“You’re imagining things,” High Lord Phrygius answered. “There’s no bloody dent.”

“Well, something’s not right.”

“Yes,” said High Lord Placida in a patient tone. “You slept in it again. You aren’t young enough to keep doing that, Raucus. You’ve injured your shoulder joint, likely.”

“I’m young enough to toss your short ass right off this wall,” Raucus snapped back. “We’ll see whose joint gets injured.”

“Boys, boys,” Placidus Aria said. “Please don’t set a bad example for the other children.”

Ehren, standing well behind the High Lords, was too self-contained to smile. But he rocked back and forth on his heels in silent amusement before turning his head to cast a wink at Amara.

She rolled her eyes at him in response and stepped up to stand beside Lady Placida. They stared out at the wide-open plain rolling out of the mouth of the Calderon Valley, a sea of gently rising and falling green. The sun had risen bright, the day fair. Crows had been wheeling overhead for days, first in dozens, then hundreds, and now in thousands. They cast a steady stream of flickering shadows over the earth. The enemy had used them to drop takers into Aleran defensive positions before—now any such attempt would be thwarted by the earth furies on constant patrol among the Aleran forces, which had created a side benefit of all but exterminating the rats, slives, and other vermin that tended to haunt garbage piles around a Legion position.

Let the vord try to use the crows against them again. Calderon was ready.

“Countess,” Lady Placida said. “I believe I heard Lady Veradis tell you to sleep for at least twelve hours.”

“Which is ridiculous,” Amara replied. “It was just a broken wrist.”

“And several injuries from Riva, I believe,” Lady Placida said.

“She only told me twelve because she knew I needed six,” Amara said.

“A most excellent rationale.”

“Thank you,” Amara said gravely. After a moment, she said, “I have to be here. He still can’t talk very clearly. Interpreting for him could be important.”

“I understand,” Lady Placida said. She turned to face Amara, her lovely face calm and hardly showing the weariness Amara knew she had to be feeling. “Countess... should we win this battle, not all of us are going to survive it. Should we lose, none of us will.”

Amara glanced away, out at the plain, and nodded.

Lady Placida took a step forward and put a hand on Amara’s shoulder. “I am just as mortal as anyone else. There is something I would say to you, in case there’s not another chance.”

Amara frowned and nodded.

“I owe you my life, Countess,” Aria said, simply. “It has been my honor to have known you.”

Tears stung Amara’s eyes. She tried to smile at the High Lady, stepped closer, and embraced her. “Thank you. I feel the same way.”