After the army had moved on—turning northeastwards, from the sounds of it—the Slayers led Duchess Yua of Lenktra and her group out of the cave. I portalled them into an abandoned barn that Val and I spent an hour or so scouting out, shielding them from sight in a place that didn’t have them worrying about cave spiders. Even better, the barn had a lock on it—presumably placed there by its absent owner, who might have been fleeing the conquesting soldiers—so we didn’t have to worry about anyone getting in easily.

  Val, disguised as one of the soldiers, brought everyone some food, and the duchess and her group ate hungrily before finally committing to their previous promise to talk.

  After some kind of non-verbal signal from Duchess Yua, she and another man rose to walk over to where I and the other Player Slayers were sitting, eating food that was long overdue for us, too.

  ‘Duke Cambelny of Aptleed, at your service.’ The man at Duchess Yua’s side bowed awkwardly, clearly not accustomed to bowing all that often. ‘Behind me ae my wife, Kim, and my children, Tim, Jim, and—’

  ‘How many of you are there?’ Val interrupted. ‘Not in your family. Fallen leaders, I mean. Lenktra, Aptleed… where else has fallen to Amira?’

  ‘We believe that every town of note west of Tanar has fallen,’ Duchess Yua answered. ‘Though reports do vary. The advancement of the Goldmarch has been swift; each of us struggled with the rising bandit problem and were eager for aid from someone we thought an ally. Of course, we did not know then what Amira intended, and her agent in the Tundras moved on all cities near-simultaneously.’

  ‘Am I to assume you understand the nature of the bandits?’ Corminar asked. ‘That they were the very same soldiers, out of uniform?’

  The duchess nodded. ‘We understand that now, but of course “now” is too late.’

  ‘You say all cities fall?’ Arzak asked. ‘Where other leaders?’

  ‘Many have passed on,’ Duchess Yua replied. ‘Not all; only few of us, in fact, were lucky enough to escape. Not all of us had sufficient escape strategies. Those who escaped number only myself, Duke Cambelny, and—or so the reports say—Chancellor Orjkan or Garnokk, with whom we are supposed to meet at Fort Tanil in two days. Of course, that will not happen; even if we were to depart this very moment, it would take three days to reach the fort by foot. This precludes, too, any chance of encountering Goldmarch soldiers on our journey—a chance that is more likely than not.’

  A moment of silent contemplation passed over the barn. I didn’t like it.

  ‘You’re telling us a lot,’ I said. ‘Stuff that could get you killed.’

  ‘Do we not all hide in this building together? I think it likely that you, too, would lose your lives in any encounter with the Goldmarch.’

  ‘They might try, but they would not succeed,’ Corminar clarified, though if we encountered a whole bloody army then I wasn’t so sure about that.

  Val shifted from foot to foot at my side, and a quick glance over at her told me that she was wrestling with saying something—caught between biting her tongue and speaking her mind.

  ‘I much enjoy your confidence,’ Duchess Yua said, a twinkle in her eye as she glanced Corminar up and down, ‘though I suspect you underestimate our enemy. In ability, perhaps, they are middling, but they number enough to outweigh any such weakness. And of course, that is to say nothing of their leader in the Tundras, who—it seems—is of considerable intellect. Their capacity for strategy certainly cannot be overstated.’

  At my side, Val broke, her mouth opening compulsively, as it so often did. ‘They’re a Player,’ she said. When Duchess Yua turned to her, eyebrow raised, Val continued, ‘The woman in charge. We believe she’s a Player, operating on Queen Amira’s behalf.’ The witch then went quiet, allowing this information to soak in the silence that followed.

  ‘We know,’ the duchess finally replied, her tone glum. ‘A woman by name of Niamh. It is she with whom Duke Cambelny and Chancellor Orjkan negotiated their deal—Goldmarch soldiers would enter their cities in order to help deal with the bandit menace. I am ashamed to say it was a man named Jacob—a strange, frivolous man, but still wearing the title of “Player”—with whom I came to my own arrangement. In hindsight, so obvious a ploy, yet who would think to call into question the sincerity of a Player, of all people?’

  ‘Then you know that it is your trust of Players that cost you everything,’ Corminar said, holding Yua’s gaze as it lingered on him.

  The Duchess nodded, though even this seemingly stoic woman could not help but blush. I supposed it was embarrassment rather than Corminar’s gaze that did it, though I’d seen the latter have the same impact on numerous occasions. ‘Indeed.’

  ‘This is what Players are like, you know,’ Val said. ‘They’re just people. Descendents of the Architects, sure, but just people. People with a good public image. You lot might think they’re all heroes, but that’s about as true for them as it is for the rest of us. And you know what? Maybe that’s even more true for them—something about being lauded seems to go to their heads.

  ‘You might think they’re heroes. You might still think that, but they’re not. They just do whatever gets them money. Or power. Or fame. They’re just as mortal as the rest of us.’

  Throughout all of this, Duchess Yua met Val’s gaze, not glancing away for a second. In that moment, I got the sense that she’d actually been a good leader—ready to listen, even if it challenged her dearly held beliefs. This was a woman who could keep an open mind. But, still, she needed someone to tip her over the edge.

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  I put my hand on the small of Val’s back to comfort her, the thought of Niamh—the woman who’d once tried to kill her—clearly having distressed her, but I kept my attention on the once leader of Lenktra. ‘One man’s hero is another man’s enemy,’ I said. ‘That’s the nature of questing; there’s always someone suffering on the other end. It just so happens that that’s you, this time, not some criminal or murderer or someone, who might deserve it.’

  Finally, the duchess’s steady gaze broke, snapping down to the floor. She sighed, and with it, I got the impression that it was a sigh she’d been keeping in for a good long time. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know. I tell myself that all I can do now is mend that which I have broken, but…’ She sighed once more, turning to the man at her side. ‘We should discuss.’

  Duke Cambelny replied to her with a nod. ‘If you will excuse us,’ he said, followed by another poorly practised bow. The two once-leaders left me and the rest of the team alone in the corner of the abandoned barn.

  ‘What make of them?’ Arzak said, keeping her voice quiet, at least for her.

  ‘They’re desperate,’ Lore said, ‘but I guess I’d be desperate, too. I think we can trust em.’

  Val piped up next. ‘Trust is one thing, helping them a whole other.’

  ‘Who said we help them?’ Arzak asked.

  ‘It’d be the heroic thing to do,’ I cut in. ‘I thought you were all on board with that? Killing heroes is just gonna make people hate us—even if those heroes aren’t actually heroes. But if we can present ourselves as an alternative…’

  ‘Even if we ain’t heroes,’ Lore said, ‘the Tundras is still our home. If we do nothing, and Amira and her soldiers keep taking towns for her kingdom, then we ain’t gonna have one. A home, I mean. It’ll be gone.’

  ‘You believe we—a mere five people—could make a difference?’ Corminar asked.

  ‘Maybe not us, but…’

  ‘They can,’ I finished for Lore, nodding to the exiled leaders. ‘You ever heard a bad word about them? You get all these stories about foreign lords and kings and such, and they sound tyrannical. But this lot? They’re popular. They’ll be able to bring people back to their cause.’

  Val looked up at me, her brown eyes dark in the low light, giving me the impression that she was studying me. She looked away when I met her gaze, and nodded. ‘Styk’s right. This lot? They’ve gotta be around after we kill Niamh. They gotta be around to take back what they lost.’

  Lore nodded eagerly, though Corminar and Arzak hesitated in following suit. ‘Long as we not die in process,’ the orc said.

  ‘Do we ever?’ I asked.

  ‘You have twice,’ Arzak pointed out.

  ‘Oh, yeah.’ Maybe that wasn’t quite as good an argument as it had originally seemed.

  A few minutes later, Duchess Yua of Lenktra and Duke Cambelny of Aptleed returned to us, bringing their families and remaining personal guard with them, this time. This was a conversation that all involved needed to be privy to, it seemed.

  ‘I can see that you are strong.’ The duchess glanced at me as if to say “except you”, but I let it go. ‘You do not live so long as a duchess without a highly levelled Identification skill, believe me. Perhaps, then, we might pay you to escort us to Fort Tanil? There, alongside Chancellor Orjkan, we intend to scheme, to plan how we take back our cities from the invaders. We would pay handsomely—we conceal gold, gems and artifacts on our person—and do not believe we would make it there alive without protection.’

  ‘You wish to add mercenaries to your revolution?’ Corminar asked.

  ‘I wish to survive our revolution. Will you help us?’

  I stepped forward, and reach out a hand. Duchess Yua took it.

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