"If we stay on this ridge another hour, the only thing we'll be commanding is a very damp graveyard," Gayatri said, her voice cutting through the damp chill as she hoisted her composite bow over her shoulder. She winced slightly, rolling her bruised right shoulder to test the stiffness in her muscles.Aristha groaned, carefully pressing his hand against the improvised linen wrap binding his fractured ribs before pushing himself up from the ruined stone wall. "A graveyard with an exceptional view of the valley, I might add. Though I suppose my housing standards have dropped significantly since we joined this little rebellion.""Your standards should include basic survival if you want to see the southern hills," Gayatri retorted, stepping over a discarded Kalinga spear shaft half-buried in the brown slush. She didn't look back as she picked her way down the slope toward the makeshift rebel camp. "Captain Corin is already breaking down the supply tents. The order came down five minutes a

"If we stay on this ridge another minute, my lungs are going to turn into blocks of ice and shatter," Aristha panted, his hand pressed hard against his taped ribs as he hauled himself up over a slick, moss-covered boulder. He let out a harsh, rattling cough, his boots sliding half an inch back down the wet slate before he managed to dig his heels into the mud.Gayatri didn't break her stride, though she paused long enough on the narrow, winding switchback to grab him by the collar of his mud-stained tunic and yank him forward. "Stop complaining and keep your head down. We are entirely too exposed on this shelf, and if a Kalinga patrol looks up with a spyglass right now, they won't even need arrows to finish us.""Oh, comfort me more, why don't you? Tell me about the lovely unmarked graves we'll be sharing," Aristha muttered through chattering teeth, wiping a smear of cold slush and sweat from his forehead with the back of a trembling, calloused hand. He squinted through the gray, mist

"If your boots make one more squelch like that, I am going to cut them off your feet and make you walk barefoot through the brambles," Gayatri whispered fiercely, flattening her back against the damp stone of the cliff face. Her bow was drawn half-cocked, the nocked arrow hovering mere inches from a dripping cluster of ferns.Aristha caught his breath, his hand clamped tightly over his taped ribs as he forced his heel down onto a patch of wet moss without a sound. "My apologies for possessing feet, Gayatri. Next time, I shall levitate. Though considering how much blood I seem to be leaking internally, floating upwards might actually happen.""Shut up," she hissed, her eyes darting across the narrow, twisting ledge that sloped downward away from the smoldering hamlet. "Someone is coming."Footsteps. Heavy, unhurried, and distinctly military, crunching against the wet pine needles just around the protruding shelf of gray rock ahead. Two sets of boots. Kalinga regulation-issue hobnails,

"Wake up. Stop thrashing before you tear the rest of your internal organs into confetti," Gayatri muttered, pressing a calloused hand firmly against Aristha’s chest to keep him pinned to the cold stone floor of the shallow cave.Aristha bolted upright with a sharp gasp, his eyes wide and bloodshot, sweat plastered across his pale forehead in glistening streaks. He sucked in a massive, ragged breath, clutching instinctively at his bandaged ribs, then froze as his chest expanded without the stabbing, tearing agony that had haunted him all through the night."My lungs didn't collapse," Aristha breathed, staring down at his own trembling hands in sheer disbelief. "The fire inside my skull is actually gone. I am drenched in foul-smelling swamp water, but I am miraculously, irritatingly alive.""Your fever broke an hour before dawn," Gayatri said, not looking up as she carefully rolled up a damp strip of linen and tucked it into her leather satchel. "Which is fortunate, because if you had s

"Keep your head down and stop twitching like a hooked fish," Gayatri muttered out of the corner of her mouth, her fingers digging painfully hard into the meat of Aristha’s upper arm as the ragged line of refugees shuffled forward another agonizing half-pace through the knee-deep mire.Aristha let out a wet, rattling cough that shook his entire frame, leaning heavily against a rain-slicked wooden post of the barricade. "I am not twitching, my dear, attentive cousin; I am suffering from an advanced case of swamp-ague combined with a profound spiritual aversion to Kalinga tax collectors. Look at the sergeant on the left. He hasn't blinked since the third bell.""Shut up," Gayatri hissed, shifting her weight behind him to block the view of a pair of heavily armed guards leaning on their pikes nearby. "If you draw one more curious look with your theatrical gasping, I am going to forget our cover story and accidentally break your other set of ribs.""A comforting family dynamic. The border