As redcloaks rushed past her in the opposite direction, Thaeolai sprinted through the dirt and mud to the medical tent. But just as she arrived, a flash of heat and light from the left caused her to flinch. Her eyes followed the flame. The tent to the north had caught ablaze, struck by flaming arrows. Her eyes went up. Sharp droplets of orange glowed and coasted in the air and arced in the sky. Then they came down.

There was the flit of torn fabric. Arrows descended on the tents as if burning hailstones. All at once, the flames roared and spread, and they climbed down the ceiling, to the walls and to the floor. Thaeolai staggered away from the snarling heat, lifting a hand to shield her face. As Isec reached her, he turned and grabbed two siephalls within reach.

“Stop, stop!!” Isec shouted. “Help us move the wounded!”

One of the siephalls was suddenly struck by an arrow, and so another within earshot took his place, ducking his head. Isec rushed to the tent flap, just beyond the reach of the flames. He turned to Thaeolai.

“Go, go!!”

Thaeolai entered the tent. Already, the flames had crept inside – stripes of deadly fire tearing the walls. She rushed to her bed and pocketed her poems and snowstone. Then she dashed to the other end of the tent, where the wounded lay.

Isec managed to grab two more siephalls, and he led them inside just before another flaming arrow struck the tent flap, cloaking the northern exit in blazing fire. Isec pushed them ahead.

“Each of you take as many as you can!” Isec yelled. “To the carriages on the south road, go!!”

One siephall lifted an unconscious soldier from a bed, while another limped alongside his shoulder. Another siephall rose from his bed and started screaming at the sight of the flames, while another tried to calm him. Thaeolai stirred as many as she could. When she came to the one called Khoulane, their eyes met, and he stood without help. Fear etched across his face, and nonetheless, he grabbed the sword that lay beside his bed.

Enough of them could move on their own. One of the wounded stood from his bed, when an arrow tore through the tent wall and severed his spine, and he folded. As soon as they got the men up, Isec started shouting again, an injured siephall propped against his side.

“Go!! Through the south door!!”

An unencumbered siephall led the way, sword at the ready, while Khoulane held the tent flap open. They filtered out one by one, heads bowing at the blades in the wind. One of the wounded stumbled. Thaeolai helped him back to his feet. Another hail of arrows cast over them, narrowly missing as the arrowtips dug into the dirt.

They ran south. Thaeolai glanced across the road. The camp was awash in blinding flames and pyres of orange. The siephalls that had once been running toward the battle now ran away. Cut down by the dozen. Along the perimeter of the camp, she saw scores of horsemen rushing to cut the soldiers off. From the rear, more approached – a stampede of hooves that shook the ground.

Now she glanced left. More siephalls ran south, but many of them were cut down when another volley swept through. As they fell, Thaeolai saw a quartet of horsemen charging directly into the camp, nocking arrows as they rode.

“Duck!!” She yelled instinctively.

The group fell to the ground in a synchronous swoon. Arrows speared through the air at lightning speed. Another one of the wounded was struck and let out a cry. The horsemen emerged in the firelight and gained pace. Thaeolai froze as they approached. They clustered together and charged toward the group, dark shadows against the flamelight, legs intent to trample. Thirty feet. Twenty feet. Ten…

The lead siephall stood and grabbed a burning support beam, and he threw it down with force. As sparks and embers flew, the beam crashed down and forced one of the horses off its feet. The horses crashed into one another, and several Midan riders fell to the ground. A lone rider circled around and disappeared farther up the road, while the three who fell rose up and unsheathed their blades. The siephall turned to Isec.

“Keep running! We’ll cover you!!”

The siephall stepped up to cover the rear flank, and Khoulane joined him, twirling his sword. There was the shriek and whine of metal against metal, and Thaeolai forced herself to turn away, as Isec led the wounded to the south. Another siephall joined him at the front, and they kept running – past rows of ruined tents, through fields of fire and fallen. The night air glowed.

Thaeolai’s eyes darted back and forth as they ran, but soon, the carriages came into view. They were just to the south, aligned in a caravan that stretched farther down the road. Another makeshift wooden barricade had been formed behind the final carriage, lined by Ardysi archers. Fleeing siephalls ran up the way in droves, as siekarums shouted assignments haphazardly.

Thaeolai started to look for Ucankacei – but just as she trained her eyes, the others halted in their tracks. The fourth Midan rider cut in front of them from the flame-stricken road, an arrow already nocked. A silhouetted shadow against the fiery blaze, a dark bringer of death – he let loose the fletched blade, and it embedded into the front siephall’s shoulder. The siephall grunted, but he stayed on his feet. He wound back his sword and charged the horseman, stabbing into the rider’s abdomen and sending him to the ground in a violent swerve. The horse bucked and fled. The siephall whirled around and shouted: “Go!!”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

And they ran again. The siephall stood once they were past, but as Thaeolai glanced over her shoulder, she saw him fall, an arrow in his back. There was no time to mourn. More riders were visible in the hellish flamefields beyond – too many to count. Like shades and wyrms, they snaked through the firelined passages. She turned and ushered the wounded ahead. Sharp rain swirled sideways in ravenous sheets.

They were almost the carriages now. The Ardysi archers returned fire, but they were steadily being cut down. Through the crowds of siephalls, a siekarum saw the wounded, and he gestured to them with a feverish arm.

“Into the back!!” the siekarum ordered. “Quickly!!”

Isec helped the siephall who carried two, and then he guided the wounded into the last armored carriage, one by one. On the other side, Thaeolai did the same. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another Ardysi archer fall to an unseen foe. She forced herself to keep her focus. She grabbed another siephall’s arm and lifted him into the carriage. And another. And another.

Soon, all of the wounded were inside, and before Thaeolai could say anything, Isec grabbed her arm and heaved her into the coach. As soon as she found her footing, she spun around and reached for Isec’s hand. Her fingers fumbled for a moment, so she clamped down and dug into his palm, wrenching him into the coach with her. An arrow swatted against the carriage body as Isec sat beside her.

Thaeolai peered past Isec, and she watched as one of the Ardysi archers lit the wooden barricade ablaze, blocking the road to the north. In the foreground, she saw the siekarum again. He faced south now, and he shouted down the road.

“That’s all!!” he bellowed as loud as he could. “Get ‘em moving!!”

Now the carriages jolted and began to move. The siekarum climbed onto the end of the carriage and grabbed the sheet metal door, and he started to pull it shut – when he stopped, staggered, and stumbled to a knee, arrows climbing up his spine.

As the carriage moved, the siekarum slid off the end and dragged his legs along the ground, while his hands grasped the metal casing. With wide and frightened eyes, the siekarum pleaded to Isec, and Isec reached for his hand – before another arrow lodged in the siekarum’s neck, and he let go of the carriage, rolling in the dirt behind them.

Now the carriages started to pick up speed. The remaining Ardysi archers chased after them, shouting hopelessly, but they soon fell, too. Another siephall reached for the sheet metal door’s handle. He started to pull it shut, when – from the flames in the distance – Thaeolai saw two more figures emerging.

It was Khoulane, and the other siephall who’d stayed back to guard their escape – both of them covered in soot and blood.

“Wait!!” Thaeolai yelled, her head whirling around as blonde strands covered her face. “Wait, we need to wait for them!!”

The demand fell on deaf ears. The carriages did not slow down. And so Thaeolai’s eyes whirled around again, and she watched in horror as the two siephalls sprinted after the carriages, on a long dirt road that only seemed to grow longer.

Slowly, they closed the gap, and Thaeolai stood. She leaned toward the opening. The others huddled away, and Isec tried to hold Thaeolai back, but she didn’t listen. She leaned forward past the cover of the carriage wall and cupped her hands around her mouth.

“Keep running!!” she pleaded as loud as her lungs allowed. “You can make it!!”

At the sound of her voice, they quickened their steps. Khoulane ducked an arrow and glanced behind him, eyes frantic. The other siephall swayed as he ran, trying to make his path unpredictable. It was only when they got close enough to the carriage that the siephall sped to a bolting pace, and made a direct lunge for the edge.

“You can make it!!” Thaeolai screamed, unconscious tears stinging her eyes.

The siephall just missed the edge, and he stumbled – but he quickly came to a sprint again and bounded toward the carriage. And with a prying hand, he managed to grab the metal wall. He planted a foot on the floor. Thaeolai held his arm. And as the siephall stabilized himself on the carriage’s edge, he turned back and stretched out a hand for Khoulane.

“C’mon!!” the siephall howled. “C’mon!!”

“C’mon, Khoulane!!” Thaeolai cried.

Khoulane ducked another arrow and lost his footing for a moment. In the distance, the Midan riders were making their way past the lit barricade. Khoulane clutched at his wound and lifted his eyes, and he sped up again, tethered just a few feet behind the running carriage. The siephall nodded to him furiously, reaching out as far as he could.

“You have to jump for it, c’mon!!”

The carriage’s speed climbed. Khoulane’s legs scampered against the dirt. He breathed and whimpered, and with one last desperate heave, he brought his legs beneath him and surged into the air.

The boy sprung and launched toward the carriage, and his hand clasped the siephall’s. His foot slipped off the slick metal as he landed, but the siephall secured Khoulane’s other arm and pulled him in, and they both fell to the floor.

The moment Khoulane landed inside the carriage, Thaeolai grabbed hold of the sheet metal door and slid it all the way shut with a grunt – just as another barrage of arrows scraped against it, hissing and sparking. And then she crumbled against the carriage wall – chest and back heaving, blonde hair amess over her face.

The horses sped to a gallop, and the armored carriages rode south. Thaeolai sat again, and as she did, she glanced at Khoulane and the other siephall. Still catching their breath, they each offered her a wordless nod. She nodded back.

It was only when she sat in the silence that Thaeolai noticed the trembling in her hands. She clenched her fists to try and stop it. It would not stop. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her throat shivered as she inhaled.

After a moment, her emerald eyes rose to the right. She peered through the small slats in the sheet metal. In the far distance, the riders had stopped – ghostly shadows visible against the backdrop of the camp.

The fires raged. The air was red.