"If the Kalinga bring up light ballistas, this entire forward trench becomes a fish barrel," Aristha finished, his voice dropping to a harsh, pained wheeze as he reached the edge of the parapet.Gayatri let go of the scout’s tunic with a sharp shove, her eyes snapping from the terrified boy to Aristha’s ashen face. "You shouldn't even be standing, Aristha. Go back to the supply stack before your ribs puncture something vital.""There won't be a supply stack left to sit behind in about three minutes," Aristha shot back, ignoring the blinding spike of agony in his side as he pointed a trembling finger down the winding switchbacks of the valley trail. "Look. Through the clearing. Do you see the dust rising past the tree line?"Gayatri strained her eyes against the stinging haze of sulfur and soot, her breath catching in her throat. The dense gray smoke was parting just enough to reveal a block of heavy timber frames rolling forward on crude, shrieking iron wheels. Light ballistas. Four o

"I am not asking for your permission, Gayatri. I am telling you that I am coming along."Aristha’s boots crunched against the frost-rimed shale of the secondary trench, his voice a gravelly rasp that barely cut through the freezing drizzle. He clutched a short iron dagger in his right hand, his knuckles stark white against the gray mud, while his left arm remained clamped tightly across his fractured ribs.Gayatri whirled around, her composite bow slung securely across her back, her breath pluming white in the biting midnight air. "This isn't a debate, Aristha! We aren't going on a leisurely stroll through the archives to dig up dusty scrolls. We are crawling through the mud right into the middle of an armed Kalinga encampment to burn their siege engines. One wrong breath, one cough from those cracked ribs of yours, and we both end up with a spear through the throat!""If we stay here and wait for their dawn attack, the result is exactly the same, only we die in a ditch while waiting

"It’s working," Gayatri whispered, her breath frosting the damp air as she dropped flat into the deep shadows of the trench wall. Below them, the Kalinga encampment was a chaotic anthill of flashing steel, panicked shouts, and towering plumes of oily black smoke.Aristha leaned heavily against the cold timber support, his face pale, sweat beading across his forehead despite the freezing dawn. He pressed a bloodless hand against the thick linen wrappings binding his broken ribs, wincing as a fresh wave of coughing threatened to tear through his chest. He swallowed it down, his voice a sharp, rattling rasp. "The pitch-flasks... hit the main axle of the primary ballista carriage. Once that dry southern pine catches, the entire engine block goes up.""And the Kalinga commander is currently losing what little mind he has left," Gayatri added, a fierce, tight smile breaking through the grim exhaustion etched into her features. She peered over the edge of the parapet, watching frantic squads

"Move! Move, Aristha!" Gayatri shrieked, diving sideways as a heavy Kalinga cavalry horse leaped clean over the collapsing trench wall, its iron-shod hooves churning the freezing mud into a violent spray of brown water and jagged stone.Aristha stumbled backward, his breath catching in a sharp, agonizing gasp as his fractured ribs shrieked in protest. "I'm moving as fast as my broken skeleton permits!" he shouted, his voice cracking with pain as he slammed hard against the slippery earthen wall.A massive Kalinga sergeant, clad in dented iron plate and wielding a broad-bladed executioner's sword, dropped heavily into the trench directly between them, cutting off Gayatri's path with a vicious, triumphant grin."Traitorous scum!" the sergeant roared, spitting a glob of blood into the mud before lunging forward with a devastating horizontal sweep meant to take Gayatri clean off her feet.Gayatri dropped instantly, the heavy blade hissing through the freezing air mere inches above her sca

"Don't move. If you shift an inch, that makeshift bandage is going to unravel and you’ll bleed out right here in the mud," Gayatri warned, her voice tight, raspy, and completely drained of any warmth as she tied off the filthy strip of linen around Aristha's ribs."I'm not bleeding out, Gayatri. I'm freezing to death, which is a distinctly different and entirely more tedious way to go," Aristha muttered through chattering teeth, his pale face smeared with a grim mixture of dried blood, soot, and gray slush. He winced sharply as she pulled the knot tight, his fingers clawing uselessly at the cold stone behind him. "Though considering the view, I suppose I shouldn't complain.""Keep talking like that and I'll let the next Kalinga straggler use your ribs as a xylophone," she shot back, though there was no real venom in her tone. She sank down heavily onto the ruined stone wall beside him, letting her composite bow slide from her numb fingers into the slush. Her hands were shaking violent