Liv circled the armor stand, examining each piece in turn by the light of the oil lamp burning in her excavated chamber. Outside, the moon would be rising, to compete with the ring of the old gods for the claim to brightest object in the night sky.

Kaija – or whoever the armorer had found to do the work in her place – had worked miracles since the battle at the pass. In only a short time, every missing piece of leather had been replaced, as well as every strap broken and every piece of padding worn thin. Dents had been hammered out of the enchanted steel cuirass from Mountain Home, the rust had been scraped off, and each piece of metal oiled. Even the stain on the individual pieces of leather had been touched up.

From the trunk in which Thora had so carefully packed her clothing, Liv removed a jewelry box of polished aspen wood. She swung the top open to reveal the gold bracelet, connected by fine chains to five rings, which she had won from Milisant Loredan after the duel in Freeport.

According to Wren’s reports, the Princess had been at Courland, along with her grandmother. One part of Liv wished the other woman had been foolish enough to accompany her husband with the army. In some ways it would have been easier - particularly if she had simply ended up dead on the battlefield, one corpse amidst innumerable others to be thrown on the pyres.

That wasn’t what would happen, of course. Even from their brief interactions, it had been clear to Liv that Milisant wasn’t a fighter. She’d had some pretensions of being a duelist, which as far as Liv could tell had mostly been supported by the fact that Luc was an effective combat word at even the most basic level of proficiency, and that the royal family had access to enough wealth to buy the woman outsized reserves of mana in the form of jewelry. Probably having a stormwand hadn’t hurt, either.

That was not in a box, but resting in Liv’s leather wand sheath, hanging from her belt. She grasped it by the leather-wrapped handle and lifted it out, as well, placing it next to the jewelry box on the folding table that her cousin Miina had found for her. Had the camp table been sent for from Al’Fenthia? From Whitehill? Liv honestly did not know. She moved the lamp closer, lifted Julianne’s storm wand in her hands, and held it in the light of the oil lamp to examine it more closely.

“We really should have your maid here,” Miina muttered, as she moved around the cavern, sorting clothes to be packed for Liv’s expedition to the crystal rift.

“Thora would die from mana sickness,” Liv said, as she ran a finger over the Vædic sigils carved into the bone.

“Have her train with your guards,” her cousin suggested. “Kaija seems to be making progress with the humans she recruited. In any event, you either need to cut her loose, or let her come with you. Leaving her behind every time you leave Whitehill isn’t fair.”

Liv sighed, and set the wand down on the table. “You’re right, I suppose,” she said. “I just worry that –”

The soft scuff of leather on sandstone caught her ear, followed by a heavier tread, and the quiet humming and clanking that always accompanied any movement that Ghveris made. Liv turned away from inspecting her equipment to see Arjun and Ghveris descending the stairs that Silica had cut into the stone.

“You are preparing for the assault on this rift?” Ghveris asked, his deep voice echoing around the chamber.

Liv nodded. “I don’t think I’ve actually worn this since coming back from the pass,” she admitted, tracing her fingers along the left pauldron of her armor. “Kaija’s done a beautiful job with it. You can hardly tell how beat up it was.”

“When are we leaving?” Arjun asked, moving over to one of the two folding camp chairs along the rock face of the wall. The healer gave a sigh, once he’d lowered his weight and gotten off his feet.

“The morning,” Liv said. “We have intelligence on which sigils to use to get there. We’ll bring a unit of Eld – no reason to risk human soldiers going into a rift. A mix of Däivi and Syvä, I think.”

Ghveris shook his head. “Because you trust them the most?”

Liv blinked. “Yes. Why?”

“It is a mistake,” the Antrian juggernaut told her. “These are soldiers you will station there, to wait for Ractia to flee? You should use troops whose personal loyalty you are less certain of. Soldiers who are here to fight Ractia, not to follow you.”

Liv hesitated. There was no one she didn’t trust present, and she knew that her guards – how odd to have gotten so used to that thought, so quickly – wouldn’t let anyone but those close to her enter, without checking first. Ghveris had commanded troops before, and she hadn’t. Really, she should listen to anything he had to say. “Can you explain that to me?”

The war-machine’s great, armored helm nodded, and his blue eyes flickered from within the darkness. “Let us say you leave your most loyal troops at this rift. And then, there is another point which must be held. Again, you choose warriors loyal to you, because you trust them. This happens three, four, half a dozen times. What are you left with?”

“All the warriors you don’t trust,” Miina pointed out. “And they far outnumber the ones who will watch your back.”

“You think someone’s going to betray us?” Liv asked, looking back and forth between her friends. She tried not to think of how many people who should have been counted in that number were absent.

“Why make it easy for them?” Ghveris asked. His enormous, steel-clade shoulders gave a shrug. “You have enemies here.”

“Or if not enemies, at least rivals,” Miina added.

“Which brings me to my question,” Arjun said, finally speaking up. “Why isn’t Wren here? She’s the one who’s actually been to this place before, she’s the one who’s seen the sigils. Is she headed back to join up with the other scouts already?”

Liv hesitated, but before she could give an answer, Miina spoke.

“Little cousin and Wren are angry with each other.” When Liv shot her a glare, the blue-haired woman shrugged without the slightest indication of remorse. “What? It’s obvious to me, and I’m the new one here. She used to be practically attached to you, and all of a sudden she isn’t here with the rest of you group?”

Liv chanced a look back over to Arjun and Ghveris. She found the healer looking puzzled, but had difficulty reading the burning eyes of the war-machine. “Can you give us a moment alone, please, Miina?”

Her older cousin nodded. “Your pack is set. Don’t touch it or you’ll make a mess out of everything I did.” Then, without a glance back, Miina ran up the steps and out of the cavern.

“What happened?” Arjun asked, once the three of them were alone.

Liv cast her eyes about the small chamber, and settled on her cot as the best place to sit. Walking over to it gave her a moment to think before she answered, at least. “You both know Wren left Ractia’s forces after the attack on Soltheris,” she began.

Arjun nodded immediately, and Ghveris inclined his head. They’d all spent enough nights camping together, at the Tomb of Celris or on the way to the Painted Desert Rift, that there weren’t many secrets left among them.

“She told me at the time – and Julianne, Henry, my father, everyone,” Liv explained, “that she left before actually doing any fighting. That she didn’t kill anyone at Soltheris. Well, before she went to scout the ascent to Nightfall Peak, Wren told me that she actually did shoot one Elden man with an arrow, before she flew away.”

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“You feel like she’s lied to you,” Arjun said, with a long sigh.

“I feel that was because she did!” Liv exclaimed.

“Another way to look at it would be to say that, after all this time, she finally trusted you enough to admit what she had been afraid to say,” Arjun pointed out.

“Well, she’s put me in a rusting horrible position,” Liv exclaimed. “I’ve defended her at every turn, and now it turns out she murdered one of my people. If that ass Juhani finds out, he’s going to use it against me. I’ll either look like I lied for her, or like an idiot for believing her. And when he wants her executed or something, what am I going to say?”

“Did you hang all the men who fought against us at the pass?” Ghveris asked, his voice vibrating so powerfully that Liv could feel it in her bones.

“No,” Liv said. “I’m not going to hold farmers accountable for the decisions their lords made.”

“They, also, were soldiers,” Ghveris pressed her. “What is the difference?”

“Levies don’t have a choice,” Liv explained. “The local baron just rounds them up and gives them a spear. Wren had a choice. She didn’t have to attack Soltheris – her cousin didn’t. A whole group of the Red Shields left Ractia before the assault, precisely because they didn’t think it was the right thing to do. And she went. And then she killed someone, someone who didn’t have to die.”

“You ransomed the surviving knights back to Lucania,” Ghveris pointed out. “They had a choice.”

Liv shifted on the cot. “They were bound by oath, and we needed the ransom.”

“And the people who fight for Ractia?” Ghveris asked. “Will they all be hung, or given mercy? Which of them had a choice, and which did not?”

“He’s right, you know,” Arjun said, before Liv even had a chance to respond. “Honestly, it sounds more like you’re trying to justify being mad at her than anything else. Can you honestly tell me, Liv, that if you captured a random soldier who’d fought at Soltheris, you’d hang them? Not one of the commanders, just some mercenary fighting for coin.”

“I don’t –” Liv stumbled over her words. “They’re cultists. I don’t think Keri ever captured any.”

“I don’t think Keri ever tried to,” Arjun said, with a frown. “You heard what they call him? The Scourge of the North? I get the impression he went a bit further than you might be comfortable going, Liv.”

“Keri’s our friend,” Liv protested. She felt an obligation to defend him, and a sudden rush of irritation with Arjun.

“Of course he is,” Arjun said. “And I don’t know all the reasons he did what he did. But he’s not here right now, Liv, and you are. And I think you’d better have an answer to this question before we assault the peak. Is being one of Ractia’s soldiers, by itself, a crime? Are you going to order everyone we fight executed?”

“How did we get to this from talking about Wren lying?” Liv complained.

“Because you should hold her to the same standard as all who serve Ractia,” Ghveris said. “And your mind should be clear. Or you will do things that you regret years from now.”

“You actually think I want to kill her?” Liv exclaimed, looking back and forth between the two men. “She’s my friend. Of course I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to lose any more friends. Look around – Keri’s hurt, Rose left me, Julianne and Henry are dead, Matthew and Triss are on the ring, Thora can’t even stay in the same place as me without dying of mana sickness – I feel like I’m not going to have anyone left!” She felt something wet on her cheeks, and had to reach up to wipe at her eyes.

“So you’ve been looking for an excuse to avoid dealing with her,” Arjun said quietly.

Liv closed her eyes, and looked down at the stone floor of the chamber. “I just feel like I’m losing everyone.”

“That will only happen if it is your choice to do so,” Ghveris said. “Put Wren aside. After a battle, we capture one of Ractia’s followers. In the fighting, they killed a Whitehill man. What do you do with them?”

Liv dug the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to focus. “Has he sacrificed anyone to her?” she asked, after a moment.

“No.”

“All he did is follow orders and fight?” Liv took a deep breath. “I hold him in a stockade somewhere, under guard, until the war is over.”

“And then?” Arjun asked.

Liv shook her head. “An oath of some kind,” she decided. “Witnessed by Pandit Sharma or someone else who can see whether he’s telling the truth. That he’ll go back home and live peacefully. Follow the law. I don’t know.”

“And under those terms, you release the soldier?” Ghveris pressed.

“Yes.”

“That answer is going to make some of the commanders angry,” Arjun pointed out. “Two attacks on the Eld – that’s caused a lot of anger. Juhani and those like him are in this for vengeance.”

“That’s their problem,” Liv said. “I’m not going to have heaps of corpses piled up when this is all done. We’ll accept surrenders, we’ll take prisoners.”

“Then why is Wren any different?” Arjun asked. “You know you can trust her. How many times has she saved your life, now?”

Liv shook her head. “ – I can’t even count,” she admitted. “Alright. Fine. You two have made your point. I’m being a stubborn fool. Can one of you go find her for me?”

☙

It ended up being Ghveris who brought Wren back, which shouldn’t have surprised Liv. Arjun, though he’d promised to go to the crystal rift the next morning with them, had immersed himself in the business of organizing the alliance’s healers, and seeing to it that the proper supplies would be shipped across the desert to the plateau upon which they intended to build their forward base.

“You wanted to see me?” Wren asked. She stood with her back to the stairs, and it looked all wrong. She should have been leaning against the wall, or lounging in one of the camp chairs, at ease, instead of stiff and guarded.

Liv struggled to find the words to say what she was thinking. “I’m angry with you,” she began. “I feel like – I’ve trusted you. I spoke up for you, at every turn. In front of Julianne and Henry. At Al’Fenthia. To Juhani kæn Kalleis.” The man’s name tasted as sour as a lemon. “I trusted you with my secret – about Luc. And you didn’t trust me with yours.” It was only after she’d gotten it all out that she met Wren’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Wren said.

“Why?” Liv asked.

Wren ran a hand through her dark, wild hair, and tucked a strand of it behind one ear. She looked to Ghveris, whether for help or support, Liv couldn’t be certain. “At first it was because I was certain your adopted parents would kill me for it,” she said. “And then, we were at Coral Bay, and there was so much else going on. I guess I just felt like – if I pretended it had never happened, maybe you would never find out.”

“I guess we both found out that secrets always come out eventually,” Liv muttered, thinking of all her deceptions around having the Lucanian royal word of power. “Is there anything else, Wren? Because I can’t do this again a year from now.”

Wren shook her head. “I’m not going to tell you my whole life story,” she said. “But important things you need to know? No. This was it.”

“Alright.” It was Liv who looked to Ghveris, now, but again the Antrian remained silent and still, almost as if he had become a statue. She stood up and crossed the space to Wren, then wrapped her friend in her arms.

For a moment, Wren didn’t move, as if she’d been taken completely by surprise. “You’re not going to do anything?”

“You were a soldier fighting in a battle,” Liv murmured in her ear. “As Ghveris has pointed out to me, if I execute every soldier we fight, I’m going to leave a lot of corpses behind.” She could feel the tension leave Wren’s muscles, and the huntress finally returned the embrace.

Finally, they stepped back, though Wren moved her hands to catch Liv by the shoulders. “My people won’t be executed, then?” she asked. “The ones still serving Ractia?”

“Not if all they did was fight,” Liv promised. “If I find they’ve been making blood sacrifices to Ractia, that’s a whole other thing. Or doing something else unspeakable in her name.”

“Fair enough,” Wren said, and nodded. “I think that’s already more than some of the Eld would like.”

“I’ll deal with them,” Liv said. “In fact, I’ll make certain that everyone knows, before we leave tomorrow morning, that we are taking prisoners. They can like it or hate it, but there won’t be any mass executions. Not if they want to be part of this alliance.”

“Thank you,” Wren said. She nodded, and released Liv’s shoulders. “You want me to come with you in the morning, then?”

“I do,” Liv said. “You’re the only one of us who's ever actually been there, after all. And it wouldn’t feel right, going without you.”

“Alright.” Wren smiled. “I’ll go make certain a message is sent to the scouts, then, so they don’t wonder where I am.” She glanced back at Ghveris one more time, then scampered up the stairs, leaving Liv and the Antrian alone.

Liv waited for her to leave, and then turned to meet the war-machine’s blazing blue eyes. “What’s going on there?” she asked.

For a long moment, she didn’t think Ghveris would answer. Then, finally, he spoke.

“Nothing that can actually be,” the war-machine rumbled. “Not in anything but dreams.” Then, he lumbered to the stairs, ducked, and climbed out into the desert night, leaving Liv alone.