A LEGACY OF LIGHT

TILLA

TILLA

The hall had fallen.

Tilla screamed through flame, swung her sword, and cut a man. A column cracked beside her. A bearded warrior howled, charged her way, and their swords clanged. The walls shook. Fire burned.

The hall had fallen.

"Fall back!" somebody screamed behind her. "Up the stairs--into the tower!"

Tilla could not even turn around to seek the stairs. Warriors rushed all around her. Axehands fought at her sides, axes swinging and black robes fluttering. She had lost Erry and Mae; had they died? Bodies lay across the hall. Blood flowed around boots. Men screamed and blades swung.

I'm going to die here, Tilla thought. The hall has fallen. I'm going to die.

One soldier, a tanner from Cadport, tried to shift into a dragon. He ballooned in size, only crushing himself between the columns, floor, and low ceiling. Swords slammed into his flesh, and the dragon screamed, then returned to human form--a butchered boy, belly slashed open. The legionaries fell all around, their insignia only hours old on their armbands, and their blood washed the floor.

And I will fall with them.

The clock chimed above her five times. Dawn was near, a last light before the darkness.

We die at dawn, Tilla thought. She held her sword before her. A new day rises; an empire falls.

"Fall back!" the voice shouted behind. "Tilla, with me!"

Swords swung at Tilla. She parried blow after blow. She could not turn around, not without letting the enemy slay her. She walked backward, blocking attacks. Axehands screamed around her, clashing against the resistors, swinging the axes strapped to their stumps. Tilla kept retreating. Her boots slammed into a corpse; she stepped upon the dead man and kept moving.

"Tilla!"

Somebody grabbed Tilla's arm, and she spun around and raised her sword. Her heart thrashed and she screamed in rage, prepared to kill. But the hand grabbing her belonged to Erry.

"Erry!" she said. "Bloody stars, you're alive!"

The scrawny urchin looked half dead. Blood matted her short brown hair. Her face, normally tanned bronze, was ashen. Welts rose across her left temple.

"To the stairs!" Erry said. "Come with me, Tilla."

"Where's Mae?" Tilla shouted.

"I don't know! I think she fled with the others. The emperor is leading us north. Come on!"

Erry tugged and Tilla ran with her. Soldiers and resistors fought all around. The two Black Roses--if they still belonged to a phalanx at all now--leaped over bodies and onto the staircase. Blood stained the steps. The two young women ran, and behind them resistors screamed, and boots thudded.

"Take the stairs!" howled a voice below--the rough voice of the enemy. "Don't let them escape. Up the stairs! Death to Cadigus!"

"Dirty dog bottoms!" Erry cursed as she raced upstairs. "Stars, Tilla, did you think it would end like this?"

"We're not dead yet!" she shouted back. "Run!"

They raced up the spiraling steps. The battle cries echoed behind them. Swords clanged.

Pain flared on her calf. Tilla yelped and spun to see a resistor; his blade had nicked her. With a scream, Tilla swung her sword down, cleaving his hand. She kicked, and the resistor tumbled backward, crashing into men behind him.