In Her Shadow(35)

Britta need say no more. The girl nodded. Sniffled. Wiped her nose with her sleeve.

"You may stay with us, if you wish. Become a priestess, if you wish. Either way, we'll care for you and. . ."

"Yes," said the girl.

Britta enveloped the girl in her cloak and said "I take you, child, in the name of Eventide, the Night of Starless Sky, the Dark and all things done therein. May She hide you in Her shadow," and the girl was made one of them. "Now," Britta said, turning to the gathered sisters around her. "This city is about to go up in flames. Surely you can smell it on the air. We couldn't stop this night from happening, couldn't stop the riot before it started, but that doesn't mean we're helpless. It doesn't mean we're broken, or that nothing can be done. Ladies, Ankshara is still our home, and we'll do all we can to save it."

"So what should we do?" asked the girl. "What can we do?"

"I want every bucket in this city. Do you ladies understand? Kick down doors if you have to."

"You'll need axes and hooks," said the soldier Lucius had left to guard the old Abbess of Night. Did he know she was dead yet? Now that Britta had taken the position, would she be liable? If Weboshi was safe, and thus the abbey's innocence assured, then it didn't matter. So long as the wind didn't shift and–

Britta shook the thoughts away. She didn't have time to worry. She had to act. "Axes and hooks?"

"Yes, ma'am. You'll want to tear down buildings around the fire, so that they–"

"Do you know something about stopping fires?"

"It's – I mean yeah." The soldier shrugged, an oddly goofy – if not embarrassed – smile on his face. "It's part of our training. You'd be surprised how often soldiers are called to put out fires."

"Good, you're in charge."

"Ma'am?"

Britta didn't have time to debate, so she leveled her eyes at him. His own gaze dropped to the floor. "Yes, ma'am," he said.

"Good, listen to him."

"Listen to him?" asked the newest member of the abbey.

The sisters mumbled their agreement with the girl's question. Britta understand why they were hesitant. These soldiers had long been their oppressors. Expecting her sisters to risk their lives side by side with the people who'd held them down so long was asking a lot. "When this is over," she said, "we're going to have to work with the Regnals to rebuild this city. We need this alliance to work. Not just for our abbey, but our people. That hasn't changed. It may be old, and decadent, and wicked, but Ankshara is our home. We're not just going to save it tonight, we're going to ensure its future by integrating into the Regnal Empire. On our terms. This is how we survive."

All the sisters glared at her. Were they with her or against her? All her new found powers had fled from her. Is this what it meant to be the Abbess of Night, cursed with a fickle clairvoyance that came and went as it pleased? She could figure out the rules later. The most important thing at the moment was whether her sisters were on her side.

"May She hide you in Her shadow," the girl said in a thin, wobbly voice.

Then another said it, and another. Their voices rose together in a chant that crescendoed upwards and shattered into a cheer of confidence. They were going to do it. They were going to save Ankshara, and they were going to do it hand in hand with the Regnals.





Chapter 17


The smoke wasn't obvious at first. Perhaps if he hadn't had his head down in the fight, dealing with the war in front of him instead of taking a fuller view of his surroundings. . . Well, it was too late for second guessing now. As his eyes watered and nostrils burned, Lucius turned his focus to what to do next. The damn fools had set fires to the homes on either side of the street, never thinking they'd be trapped between walls of flames just as they were trapped between his two shield walls. So what now? Let them burn inside a holocaust of their own making?

No, Lucius couldn't do that. He couldn't let them go free, either. When the crowd collectively realized the depth of its trouble, it would panic, stampede. His and Captain Marcus's shield walls might hold, but probably wouldn't. He couldn't be responsible for that. He wouldn't be responsible for it.

Lucius couldn't retreat either. If he ordered his men to stand aside and let the crowd through, who was to say they wouldn't just keep on rioting? The crowd might take his saving their lives as an admission of surrender. It might encourage them to tear up the rest of the city as badly as they had the docks. It was Lucius's duty to protect the law abiding citizens behind his line, and the guilt of having backed up this far already tugged at him. He'd fallen back far enough. The home he'd taken Britta to burned. No one escaped. He could retreat no farther physically because he could retreat no further morally.

Get your head back in this, he thought. Emotions clouded judgment. A fatal flaw for any military commander. Moments like these were why he'd studied with the Disciples of the Sun Triumphant. He needed to see past the tears formed by smoke and shame. He needed to hear over the shouting crowd and his thundering heart. He needed clarity. Clarity.

And then it came. Over his shoulder, a brigade of cloaked sisters, buckets in hand, led by Britta and the soldier sent to guard the Abbess of Night, tromped down the street towards him. Dux Lucius thought he could forgive the soldier for abandoning his post given the circumstances – especially since the man started shouting orders, telling the sisters what to do to fight the fire. They split into two groups, one on each side of the road. With long hooks, hammers, axes, and other tools, they began tearing houses down on either side of Lucius's flank.