A few sacks took up the far end of the sleeping quarters, but other than that the space was free for us to roll out our bedrolls and settle in for an early evening of rest. Idra grumbled about the lack of an evening meal, but Juniper silenced her with a look and Ento slipped her a bit of dried meat from her sack. I wondered how long it had been in there.

Prevna stole the spot closest to the door and I ended up next to her with Breck on my other side. Ento and Idra settled on either side of Juniper near the sacks at the other end of the sleeping area.

I half expected the others to bombard me questions and accusations about what happened, but the insular three kept to themselves as usual and Breck only asked two questions.

“Did you keep your honor?”

Shame flushed my neck and cheeks as I looked down at the floor. Uncontrolled anger could hardly be honorable. “…No.”

She didn’t like that answer. “You’re going to regain it here then?”

I forced myself to look her in the eyes. “Yes.”

She nodded. “Good.”

And that was that. She finished getting ready for bed and laid down, facing away from me.

Prevna waited until the lantern was blown out. Edging close to my bedroll in the dark she whispered, “Are you alright? Dera and I saw you fall off the path. You could have died.”

I huffed out a soft laugh. “Well…”

The scowl was clear in her voice. “You know what I meant. Are you?”

I thought about lying. About blowing her off with a dismissive ‘I’m fine’ or ‘Why should I tell you?’. But it was dark and it was a day that felt like it would never end and, in that moment, all I wanted was for Fellen to be the one there next to me. I knew they weren’t nearly the same person, but Prevna was the closest I had to her and the truth slipped out anyway.

“Obviously not.”

“We’ll make it back to the Seedling Palace.”

“Hmm,” was all I could offer her.

She shifted back onto her bedroll and let me agonize over everything I had done wrong in past few months alone. Soft snores had been coming from Breck’s spot for more than hour before my exhaustion finally overcame my whirling, incriminating mind.