“I don’t like this,” Rali said. Despite her best efforts to maintain a whisper, her voice bounced along the upturned hallway and disappeared around the bend. She, Ashwyn, and Daana were mid-way through another ransacked cottage, clearing the way for the evacuation team.

  Captain Bernstein’s lieutenant had been tasked with spearheading the evacuation efforts. She and her squadron were currently assembled outside of the cottage, waiting to extract any survivors once the structure was cleared of danger. The lieutenant was a cautious individual and refused to move in until absolutely certain the premise was void of potential conflict — which seemed to include Ashwyn and Rali as well. Daana didn’t fault the lieutenant for actively avoiding them. While competent warriors, the quarrelsome pair were one snide comment away from ripping each other to pieces.

  “Don’t like this?” Ashwyn repeated Rali’s words, confused. She worked as she spoke, kicking in another barricaded door with a grunt. The door burst apart in a shower of paint-chipped splinters. Ashwyn darted inside, calling over her shoulder to Rali in a voice that was a far cry from a whisper. “It’s fighting. You sneak, you stab, you move on. What’s not to like?”

  Rali’s restless gaze swept the hallway, passing over Daana in the process, before concluding that the only danger lurking nearby was their loudmouth teammate. With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, Rali signaled for Daana to keep watch before ducking inside the room Ashwyn had disappeared into. Daana dutifully tucked herself against the wall, wincing at the way their private conversation drifted back into the hallway as clear as day, amplified by the surrounding stone.

  “It’s too easy,” Rali said.

  Ashwyn sounded tired from both the conversation and kicking doors down. “Maybe you’re just too good at it. It’s not a challenge anymore.”

  “Flattering, but no.”

  Daana had lost track of how many buildings the trio had swept so far. They were on what Rali lovingly referred to as ‘shit detail’. With Captain Bernstein keeping Cray’s forces pinned down on the far side of the village, it was Rali, Ashwyn, and Daana who combed the buildings ahead of the evacuation team, clearing the area of any threats that would hinder the rescue effort.

  While Daana was grateful not to be out front and center, she suspected the assignment wasn’t based on skill or merit. Rali and Ashwyn were the personification of dried tinder boxes—one stray ember away from bursting into flames and taking out everyone in their immediate proximity. Captain Bernstein was a sensible man and, instead of trying to wrangle them into obedience, had tasked them with causing trouble elsewhere. Far, far away from him, preferably.

  Ashwyn’s bulky form reemerged back through the broken doorway with Rali at her heels. The orc massaged her shoulder as she walked. “Can’t help but notice you two are leaving me with all the heavy lifting. Maybe that’s why it feels too easy. You’re not pulling your weight.”

  For all her unease, Rali’s pettiness still reigned supreme. “My kill count begs to differ.”

  “Only because you swoop in while I’m still breaking the doors down! It’s not fair. A girl’s gotta catch her breath, you know. You’re like a fucking vulture. Ready to jump in and capitalize on someone else’s hard work.”

  The two warriors moved down the cluttered hallway, clearing it of debris. Daana hefted her shield onto her shoulder and followed. She tried to take comfort in Ashwyn’s positivity, but no amount of empty platitudes could shake the nagging feeling that Rali was right.

  “I agree with Rali.” Daana’s uneasy gaze swept across the piles of scattered furniture that littered the house. Whatever fight had taken place had moved on already. Other than giving the civilians cowering in the basement a fright, the sweep had proved rather uneventful. “This is too easy.”

  “Oh, gods.” Ashwyn tilted her head back with a groan, shoving an upturned side table out of the way as she trudged past. “Not you, too.”

  Rali glanced over her shoulder at Daana, as if only now remembering the latter existed. Her cutting words were directed at Ashwyn. “Remind me, why is the princess here again? Shouldn’t she be somewhere more suited for her talents? Like the sickbay, or body disposal, or handing out tea cakes?”

  Between the sword and shield, Daana didn’t have the spare hand necessary to give Rali the finger. She made do with her eyes which, judging from Rali’s unaffected expression, failed to wield her desired magnitude. Didn’t stop Daana from trying, though.

  “Believe me, you’re gonna want Daana around the moment we run into a witch.” Ashwyn strode confidently down the hallway and back out the broken front door, signaling for the evacuation team to move in.

  Daana skittered down the steps and tucked herself off to the side, making room for the rescue party. “There are two civilians in the basement,” she explained. “Ashwyn scared them shitless breaking the door down. Approach calmly and you might have better luck extracting them than we did.”

  Instructions finished, Daana rushed to catch up. Rali and Ashwyn were already discussing strategy with Captain Bernstein's lieutenant, whom Daana knew simply as ‘Lieutenant’ on account of not remembering the dwarf’s actual name. Once upon a time, Daana might have felt bad about that, but the last few days had been such a flurry of new names and faces, that it was a small miracle Daana had retrained her own.

  Already a bundle of nerves, the dwarf lieutenant appeared somehow more distressed than usual as she outlined their final target. Daana shouldered her way between Ashwyn and Rali just in time to miss the important bit. Rali, fortunately, helpfully filled in the missing details with a restrained hiss.

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  “The jailhouse?” Rali’s pale face flushed with outrage. “You’re not serious, are you? Tell me you’re joking.”

  “There could be civilians locked inside,” the lieutenant insisted.

  “You know what else jailhouses have inside?” Rali retorted, itemizing her concerns on her fingers. “Soldiers, ample hiding places, and weapons. And that’s not even touching on the fortifications! You don’t seriously expect Ashwyn to be able to break the door down on her own, do you?”

  Ashwyn rubbed the soreness from her shoulder at the thought. “Also, having just escaped a dungeon, I’m reluctant to willingly waltz back in one. Just saying.”

  The lieutenant had a crude, hand-drawn map of the village stretched between her hands. Briony had provided the map and a quick rundown of the most likely places they would find friend and foe alike hiding. The nervous lieutenant kept her gaze focused on the squiggly lines not out of concentration but to avoid looking directly at Rali. “The Captain mentioned something about a powder charge?”

  “Tough toodles, bucko,” Rali said. “Fresh out, I’m afraid. Just used my last one.”

  “Ah, yes. Well, in that case…” Still no eye contact. Unconsciously, the dwarf lieutenant’s shoulders steadily shrank smaller in a misguided attempt to make herself less of a target. “Captain Bernstein said to remind you that you are a very capable soldier. You’re as quick on your feet as you are in the mind and that…” Again, the lieutenant’s voice trailed.

  “And what?” Ashwyn gave the cowering lieutenant an impatient nudge. “Come on. You can’t chicken out on us now, right when it’s about to get spicy.”

  Still staring at the hand-drawn map, the lieutenant missed the heated glare that passed over the top of her head from Rali to Ashwyn. “He said,” the dwarf lieutenant tried again, “that you owe him.”

  Rali’s pale face flushed beet red. “Owe him?”

  “His words, not mine,” the lieutenant was quick to make that part crystal clear. She lifted the map so high it now conveniently concealed her face.

  “Un-fucking-believable!” Rali smacked her clenched fist into her open palm. “Fine. I’ll do it. Please pass on to your dear Cappy that I look forward to hand-delivering everything he’s owed when we’re done here.”

  “I…” The lieutenant hesitated. “I don’t know what that means.”

  “Good! A little mystery’s good for the imagination, yeah?”

  Rali was not the only one upset by their current prospects. Ashwyn’s reluctance, however, had more to do with the target itself, and not so much the interpersonal dynamics involved. She turned and studied the jailhouse across from them with a slow, disapproving shake of her head. “We’re not really considering this, are we, Rals?”

  “Apparently we don’t have to.” Although her words were directed at Ashwyn, Rali’s glare was focused on the cowering lieutenant. “The dear captain kindly did all the considering for us!”

  Abandoning the huddle, Daana moved to the mouth of the alley to get a closer look. The jailhouse door was open, hanging partially ajar. It was a small, sturdy building, comprised of solid stone with barred windows and a clay-tiled roof.

  Daana watched from the corner of her eye as Ashwyn joined her along the mouth of the alley. “Can we revisit the ‘this doesn’t feel right’ feeling from earlier?” Daana shifted her weight from one foot to the other, trying to rid her stomach of the dread that gnawed at it from the inside. “Don’t you find it strange that we haven’t run into any witches yet? It’s all been ordinary soldiers so far.”

  “The witches are all at the front,” the lieutenant replied matter-of-factly, as if grateful for the opportunity to change topics. “You can hear them, can’t you? Sounds like the captain is keeping them busy.”

  “I’ve met lots of witches in my lifetime,” Daana said. “Do you know where they like to be during a fight? Anywhere but the front. Hiding in the back, in the closet, behind someone taller.”

  “She says, hiding behind the orc,” Rali muttered.

  “She’s not hiding behind me,” Ashwyn corrected. “She’s hiding next to me. It’s more dignified.”

  Good gods, she didn’t have time for their petty squabbling. Daana stepped away from Ashwyn, highlighting her concerns in hopes that her teammates would either listen or, preferably, prove her growing trepidations wrong. “The only thing that would keep the witches up front is Cray and last we heard, he’s still unaccounted for. If he’s not there, then neither are his people. Not the smart ones, anyway. They’re probably all in hiding, waiting to ambush us the moment he gives the word.”

  Ashwyn and Rali exchanged looks.

  “She has a point,” Ashwyn conceded.

  “I know, I just don’t like it is all.” Rali shuddered, not from the cold, but the fact that she was having to take Daana’s objections into consideration. “I don’t see how this changes things. What are we supposed to do?”

  “We could start by not going inside the obviously ambushed jailhouse?” Daana suggested.

  “It’s not me you’ve got to convince.” Rali flung her hands pointedly in the lieutenant’s direction. “Tell her!”

  Danna straightened her shoulders and stood tall. Her sharp tongue curled in anticipation, prepared to unleash her most convincing argument yet, when a blood-curdling scream erupted from within the jailhouse, deflating her courage like a popped wineskin. The heinous sound reverberated along the stone walls until the entire alley trembled beneath their feet. And then, as quickly as it had come, the noise stopped. An eerie silence settled. Daana, Rali, and Ashwyn stood stock-still, breath drawn, torn between ducking back down the alley and waiting around to witness first-hand whatever horrific fate awaited them.

  Swallowing a gulp of cold air, Daana brazenly edged forward, squinting at the front of the building. The breeze picked up, causing the annoying flyaway hairs that’d escaped her braid to whip and whirl, obstructing her view. Daana brushed the hairs from her eyes, suddenly aware that every hair on her arm was lifted. Her skin buzzed, warning her something was amiss. Stubbornly, she searched the surrounding area, determined to know what it was her sixth-sense was telling her. The wind swept harder, blustering against her. It was then she realized it. The wind wasn’t coming from above the jailhouse, but within.

  Daana spun around, screaming, “Get behind something!”

  The front door blew off its hinges with a rusted scream and hurtled through the air flipping front over back as effortlessly as a dried leaf caught in the breeze. Debris rained down around them. Daana dove to the ground and covered her head, partially aware that Ashwyn and Rali had done the same. Ashwyn shouted, her voice almost completely swallowed by the howl of the wind, “I think this changes things!”