“Victory is nothing more than the longest method of defeat.”

— Isabella the Mad, Proceran general

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My second day in the Second Siege of Summerholm dawned with a visit to the outer walls.

The crowds usually encamped directly outside the fifty-foot aegis had fled to the safety of the city with the arrival of the Legions. The streets were close to empty despite that. Only soldiers patrolled the road, and yet no matter where I went I could feel the accusing eyes of thousands follow me from behind the shutters.

The Reluctant Strategist had her troops enforcing an edict preventing war refugees from staying on the streets. She had insisted that the few nobles remaining in Summerholm make room for them in their estates. The complaints against the edict had lasted until the first noble was evicted from the fortress city. It wasn’t only the nobility who had been forced to accommodate the influx of refugees. I was told that there were more than thrice the number of people there should be within the walls.

An air of desperation pervaded Summerholm.

I smiled in spite of it.

A part of me was worried, but that worry shrank like a shadow at dawn from having seen Mabli the evening before. I’d met the silver haired woman in the war room, pacing back and forth before the maps on the table. She appeared not a day younger than sixty, and yet there was a life to her every action. Her gestures were fluid, animated in a way that I hadn’t seen before.

It was enough to convince me that she had a plan.

It was enough to convince me that perhaps there was a chance we could still claw victory from the jaws of defeat.

“Can’t we just head back?” Abigail twitched and scratched at her delicate nose, examining the road ahead. “The palace is safer.”

“You’ll need to show me the palace tannery,” I mused, “I haven’t seen it.”

We passed the blackened remains of a two-storey building that had been torched by Legion sympathizers within the fortress only two days past. The acrid smell of smoke still clung to every inch of the surroundings. It wasn’t the only sign of the pressure we were all under. It wasn’t the only place to have burned.

“The same place as your survival instinct,” she snapped and glared at me from my right.

“Ah, missing then,” I scratched at the black leather jerkin I wore. The gods damned thing itched something fierce.

“We could also stop at the nearby tavern,” she tried again, “you know there’s a small group our age that meets there.”

I blinked at the suggestion. It was one of her better attempts to distract me from our mission. We’d gone there a few times before when the hours were long, and I’d had nothing else to do.

“This has nothing to do with the fact that Mabli will only punish me for not showing up,” I commented.

“Nothing at all,” she flushed and turned away.

“Naturally. Come on, Abby,” I tugged on her hand, “we’re almost there.”

We passed another watchtower and reached an intersection right before the base of the last watchtower right before the main gate. Abigail stopped fidgeting with the arm pads of her jerkin, let go of my hand, then faded into my shadow.

“Don’t let them see me,” she whispered.

I raised an eyebrow and peered towards the building again. Three oddly familiar guards stood beside a bench with the hands on the polished pommels of their swords beside the watchtower door. It took me a moment to place where I’d seen them before.

“You’re a bit too tall to hide in my shadow.”

“There’s plenty of room to hide here,” she shifted from one foot to another. I heard her take another step backwards. I knew without glancing that she was fidgeting with her hair.

“Let’s visit them,” I took one step forward and Abigail’s mouth began to run.

“I’ll be in so much trouble if they see me again,” she howled, “they’ll probably-”

My mouth twitched.

“-and their punishment duty is your fault not mine, but I got-”

I bit down on my lower lip.

“-I didn’t mean for them to hear that they had fewer wits than laces if they didn’t see me sneak inside but-”

She’s still going on.

“-and I spent a week cleaning their boots, do you have any idea how filthy-”

“Abigail,” I interrupted.

“-not even my cousins smell that bad after three weeks without bathing and-”

“Abigail!” I exclaimed.

The tirade petered out.

“What?” Abigail wrung her hands together.

“There’s no need to panic,” I reassured her.

“We’re staying away then?” her head perked up and she beamed. “Or how about circling around? We could go through that ally over-”

“Don’t be silly” I replied. “The staircase is past the watchtower,” I grabbed her hand again and tugged. “Come on.”

“More evidence that we should return to the inner city,” she grumbled, but allowed herself to be pulled along.

“-this rate, soon we’ll be eating rats,” a guard with black hair and a curly moustache complained. “There are slim spoils to be found.”

“Don’t you know it, Steve,” another replied. “Pay’s gone up, but even the price of bread has tripled. Merchants won’t haggle. Nothing has-”

The man’s voice cut off as he glared towards Abigail. She pressed herself against my side.

“I suggest the two of you go cause trouble somewhere else,” he scowled.

“Trouble?” I blinked, “wouldn’t dream of it.”

“That’s a fat lot of lies,” the blonde giant spat. “Why, the last time I saw her she-”

“Ah, Bertrand,” Steve said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. That girl’s-”

“Not going to be allowed to cause mischief a second time,” Bertrand interrupted.

“We’ve business somewhere else,” I fingered my dagger, “unless you have some other reason to keep us?”

“I think we do,” he lumbered towards me and folded his arms. “Can’t think of any reason for two little girls to be snooping around here.” he leaned in close and breathed down my neck, “Walls are off limits. I’m sure my captain would-”

“Bertrand,” Steve tried a second time, “that’s not a good-”

What is that smell?

“Catherine,” a voice I hadn’t heard in a long time interrupted, “got a problem here?”

“Only this one,” I poked the soldier’s chain mail vest and smiled at Sullivan, “the other two aren’t stupid enough to delay my meeting on the walls.”

“So we have someone who thinks she’s funny,” the guard snarled. “That won’t save you from justice when-”

“Why not?” I interrupted, “it does most of the time.”

“Well, not this time,” he declared. “This time you’ll get the punishment you deserve. I swear it.”

“I’m the Novice,” I declared, “and you’re about to be down two limbs and crying on the ground if you keep holding me up.”

He froze for a moment, before smiling at me.

“A likely story,” his fingers closed around my left shoulder. “But I’m not going to let the-”

Abigail retreated from my shadow. Shadows danced at the edge of my vision. Their chorus whispered to me. Whispered, and promised to make my troubles disappear. It was a constant hunger, a need to satiate them.

Don’t answer their call.

I listened to the voice and ignored the syrupy song. For once, it was easy. A fight like this didn’t call for them. I twisted, reached up and slammed my open palm against his arm. There was a crack as it slammed backwards. My leg rose. He doubled over as it crashed into his groin. My other hand rose and slammed into his forehead.

The blonde giant fell sprawling on the ground. He whimpered. I stepped away and examined the other guards. Both of them avoided meeting my eyes.

“You two,” I pointed towards them, “Clean up this mess. I’ve got other things to do.”

“You could have just gone with and explained the situation to his superior,” Abigail muttered.

They heeled and toed it so fast with Bertrand carried between them that for a moment I wondered if they had been there at all.

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“That was almost cruel to watch,” Sullivan clapped his hands. “I think I’ll give that man my sympathies.”

Abigail stepped beside me again, although something was off about her. I spared a glance her way. Her eyes kept twitching. Up, then down, then up again. She shook her head, then scowled.

“The ghost returns,” I smiled at him. “Haven’t seen you in so long that I’d forgotten you exist.”

“That happens,” I felt a prickle on the back of my neck, “somebody’s gone up in the world.”

“I’d recommend doing the same,” Abigail and I started towards the walls, “it beats starving.”

Sullivan fell into step beside us. His pace matched my own.

“Great,” Abigail muttered, “now there’s two of them.”

“There are dozens of us,” Sullivan crowed before examining Abigail, “I don’t remember you.”

“I’m nobody important,” Abigail whimpered.

I swear, sometimes she’s as nervous as a page at a council meeting.

“People here are so jumpy nowadays,” I drawled.

There was a rattle as I reached up, grabbed the rusted iron handle and opened the heavy set oak door into the gatehouse.

“The Black Knight offered to leave the citizens of Summerholm be provided they cast out the rebels,” Sullivan replied.

Considering the sentiment towards the rebellion, that just might be tempting.

“Of course he did,” my stomach churned as we passed a pair of off duty guards drinking at a table and ascended the narrow fight of stairs at the opposite end of the room. “I don’t think you were ordered to follow us around.”

“I wasn’t,” he answered cheerfully. “Just finished my inspection of the sewer defences.”

“Explains the smell,” Abigail whispered to herself.

“They’re as shit as usual?” I confirmed.

“They’re as clean as an orc’s cook pot,” he fell away from our side as we reached the second floor. “I’m reporting, then washing up.”

I don’t know if that’s clean or filthy.

“What has you so jumpy?” I asked my friend.

“There’s something wrong about him,” Abigail shuddered as he left. “He’s the type of person you ask for help with hiding a body.”

“Somebody you can trust?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Not that kind of person,” she denied.

We continued up the stairs in silence. It wasn’t long before the frigid teeth of the early morning wind was nipping at our heels. Soldiers spared us little more than a glance before continuing their patrol of the walls. I kept my eyes pinned to the parapet. It was better than looking at the drop.

The Reluctant Strategist stood with a telescope pressed to one eye atop the battlements, facing towards the west. Her exposed arms rested against the crenellations. They looked more like parchment than flesh and bone. Beside her stood two figures. The first was a hooded and silent man that I recognized but didn’t personally know. The man was shrouded in a brown cloak. He was one of the Watch sent as support by Duchess Kegan. The second was a bald man clad in a polished mail that I knew well and avoided at every chance that I got. Edric, the Learned Tactician.

“Catherine,” she turned as we approached, “Abigail. Good.”

“What are we here for?” I inquired.

“This is Brennan,” she introduced the hooded man, “he’s the leader of the Watch contingent.”

The silent figure turned my way. He said something in the Old Tongue, then realized I didn’t understand what he said.

“I was told that you were here to learn,” his bloodless lips frowned. “There isn’t much to you.”

“For people who spend so long on a wall,” I met his gaze, “it doesn’t surprise me that you look down on everyone else.”

I could almost feel his sapphire eyes carve me up one slice at a time.

“You have fire, at least.” His voice sounded like the beating of a drum. “Pray that it is enough to see you through the days to come.”

“Enough pleasantries. Abigail and Catherine,” Mabli gestured towards the wall, “both of you tell me what you think.”

I stood on my toes and leaned over the crenellations. My fingers tried to dig holes into the wall as I stared out over the killing fields. It took me a few moments to realize what I was looking at. What must have been a hundred ogres formed up in four loose lines with some space between each of them. The ogres were close enough to the walls that we could easily see them, but still out of bow range. There were boulders piled to either side of the ogres. A man in plain steel armour sat on a horse in the middle of their ranks.

It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing.

The Dread Empire of Praes was taunting us.

“So,” I said, “the Black Knight. There and waiting for us. I take it there’s a reason you haven’t given the order?”

“Where are all the soldiers?” Abigail rubbed her hands together as she asked from my right.

“Soldiers?” my eyes traced the path pointed out by her finger.

The Legion camps in the distance were empty.

“They marched north in the early hours of the morning,” Mabli explained. “The five Legions encamped on the opposite side of the city remain there.”

I considered what I was looking at. I’d been learning strategy from Mabli and I could tell that she was offering this as a challenge to the both of us. Retreating made no sense. Not unless the Black Knight knew something that we didn’t. The Faithful Warrior’s force was due to arrive later today, and now there was almost a clear path between them and the city walls. Perhaps the Black Knight was planning to allow them all in and then starve us out? Why did he leave the ogres, though? That made no sense. Not unless…

“It looks too good to be true,” Abigail muttered. “It’s a trap.”

“That’s not the Black Knight,” I guessed.

Or is it? I’m not sure.

“The Faithful Warrior will see the ogres and attack when he arrives,” Abigail continued, “Then the Legions will attack them from behind.”

I didn’t think that was it. There was something still missing. This was giving the Faithful Warrior the opportunity to take apart what’s left of the Legion camp. That, or to use them for himself against the Legions.

“The camp is trapped with Goblin Fire,” Mabli explained her thoughts. “The ogres are there for two reasons. The first is to lower the morale of everyone on the walls. The second is to prevent us from inspecting it ourselves. They’ll pull away when they sight the Faithful Warrior’s forces.”

Standing at fifteen feet tall, they’d see any reinforcements heading our way long before those forces seen the ogres in turn. The Faithful Warrior would arrive and see the opportunity to dismantle the deserted camp. An opportunity that he wouldn’t turn away from. His troops would enter the camp then start tearing it apart, and at some point the trap would be triggered.

“I’d be sending archers out right now if I was the one in charge,” I drawled.

“The ogres threw boulders back at them when it was tried,” Mabli sounded amused.

“Why haven’t you sent out a harrying force?”

“That is what we are here to discuss,” Mabli cast a stern look in my direction. “The Warlock is waiting for a large enough target to rain hell-fire down on.”

Over the past year, Mabli had made me study the actions of the Calamities. They only ever raised the stakes after their opponents had done so first. I didn’t understand why, but for now we could count on Summerholm remaining uncooked. They would resort to conventional warfare first and foremost. The only question that remained was why we had been summoned here. Most of what we were looking at could be explained without calling us to the walls. I didn’t need to actually see the ogres unless I was expected to…

“Are trying to send me to an early grave?” I snorted. “There’s no way I can fight that many ogres alone.”

“The only reason I invited you here is to continue your lessons,” she denied. “I’m sending the Learned Tactician.”

I blinked in surprise.

“You don’t want me to help with this?” I asked, “Then why did you invite me here?”

“Because I needed to review this front,” she grunted. “There is so much that demands my attention now that I have to do more than one task at a time.”

I closed my mouth and felt a strange knot in my stomach. What was it?

“Wouldn’t it be smarter to send a messenger out on horseback, ma'am?” Abigail asked.

It took a moment for me to identify the sensation. Disappointment. I’d really thought I’d be sent out on this mission, even though it was a bad idea.

“Clever girl,” the aged commander praised. “We tried, all eight of them died to sorcery.”

“I’m really not fighting?” I asked.

“You’re staying out of this,” Mabli confirmed.

“But-”

“That’s an order,” she said it in the same tone of voice she used when executing soldiers.

“What if that really is the Black Knight?” I bristled and glared at her.

“Yes, what?” she gazed at me meaningfully. “What are you going to do?”

I wanted to say that I could fight him. That the Learned Tactician wasn’t able to manipulate the shadows like I could. That I was our best bet at fighting him. I knew that she knew what I could do and yet… I still couldn’t say as much.

“Give it a rest, kid,” Edric commiserated. “We do what must be done, not what we want.”

“Easy for you to say when you’re not being tossed aside.” I glowered.

“Mark my words,” he reassured me, “there will be opportunities aplenty for you to do your duty before this matter is done.”

I turned my back towards the ogres and waited while the others continued to talk.

“The Watch sent sixty of their number to our aid,” Mabli paused. “They will be under Edric’s command and benefit from his wisdom.”

“What if the unexpected happens?” I inquired.

“A relieving force led by the Loyal Aegis will be sent to their defence,” she gave me a consoling smile.

At least it meant that I wasn’t the only one who would be sitting the fight out. The Stalwart Defender and Loyal Aegis wouldn’t be participating unless something went wrong. They were both better at holding defensive positions than at launching offensive assaults. Their talents would be more useful if the Ogres could be baited into attacking somewhere else. The Legion soldiers were disciplined and unlikely to fall for such a ruse, but it was being considered for contingencies.

I listened with one ear open as they continued to plan and occasionally threw in a word. It was an hour later before Abigail and I were dismissed. My stomach churned. I knew that I should remain uninvolved. That Mabli wanted me to remain uninvolved. But… she’d told me not to do something and meant the opposite before, right?

Can I keep my secret hidden in a fight between a hundred ogres and sixty members of the Watch?

This was the closest Mabli had come to outright giving me an order. Well, she had given me an order. It was just the first time that I was sure she actually meant it. Was I really considering going against it? Involving myself in the fight was risky. The ogres were clad from head to toe in polished steel. A lot went unnoticed in the heat of the battle but against enemies like this… I didn’t like the odds.

That’s right, make the smart choice.

The trouble was that this was a chance for me to do something important. What if it really was the Black Knight and something went wrong? Sixty members of the Watch was a small force. So small that even the smallest of mistakes could send it spiralling out of control. There were less watch members than ogres. I didn’t know what the Watch could do. I also wasn’t willing to bet the safety of Callow on their competence, even if it looked like they felt comfortable with the odds.

Mabli has a plan.

The plan could go wrong.

It will go wrong if you interfere with it.

I could save it, too.

There was a chance if I relied on anger instead of blood loss to fuel the shadows, then I could remain in control. It was less reliable, but I couldn’t risk anything else. What could I do? Perhaps I could send shadows along the ground? Nobody would be looking down during the heat of combat. Then the shadows could rise up and bind them from beneath their armour.

No, don’t make this mistake.

I didn’t like ignoring the voice in my head.

The success of the mission mattered too much for me to listen to it.

I could do this. I just needed to remain unnoticed. So long as nothing went wrong, I didn’t need to step in at all. And if something did go wrong, then I could stick to restraining enemies. I didn’t need to attack them directly to contribute.