KINGSLAYER

♕ 1 | 4 | 4 ♕

Her next call... It was not really a decision at all if it involved deciding which days her men would die on.

"Let the wounded stay behind. Bring the strong back here to fight another day."

Cannon fodder. That was what she was reducing her soldiers to. The wounded and weak would put up a fight, but they would all die. She could only hope their sacrifice would not make her lose all the rest.

♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕

The troops returned through Leontespiae's gates at sunset, worn and haggard despite being the strongest of the infantry. The archers brought up the rear of the group, their numbers closest to what they had originally been. From so far, Jaylah could not see any of her friends.

Faces passed, one after the other. They were none she knew.

What if they were dead? What if they were all dead and the only person Jaylah had to rely on was herself? Her heart was pained with horrible anticipation. She wanted to seek them out but knew she would not be able to handle it if they had not returned, if she learned she had left them behind on the battlefield as soon-to be corpses.

The only other person she had to speak with was Kostos, and she hated him for who he was not. Dwelling on Antinoch was worse than worrying if her friends might be gone. She had been so cruel and now it would be one of the great regrets that sat with her for the rest of her life. That could not happen again. Jaylah could not bear any more strain on her emotions.

She strode to the north wall, where the remaining soldiers had taken up camp in a thousand neat rows of tents on a field no longer used for farming. They had already lit fires under pots for dinner. Jaylah's guards had to duck under several soldiers carrying heaps of wood in their arms. She could not help but notice the cuts on their exposed skin, their limping gaits. A few had wicked burns over their faces. They might have been the best off, but they had taken a beating. She felt the need to comfort them, to tell them it was all going to be alright, because they were getting firearms soon. But nothing besides death was assured. She would comfort them, and then they would die all the same. Leaving her.

Jaylah needed someone to tell her that everything would turn out well, someone that truly believed it.

Because the tents were divided by rank and position, it was easy to find the archers' region. It was the smallest. Jaylah looked every which way, trying not to already feel hopeless. Most of the archers were male anyway. All she saw was them, no sign of—

There. A swish of long, thin braids. "Sonia," she called, hope swelling in her chest. She was not yet alone.

Sonia turned. Her eyes narrowed as she sought her pursuer among the mass of moving bodies and softened when they connected with Jaylah's. She walked forward, seemingly uninjured, and hefted her bucket of goods to her hip to immediately wrap an arm around Jaylah. Jaylah stiffened, but it was what she needed.

"The others," she croaked, Sonia's braids soft against her cheek. It was not so much a question as it was a plea.

"They..." Sonia seemed to be working herself up to say it, which only terrified her more. "They are in the tent on the corner. But..."

"What?" In Sonia's silence, Jaylah pulled away to see that she had tears dripping from her chin. Shaking her head as she wiped her eyes, the huntress beckoned for Jaylah to follow.

Her heart was in her throat when Sonia lifted the flap to admit her inside. Ghislaine's golden head was bowed, her hands over her face. Adelié was hugging her knees and biting her lip as if to stop it from trembling. Even normally hawk-eyed Zensa did not look up when they entered.

Margaux was not there.

"Where is she," Jaylah asked in the barest of whispers.

"Mar...she took an enemy arrow through the face," Adelié forced out. "It was—it was quick. She didn't feel the pain."

"I was right there." Ghislaine's voice was like gravel. "It was so chaotic that we made a promise to watch each other's backs. I failed her."

Jaylah clutched her arms tighter around herself. "It is not your fault. You could not have stopped a speeding arrow."

"She took it for me."

Jaylah's insides twisted further.

"Her body was caught by the handsome archer beside her," Zensa said, blinking slowly as she stared at the floor. "She would have liked that."

Despite the downturned ends of her lips, Adelié exhaled a snort through her nose. Sonia smiled through her tears. Ghislaine—lighthearted, jesting Ghislaine—was silent.

Jaylah remembered a hundred images. Margaux teasing the others, laughing at their disgruntled expressions. Margaux being the first to catch Ghislaine's body as she slumped out of her seat the night she was poisoned. Margaux throwing her arms around Jaylah when they were reunited and offering to kill Alexander and Ermalai for hurting her.

All of that was gone. A million future actions unique to Margaux that the world would never know.

"They are going to attack again. In a few days, if we are lucky." Jaylah was not looking at anything. "You do not have to fight again. I do not want you to."

"They found our secret cannons," Ghislaine said, finally looking up at her with bloodshot eyes. "They were meant to be our salvation, and they destroyed them in seconds."

Jaylah had not spoken with anyone after the battle; she had rushed straight to the camp. "All the more reason for you to be far from the fighting when it starts up again."

"How can we? How can I? She just...she just died so that I could go on to fight another day." Ghislaine sniffled. "I don't want to die. I really don't. But I can't leave her to be the only sacrifice here while we all get to go home." Sonia wrapped her arm around Ghislaine's shaking shoulders as Adelié nodded.

No... Be selfish, she wanted to say. I am begging you. Instead, she only met eyes with Zensa, who she knew was perhaps the only one able to talk them out of this. But Zensa only shook her head a fraction. You too?

They sat in silence for a very long time. It was nearly as it had been during those nights in Razorwood when the huntresses had taken Jaylah in. But they could not go back to those days. Everything had changed.