The sound of hooves alerted Oskar’s lookouts. Theodorus slipped away between the trees and came back a few moments later with a smile on his face. “Reinforcements have arrived.”

Minutes later, a troop of cavalry and infantry marched around the corner, carrying a mix of Guld and AudOlafsson flags. At the tip rode Una and Edward.

“You made it!”, Oskar called.

“Of course. I could not leave you sorry bunch hanging”, Una grinned.

“Where is Ida?”, Tone asked.

“In Guldhamn. She is betrothed after all”, Una shrugged.

“Is this all?”, Yri asked, eyeing the troop.

“Not even close”, Una smiled. “There are five ships waiting by the bay. Trust me, we have plenty.”

“Well done.”

Una turned to Oskar. “How do you want to play this? Do we unload the siege and come at them from here, or do we get on board and slip right around to the harbour? Your army is waiting for orders, My King.”

Oskar looked to Yri. “You are my military advisor. What do you think?”

“I say give them a taste of their own medicine. Unload the siege and assault them from here while sending ships around to block the harbour at the same time. Let us see how they like it when they are surrounded.”

“Make it so”, Oskar nodded.

Una looked to Edward and he nodded, turning his horse around and returning to the beach.

“Guld sent his shield?”, Yri commented.

“Edward asked to be here. He was close to Kaija after all. He is my shield for the time being.”

“I see. It is an honour to have a shield. I congratulate you.”

“Thank you.”

“What about the letter?”, Oskar wondered.

“Ida has it. She insisted that I leave at once and took care of that piece of business herself. Is Sylvia here?”

“No. She apparently had some other plan. She rode out before us”, Tone said.

Una looked between Oskar and Theodorus.

“Hey, do not blame me. That was all Oskar”, Theodorus defended.

“Thanks for the backup”, Oskar said sarcastically.

“You should not have let her ride out on her own. It is far too dangerous”, Yri reprimanded yet again.

“She is not alone. Afi is with her”, Oskar repeated tiredly.

Yri scoffed. “Right. Leave it to the Wolf to protect her.”

“He is her shield”, Oskar argued.

Yri did not listen. She focused on Una instead “I want to talk to the head of each troop. We attack tonight. No torches on deck or by the siege. We want them blind and defenceless. Let us rip their damned throats out once and for all.”

“Right away”, Una confirmed.

Yri shot Oskar another glare and then walked back to the baker’s tent to instruct Bothilder.

“She has some anger issues”, Theodorus commented.

“I would as well if my older sister was dead”, Una defended.

“I would not”, Theodorus jested.

“Never stop being creepy”, Una teased, before turning her horse around.

She herded the leaders of all of Guld’s troops to Yri for instruction and split the rest of the soldiers between ships and land. She also made a point of warning them about the sticky fire which would be used in the initial attack. The patchwork army remained hidden in the woods until it was completely dark. In the middle of the night, they rolled the catapults out onto the field and began bombardment. When the walls crumbled, the expansive calvary charged. Volleys of sticky fire hit first. The clash of swords followed not long after. In the meantime, the ships came around to the harbour and let foot soldiers strike from the very heart of the city. The battle was over before dawn.

Yri stepped onto and over a dead Wolf. “These Guldhamn solders are not half bad. I was worried they might have gone soft with all the tea and sweet rolls.”

“We train daily”, Edward said irritably.

“I am sure you do”, Yri smiled, patting him on the shoulder. Looking around, she sighed. “I am going to make an educated guess and say that the mayor we picked last time is dead. It seems to be a rather dangerous job in this city. I wonder who I can convince to take on the responsibility this year.”

“There is no line of succession?”, Oskar wondered.

“Not any more. The late mayor—I mean, the one before this latest—had a son. Said son was killed along with him and hung from the wall. A man with no family volunteered after that. I did not see any corpse on display, so I do not know what the Wolves did this time around. I hope he died well. I rather enjoyed his company.”

“Maybe the late mayor’s cousin would take his place?”, Bothilder suggested. “He is clever enough, and loyal to a fault. No children, either, so he should not fear retribution against—”

Edward tackled Oskar to the ground. An arrow soared past them. Yri lifted her arbalest and looked around. Tone and Edward hurried to pull Oskar to his feet. A woman dressed in black jumped from the roof of a nearby house. Yri let a bolt fly. The woman in black ducked out of the way.

“Assassin!”, Tone called.

Tone and Edward drew swords and positioned themselves in front of Oskar. Oskar drew his axe and took a step backwards.

“Stay!”, Theodorus called. “Remember what I told you!”

Oskar froze. He stayed right behind Tone. The hollow reached the trio and drew daggers from folds in her clothing. Una shot an arrow, which lodged itself in the hollow’s left shoulder, but it did not stop her from attacking with her right hand. Tone parried her dagger and kicked her in the stomach to gain some ground. Before Edward could retaliate, Theodorus appeared behind their assailant.

Theodorus threw a cord around the assassin’s throat and pulled it tight. In a surprising feat of strength, he lifted the hollow off her feet by the neck. She kicked for Theodorus and then flipped her dagger around in her hand, pulling her arm back to bury it in his side. Theodorus did not flinch. He held on tight. The thin cord cut into the cloth around the hollow’s neck, staining it with blood. The hollow drew the dagger back out and stabbed higher up. Theodorus lost his grip and both of them tumbled sideways through the yard.

On his feet again a split second later, Theodorus positioned himself between the hollow and her target. He held his arms out to his sides in a taunting manner. The hollow approached at a calm pace. Yri lodged a bolt in her side, but she kept walking. When she was close enough, her and Theodorus moved at the same time, each burying a dagger in the other’s stomach. Theodorus closed the distance and banged his head against hers to throw her off balance. As soon as she hit the ground, he crouched down and stabbed her in the heart. He paused to check that she was truly dead. Relieved, he let go of the dagger and collapsed beside the corpse.

Oskar and Tone ran over to Theodorus. Una took a moment to scan the surrounding roofs for any further rangers, before she joined them. Theodorus fumbled for something under his clothes. Tone kneeled down and pulled Theodorus’s cloak aside. He tugged at the black cloth tied around Theodorus’s chest.

“Which one?”

“Blue”, Theodorus managed.

Finding a vial with a blue liquid inside, Tone took it. Theodorus lifted a hand to his face, tugging at his face guard. Tone forced a knee under Theodorus’s head and pulled the stopper out of the vial. He held it to Theodorus’s lips and administered it. Theodorus swallowed hard and sighed. He let his head hang.

Oskar took a hold of his shoulder. “Theo. Theo, stay with me. Theo!”

“Ritva!”, Yri called.

Ritva was already underway. She hurried over with a flask of spirit, moss, and plenty of rags. The group worked together to remove Theodorus’s clothes and armour to reveal the wounds. Oskar made sure the owl mask did not slip off his face in the process. Yri poured alcohol over the wounds and Theodorus gave a light whine.

“Still alive, hm? Try to stay that way”, Yri teased.

She pressed moss on the wounds like Sylvia had explained, and bandaged Theodorus tightly to stem the bleeding.

“Sylvia”, Theodorus whispered.

“If anyone can help, it is her”, Yri agreed.

“Tone. Ride with him—”, Oskar began.

“No”, Yri objected. “He is your shield and needs to stay at your side, especially with this creep out of the picture. Besides, he does not know the land well enough. He will be much too slow. Bothilder. You are on your own with this.”

Bothilder nodded. “Where to?”

Oskar dug in his pockets. He produced a heavy black emblem with a map of Nyberg etched into it. “In Nyberg. There is a silverwood tree in the woods. Sylvia said that this map is old, but that it should lead there just fine.”

Bothilder looked at it closely, then pocketed it, and crouched down. He scooped Theodorus into his arms. Ritva provided him with a small cart and a rested horse to pull it, and sent them on their way with Maher in tow.

Oskar leaned against the nearest wall. He looked around and sighed tiredly.

“Are you okay?”, Tone asked softly.

“I am fine. It is just all this death. It nauseates me” Oskar waved at the bloodbath around them. “Maybe we should have just have let Jannes Gunn in.”

“Are you kidding? You would want a traitor like that on your council?”, Una asked.

“Maybe he would not have turned a traitor that way.”

“Are you serious?”, Tone asked, clearly affronted.

“Think about it. In principle, of course I would not want him anywhere near the Crown, but look how many lives it cost us to refuse him.”

“You are actually serious”, Tone said, baffled by the realisation.

“He has a point”, Edward argued. “This is a lot of bloodshed to upkeep a principle. I am not sure it is worth killing that many to keep one leech at bay.”

“We did not do this!”, Tone yelled. “He did! And that is exactly why he should not be anywhere near our king!”

Everyone quieted, watching Tone wide eyed.

“I cannot believe you”, Tone said with disgust. Shaking his head, he waved a hand and stomped away.

“He is really pissed”, Edward commented.

“I have never heard Father shout”, Una said baffled.

Oskar sighed deeply and looked around at the corpses again. “Maybe he is right.”

“He is”, Una stated.

“I see his point, but I am not sure I agree entirely”, Edward shrugged. “Of course the killing of these citizens is an atrocity, but I am not so sure that killing droves of Wolves is any less of a waste. They are human too.”

“Yes, Wolves are human, but they are humans who kill, plunder, rape, and torture innocent people. Killing a Wolf is a net positive”, Una said. “Besides, they killed Kaija. That is why you are even here. Right?”, she added sharply.

“Point taken”, Edward said quietly.

Una headed back to camp and got out of her armour. She realised that her comment had been a low blow. She hoped Edward had not taken offence. If anything, she owed him after what just happened. Honour commanded she make it right. Combing her hair and tying it up neatly again, she left her tent and went looking for him.

Finding Edward by the baker’s tent, Una walked over and bowed low. “Edward. Thank you for saving my liege.”

“You are welcome.”

“I am in your debt”, Una said earnestly.

“Oh, no, I do not wish for that”, Edward waved it off.

Surprised, Una met his eyes. “You do not?”

“King or not, I protected one of our own. I do not need any further reward for that.”

“I disagree”, Una said.

“Clearly”, Edward smiled. Resting his chin on a hand, he smirked, “If you want to pay me back so badly, find me something to soothe the nerves and we will call it even.”

“That I can do”, Una agreed. She went to Ritva and bought a bottle of sweetened wine. Returning to the baker’s tent, she handed the bottle to Edward. She even made a point of getting Kjell to provide an extra ladle of soup for Edward. Bowing again, she gave thanks one final time.

“Come, join me”, Edward urged. “While being bowed to is pleasant at times, I would much rather have your company as an equal.”

Una settled down at his side and deflated in a tired sigh.

“Agreed”, Edward grumbled.

He opened the bottle and took a generous swing before handing it over to Una to share. He watched closely as Una brought the mouth of the bottle to her lips. “You have beautiful eyes”, he complimented.

Swallowing hard, Una handed the wine back. “Thanks. Can I blame the blush on the alcohol already?”

“I do not think there is a rule against it”, Edward jested. “I will blame my forwardness on it as well then”, he added, before taking another swing.

Una chuckled. She accepted a bowl of porridge from Even and ate slowly. It was nice enough, and hunger made everything taste better, but it was not the same as Frida’s cooking. She finished her meal and then sighed again.

“A lot on your mind?”, Edward asked.

“A lot of death”, Una responded. She met his eyes. “I am sorry for what I said earlier. Kaija mentioned that you were like a brother to her.”

“Yea. Her mother took care of me when I was little. We were like sisters back then.”

“Heida Thoruns raised you?”

Edward nodded. “And yet I am a terrible shot. Can you believe that? She was very frustrated with me.”

Una laughed at that.

Edward peered over his shoulder in the general direction of the city. “I heard she died here just last year. She always said she would die serving Thorun. Guess she was right.”

“Do you miss her?”

Edward shrugged. “How am I supposed to answer that?”

“Sorry”, Una mumbled.

“It is okay. I knew this day would come. Heida made sure all her children know exactly what it means to serve. When you give an oath, you make your sacrifice. You life is given. While I was never very close with Bothilder, I am glad to still have him as my brother, but he too will leave one day. And some day it will be me who dies, and my soul will return to Gaia. It is not something to lament. The magic in all of us is part of our prayers. We go, but our magic will always keep enabling our descendants. Those of us who give an oath enable our liege even after death. That is the natural order of things.”

“That is beautiful”, Una commented. “I wish I believed it.”

“Which part of it do you doubt?”

Una shrugged. It took a moment before she found a suitable answer. “I doubt it matters.”

“What do you mean?”

“So what if the magic in our souls floats about as part of Gaia again? It is just magic. It is not you or me or anyone. It is not a person, not a soul, not any more. It is just raw magic. It is the same bullshit as our bodies becoming part of the ground again, and then some tree grows where someone died, and people start talking to it like it can hear them. It is a tree. A body decomposed and fertilized the soil. There is no soul there, no person. It is delusional to think we can hold on to those who have died. They are simply gone. We only tell ourselves that to make it hurt less when life demands sacrifices.”

“I refuse to believe that”, Edward said.

“Clearly.”

Edward shared another swing of wine with Una. “Whom is it you miss so much?”, he asked.

“What are you on about?”

“You speak about death like you have given it a great deal of thought. With everything that has happened, I assume a loss caused you to ponder these things.”

“I guess”, Una admitted.

“You came to a rather cynical conclusion”, Edward said.

“She was cynical in nature”, Una shrugged. “Cynical and ferocious, and so unbelievably sexy. On a night like this, I would have been on my knees already if she were still here.”

Edward chuckled. He leaned in and whispered, “How about we find some privacy?”

“I sure could use the distraction”, Una agreed. “Do not expect anything more to come off it.”

“A distraction sounds perfect”, Edward smiled.