Kamila grabbed Zoe’s shoulders, picked her up, and tossed her into the hallway, following the soldier’s trajectory into the darkness. “Do you feel shame?” Kamila half-shouted. “Fear?” She bent down, grabbing Zoe’s arms even as the soldier tried to raise them. “Do you feel anything?”

“I’m… a good soldier,” Zoe said, breath catching in her throat. “I do what’s needed… to make my life…”

“What’s needed?” Kamila picked Zoe up, so that her feet trailed just above the ground.

“I live with honor…”

“Is there honor in being a slave?” Kamila threw Zoe against the wall again. “A slave who kills?”

“…to make my life…” Zoe croaked.

“You’re a slave to a murderer!”

“…possible…”

“A slave!”

Slam.

“I’m freer than you’ll ever be,” Zoe spat, feeling her consciousness begin to fade. Kamila’s voice was growing more distant, and her ears were beginning to ring. She could barely even see her assailant now. But… “I’m freer than you’ll ever be.” She tried to remember how she’d gotten here. Something had gone wrong in the village… a fight against the locals?

Marga fell down from the ceiling, claws reaching for Zoe’s throat

She coughed, staring up at Kamila. “I’m…” Her voice caught.

“I thought you were a monster,” Kamila said. “Now I realize that you’re just pathetic. You thought you needed to use me to do your duty. You couldn’t even manage that, huh?”

“I’m a good soldier…” Zoe whispered.

Marga stared at her across the field. Heart’s blood on the rock –

“I’m free…”

“A slave!” Kamila shouted again, and Zoe felt her body shake. Dust and tiny pieces of stone rained down atop her head. Kamila withdrew her gauntleted fist from the wall, leaning toward Zoe again.

“I shouldn’t have tried to use you, Kamila. I should have listened to Fatih. Killed everyone.” She laughed. “I gave you that chance because I thought… if we just got rid of Mirshal…”

“The chance you gave me was sadistic, whether you know it or not.” Kamila bent down in front of Zoe, looked her in the eyes. Zoe’s vision was so unfocused she could barely see the Valer’s face, the wreath of wild, unkempt hair, freed from its braid by the fight. It obscured Kamila’s whole face, made it little more than a blur of colors. “But I’m taking the one chance I really have now. And I’m taking her with me – whether she can forgive me or not. And if any of your friends try to follow us, they’ll end up dead like you.”

Kamila threw Zoe against the wall again with her full strength, and this time the soldier did not move after she slumped down. Her eyes fluttered shut, and blood and saliva trickled down from the corner of her mouth. Kamila turned and walked back into the office, stepping over Plato’s corpse, not bothering to check Zoe’s pulse. She felt she could smell her own adrenaline. Wordlessly, she bent down next to Hilda. The younger Zelenko was still conscious, watching everything around her with the dim interest of the barely-lucid. Kamila wrapped her arms around her sister and picked her up, carrying her over her own back. She went to the front door of her father Stepan’s library, peered out the door, and checked for anyone approaching. No one in sight. Kamila shouldered her burden, stepped outside, and ran for the pass northeast.

For the long road to Kivv.