He continues his raving, but the same voice of authority from before shouts over him, barking orders at the mustered Skrain to form ranks. In moments they’re advancing from the center of the encampment toward the fighting outside the Savage quarter.

Evie looks to Mother Manai, who nods her head. The adrenaline is causing a deafening rush inside Evie’s ears, as if someone is banging stones together inside her head. The Savages appear to be doing what they do best, creating chaos and drawing the enemy into false skirmishes designed to whittle their numbers, weaken their position, and scatter their forces. Even if small pockets of the Skrain have managed to ascertain the situation and form limited ranks, they’ll still find themselves in the middle of a disorganized battle, outnumbered and surrounded by a world on fire.

The Savage Legion is bred to thrive in the center of chaos.

If the rest of her plan is unfolding as expected, the Sicclunan shadow warriors should be attacking the camp from the southeast while the B’ors fighters attack from the north, their ultimate goal to drive whatever number of Skrain they don’t take by complete surprise toward the center of camp, where they will be trapped between the three separate forces.

Evie and Mother Manai find a blind spot between two large tents that have remained untouched by the fires. The volleys of flaming arrows, meanwhile, have stopped falling above the encampment; now that the full assault has begun the collective forces of the Sicclunans, Savages, and B’ors don’t want arrows striking their own warriors. The two women aren’t immediately visible from either end of the small pass, and though it’s a good spot to remain unnoticed until the final phase of the battle, they have no intention of hiding.

Instead, they wait, weapons at the ready. Soon enough a trio of Skrain soldiers comes trotting between the tents, the scales of their armor bouncing and jostling loudly as they move. Evie and Mother Manai press themselves into the tents on either side of the pass, waiting. When the three soldiers move between them they strike, Evie slicing through the backs of the nearest pair of knees with her sword while Mother Manai rams the blade of her dagger between plates of armor around the first torso within reach.

The third soldier isn’t even given time to realize they’ve been attacked by what appears to be their own comrades. Evie removes a large portion of his throat with a powerful swing of her sword.

Behind her, Mother Manai has knelt over the soldier whose legs Evie disabled and is delivering the death blow with her dagger.