Heart of Defiance (The Royal Spares)

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Signy

A n unfamiliar voice rings across the courtyard, and the musicians abruptly lower their instruments. I spin around on my fountain-side perch with a wobble of my pulse.

Did he say we need to evacuate ?

The man leading the pack of Veldunian soldiers points across the square. "Everyone, head to the west of the town as quickly as possible. Keep going until you're well beyond the buildings. Hurry!"

With a shaky breath, I set down the bucket of supplies I brought with me. What is going on?

My uncle steps forward with his usual bluster. "Why should we leave? Are you even going to tell us what's going on?"

The head soldier lets out a strained sound, his chiseled face taut with frustration. He motions to his companions. Most of them split off to ride off through the city streets away from the square.

"The Darium army has put out an order that this town is to be burned to the ground," he says. "We're under orders to help them, but we'll help you as much as we can before they get here. Please, grab only what you absolutely need and leave. I don't know how far behind us they are."

My chest constricts so tightly that for a moment, I can't breathe at all. An ache spreads all the way to my ribs.

It's because of me. Because I attacked the soldiers and stirred up the rest of the town to follow my lead.

The Darium soldiers said we'd pay for it. I just had no idea—I never thought?—

All sense of revelry has vanished from the square. My neighbors grab their children and run toward their houses or off to the west without stopping to collect any belongings.

We all know that when the Darium army says they're going to burn a place, they're not going to hesitate to burn up anyone still in it too.

The banging of doors and the soldiers' hollered voices carry from the nearby streets. "We're evacuating the town! You need to leave now. Everyone, quickly!"

I remain on the rim of the fountain's basin, frozen amid the panicked bustle of the crowd fleeing the square. The bottom of my stomach has dropped out.

Burn the town. My parents’ old house, since claimed by another family. The homes where so many were born, grew up, made lives for themselves.

The gorgeous temple I admired just this afternoon. The grand old town hall.

My gaze darts to the memorial on the hill, and my lungs clench even tighter.

The Darium soldiers will destroy that too, won't they? They'll scorch or smash the stones with the names of the fallen, score my parents' names out of existence as if they never lived at all .

I told them they couldn't take everything that belonged to us, and they mean to prove me wrong.

Where will we go after we flee? What town will take in another town's worth of people?

The soldiers will probably hunt us down across the countryside once they've destroyed our home.

If we let them.

A sharp sear of conviction shoots up from my gut. "No!" I shout over the frantic clamor. "We stood up to them before. We showed them they couldn't bully us. We can stop them!"

As several people turn to stare, I leap off the basin and cast around.

Bertha brought out a few geese from the butcher shop to roast—carcasses are still dangling from rods near the braziers. I run over and yank out one of the pointed roasting spits.

Brandishing it in the air like a spear, I call out again. "There are hundreds of us. They won't be sending that many soldiers. If we push back, we can save our town. We don't have to let them get away with this."

Some of the townspeople keep rushing by, but others hesitate. Gunther glances back toward his bakery and then toward the fountain where our first confrontation was successful. His hands ball into fists.

Bertha marches over to me and grabs another of the spits. Fear shines in her eyes, but her jaw is set.

She raises her makeshift weapon in the air like I did. "We should fight for what's ours! Come on, everyone. I have more rods and knives in my shop. We'll batter them with frying pans and garden hoes if that's what it takes."

I might have gained a little respect from my defense of the fountain, but Bertha has been considered an upstanding citizen for a lot longer than I have. Her voice rallies far more people than mine did.

As she ushers people into her shop to arm themselves, the head Veldunian soldier and his remaining companion ride over to us. His startlingly bright blue eyes flash with anger—and maybe a little fear of his own. "What in the realms do you think you're doing?"

I hold up the roasting spit and set my other hand on my hip, ignoring the racing of my heart. "This is our town. We can't just stand by and watch them destroy it."

He wheels his horse around. "You don't have any choice. You can't hope to push back an entire squadron of Darium soldiers."

"We sent them running this afternoon. We weren't even prepared then."

Bertha comes bustling back out of the butcher shop. More figures are gathering around us, gripping whatever makeshift weapon they could get their hands on.

Sef the farrier swings his arm. "If they're coming from the east, we have to meet them there. Gather your friends—anyone who'll stand and?—"

With a distant hiss, a streak of yellow-orange light flares against the night sky at the east end of town. Flames are shooting up from the buildings on the fringes.

A chill washes through my body. Our enemies are already here.

An uneasy murmuring passes between the townspeople who gathered around me and Bertha. I can sense their resolve dwindling.

Clammy sweat trickles down my back, but I jab my spit toward the flames. "We have to face them now! They won't be expecting it. We'll strike them all down."

For a moment, I think my battle cry will be enough. My neighbors shift toward the east end of the square, grim determination crossing their faces.

The lead soldier wheels his horse, his mouth tight. "You don't want to do this. Please, get out of the town while you can."

His companion leans over in his saddle. "Jostein, if the soldiers see us?—"

"I know," the other man snaps.

Bertha and I wave our band of resistors forward anyway. We hustle across the square.

And then the first victims of the razing come pelting through the streets.

A woman clutching a baby stumbles at the edge of the square. Her hair is singed, a burn mark on her cheek.

"They're coming!" she wails. "They killed Nivard."

Her husband.

More fleeing figures dash toward us from behind her. One man has blood spreading down the shoulder of his shirt from a deep gouge. Another hobbles next to her partner, her ankle awkwardly bent. A kid who can't be more than ten sprints past them, burns bubbling on his forearms and jaw.

When he sees the bunch of us, his voice splits the air in a shriek. "The empire is here! They're going to kill all of us! Mom... Dad..."

More fire wavers all along the east end of town. The warble of it seems to come from all around us. Smoke laces the air.

A man staggers into the square and then crumples, the back of his tunic drenched in blood. His eyes stare at us blankly.

The lead Veldunian soldier rides around us, his voice even more urgent than before. "That'll be the fate all of you meet if you don't get out of here now ."

The small spirit of rebellion we summoned disintegrates.

"Run!" Gunther cries. His voice is echoed by others in the crowd.

Even Bertha turns on her heel, grasping the burnt boy's arm to steady him and bolting in the opposite direction from the flames. The lead soldier and his companion wave everyone onward to the streets heading out of town.

My throat prickles with the thickening smoke and the anguish that threatens to choke me. "No! We can't give up. We can't let them ruin it all."

But everyone who stood with me has rushed off. I'm alone amid a torrent of the wounded and panicked escaping the carnage.

I grit my teeth and hold my roasting spit steady, bracing my feet against the cobblestones. My pulse hammers through my limbs and in the back of my skull.

If I lose this place, the only home I've ever had, the only place that holds the memories of the family I already lost... I have nothing. What's the point in going on?

If the Darium soldiers want to fight me, let them. I'll take as many of them down with me as I can.

More townspeople careen past me. Harsher shouts of warning and retribution reach my ears.

The Darium force is getting closer.

I clutch my spit with all my strength—and a huff of breath sounds right behind me.

The lead soldier tips over on his horse and smacks his arm right around my chest. Before I can do more than gasp, he's heaved me up onto his lap, knocking aside the spit.

I sprawl on my stomach across his muscular legs, my own legs dangling. As I try to squirm away from him, he pins my lean frame against him with one arm while the other tugs on the reins.

"What are you doing?" I sputter. "I was going to?—"

His thighs shift with the press of his heels, and the horse springs forward, away from the burning. The soldier's voice comes out in a growl. "I'm saving your life, as little as you seem to care about it. There's nothing else here you can salvage."