VIRAN

  He was halfway across the room to open the door when he heard voices. Human voices, so the visitors weren't Auntie.

  When Viran cycled the mana to listen, the first voice was in the middle of explaining something important.

  "—trust me, I only saw two, and the other one just ran off. Nobody will think to check here, they're all running around looking for something. Unless you want to go get your bag from the snakes instead?"

  Viran frowned at the door, until he remembered why Dovin had gone off with Rattles in the first place. They must have found the squires, and sent them away from the fight.

  Two more useless people, swept out of the way of danger. Just like him.

  The second boy's voice cracked a little when he replied.

  "Are you sure we shouldn't just check the wagon for food and find somewhere to sleep? I'm exhausted, and the big one on the wall—"

  Viran reached for the bar. There would be beds upstairs in the barracks for the squires, and they could all be useless and dry instead of useless and soaked.

  "Don't be a coward. He wasn't that big, the other one was just sitting down. Come on, before he hears us."

  The door shook rudely, pinching one of Viran's scales when the bar slammed into the hooks.

  Viran's fingers sprang back from the barricade as if burned. That hadn't been a knock— the squires were trying to beat down the door for some reason.

  "Great idea. He'll never hear us coming now." The second voice said. "We should just take the wagon and go."

  The squires didn't know Dovin was looking for them, hadn't heard the Seraph. They thought they were just lost on a raid, believed they were still supposed to be fighting.

  "Maybe he's asleep." The first voice said after a moment. "I'll chop it open. Get your wand out in case he opens it early. Hurry."

  And they were hunting Viran.

  He had almost let them in, too. Missed the threat, and opened the door without a weapon.

  The door shook and cracked, jolting Viran out of his stupor. They were at least going to check inside for him before they stole the wagon, and the aurochs would keep itself safe, or not. It wasn't like they could go far with the supplies anyways.

  Auntie was on the way. Hopefully fast.

  So all he needed to do was hide somewhere long enough, and then someone else could explain what was going on for them. Someone with a weapon, and armor.

  Viran thought about trying to climb up to the rafters, but he wasn't sure if the boards would hold his weight.

  There might be a weapon there, but he couldn't watch the pass if he was stuck under the roof, far away from windows. He would be useless when Auntie arrived and asked what was going on if he didn't see the fighting.

  The same problem with not seeing the fight would happen if he tried to hide in the storage space under the stairs, and he would be trapped if the squires found him.

  "Stand further back, with your hands further away from it," The second voice said. "You'll get more leverage when you—"

  "Shut up. It's already heavy like this. Watch."

  The door crunched again.

  He wouldn't fit under the beds, and they were going to check them anyways, if they thought he was asleep.

  Running up the stairs would make too much noise, they would know where he went.

  The water barrel in the kitchen was full, and looked too small to fit his shoulders inside anyways. It also would have trapped him if he were found. What if they were thirsty?

  He would be stuck, if he went up the tower itself. They would obviously check all the way up at some point, once they didn't find him downstairs.

  So Viran needed a hiding spot outside the building, quickly, before—

  The door crunched again, and splinters sprayed across the floor with a clatter.

  "That one went through!" One of the squires squeaked excitedly.

  "Shut up and help!" The other bickered. "It'll be easy once we get the bar off."

  Viran was already halfway out the window by the time the idea finished forming in his head.

  It even felt like a good plan, when he found easy outcroppings and gaps in the stones to lower his claws onto. Sinking below the windowsill took a little doing, but turning his head sideways so his horns wouldn't scrape on the rock on the way by allowed Viran to see most of the pass.

  Including Dast, sprinting down the road to reach Dovin and turn him around.

  The door finished slamming open one second after Viran looked down and froze.

  "We've breached your defenses, there's nowhere to hide!" The bossy human declared to the now-empty room above Viran.

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  The squire's voice was not the scary part.

  There was no ledge on this side of the building. The tower had been built right up against the weathered cliffside. Viran's next foothold down would have met empty air, or scraped against a flat rock.

  He was trapped here until they left.

  "Where do you think he is?" Squeaky's voice drifted through the window above him.

  "Shut up, he'll know we don't know if he hears you." The bossy one was trying to whisper and give orders at the same time.

  Viran could barely hear them moving around inside over the patter of rain on the clay tiles. He dug his claws deeper into the gaps between the stones, trying for a better grip.

  "That's stupid, he wouldn't still be hiding if he thought we knew—"

  Violet light flashed behind Viran, and he heard the pop of another fireball. The Seraph was helping Dovin's Wards, throwing racing shadows across the mouth of the pass with every gleaming spell, but still retreating.

  Rain was not the only thing in the air. Stones were forcing some of the Wards to the ground, or preventing their advance when they found something to take cover behind. Even the ones with shields were being brought to a halt, with few other exposed targets left in the range of the slingers.

  But they were holding the mouth of the pass for Mirri. Wherever she was. And the Venatrix, who sounded busy.

  For a moment, Viran wondered what would happen if they lost. If the warband swept into the pass below, would they throw stones at him too? Pick him off the side of the tower to eat?

  Another fireball crackled, and the aether screamed from just outside Viran's vision. If he turned more, his horns would scrape on the wall. He couldn't see the Venatrix, but it sounded like she was fighting. Mirri's fireballs didn't make noise like that, unless she had practiced a lot over the winter.

  "Woah. Look at this."

  Boots scuffed on stone above Viran, and he heard metal clack against metal when both boys crammed into the window above him. They couldn't be following a trail of water to him, he had dried off. Mostly.

  His fingers were starting to hurt. Shifting his position would be dangerous right now, with the wall wet and the searchers right above him. His only chance was to stay still and hope they didn't know already.

  Closing his eyes made it easier. The wind smelled a little more like home at this altitude, with a storm in the air.

  Viran really wanted to be home right now. Even if he was the only one there.

  "Check upstairs. I'll keep an eye on this."

  He heard metal scrape across stone, and saw a nasty-looking lump of beaked steel leaned up against the top of the window frame. Probably the polearm they had destroyed the door with.

  His view was blocked when one of the humans leaned forwards, then the other. He bent his knees to sink lower, further out of their view with his arms stretched above his head. Neither of the squires had beards yet, but one of them looked like he was starting to get one on the underside of his chin.

  Or he was just bad at grooming himself. Viran didn't know enough about human faces to tell.

  "No way!" The squeaky second voice said. "We should both go, so he can't fight us one at a time. I'm not dying fighting some Immortal alone before I grow a beard."

  Viran didn't want to die before his jaw ridges finished growing in either. He didn't really want to fight anyone right now, but doing it one at a time was starting to sound like a good idea.

  He just needed to get inside the window first, so nobody would die. Falling off a cliff would be a bad way to go.

  Praying seemed like his best way of getting an opportunity to do that, but Viran hadn't prayed very often recently.

  Or at all, really. Anerean didn't answer prayers, and Mercy was Mirri's god of choice, not his.

  She might listen, if Viran tried. He didn't break any of her tenets that he knew about. And he was helping Auntie. Auntie was a very important person to Mercy. Maybe she would help him because of that.

  He just had to make sure she heard him.

  "Fine. Just keep an eye on the stairs too." The one that kept giving orders dashed his hopes that they would both go upstairs.

  The sounds of metal clashing drifted up from the pass, and Viran felt another vibration in the aether that came with a scream.

  "Wait, look! They're leaving without us!"

  The Bessos knights had last crept out of Viran's vision a dozen seconds ago. They were staying pressed up against the north cliff face, navigating far from where the Venatrix had just detonated another fireball.

  The Horde warband was organized above them, some smashing the stones of the fortress, others lining the edge with slings to use the ammunition, hurling them towards where the fireball had flared from.

  Viran started praying in his head. Loudly, so Mercy might hear.

  Hopefully that was the right way to do it.

  "They're not leaving, they're staying out of the fight. Using the fact that everyone is busy like a sneak attack."

  That also sounded like a good idea. For everyone involved. If Viran could fight the squires one at a time with a sneak attack, he could take a weapon, and have it for the second fight. Maybe the duel would last long enough for him to explain what was going on, and then nobody would have to get hurt.

  "That's just hiding and hoping nobody looks." Squeaky said, agreeing with the little voice in the back of Viran's head that was angry about being trapped. "We should check up—"

  The bossy squire interrupted him.

  "Shhhhh. Did you hear that?"

  Cocking his own head to listen did nothing but let Viran hear the pounding of his own hearts. Maybe the squires could hear something else. None of the gods were answering his prayers, but that made sense. He wasn't a priest.

  There were Immortals who could hear heartbeats, but Mirri said that was mostly in the stories, and Auntie said people only thought that was what she did. If Auntie couldn't hear heartbeats in a quiet room, squires couldn't be hearing his, down below the ledge in the wind and the rain with the chill creeping at his fingers and toes.

  "Hear what? He's not behind us." Squeaky's smooth chin dipped out of view.

  "Shut up." The bossy one barely moved. "Get that ancient thing charged. He might be doing something upstairs."

  Viran let out a soft sigh of relief, realizing the squires were imagining things. Or hearing the shutters rattle.

  He relaxed just in time to feel a fat drop of rainwater strike the too-tight protective covering over his head.

  The helmet pinged, ringing with a single suppressed note that sounded impossibly loud in his ears, even over the wind.

  Stone scraped almost imperceptibly as his claws dug tighter. The cold was starting to work through Viran's leg muscles, cramping them too as he hung exposed to the wind and rain.

  With bated breath, Viran waited.

  "You're imagining things." The squeaky one said after a few seconds. "I bet he's watching from all the way up—"

  Another drop struck Viran's helmet. He looked up, certain he had been discovered.

  The weapon was still leaned casually in the window. It was a nice piece of steel, Viran noticed. Someone had taken a lot of care forging it.

  And sharpening it.

  Thunder boomed, and the feeling of rainfall against Viran's back intensified with the wind.

  He got to watch the third droplet of water bead at the edge of the overhanging clay tiles. It began to fall as the gruff squire spoke.

  "Maybe. We should just check the second floor and—"

  The water fell right past the window, and struck him on the end of the snout with a splat.

  The wind was practically deafening, whistling around Viran's helmet. He had managed to close his nostrils in time, none of the water had gone up his nose. Sneezing out rain would have gotten him discovered for certain.

  It didn't matter.

  A lightly dented bronze dome crept over the edge of the windowsill until wide, round white eyes stared directly down at into Viran's own pupils through the gap in the visor.

  With a chill in his limbs starting to peel away his ability to fight the wind, Viran realized he was going to die, if he stayed still any longer.

  He un-bent his knees, and moved.

  electroreceptive function of these organs was not confirmed until 1960.