A Place To Bloom

Alone

I sat in the church with my back against the wall, alone. Water from the rain had plastered my hair to my back. Across from me was a pile of crumpled balls of paper.

It was my fault.

If I hadn't let Davod out... I should have known. I did know. They told me.

Holding Rock's limp body in the bloody grass, his face still haunts me. His eyes wide and glazed over looking towards the clouds, not reacting to my fingers, that open gash in the center of his chest clean through his back.

The enemy prisoners probably noted the number of men on the wall during their escape and passed that intel to their commander, who realized that was the perfect time to strike.

And, as the princess said, it was worse.

Carthia wasn't just a city; I compromised a system of fortresses.

If it was just the city, an enemy could lay siege and starve everyone out. So, the builders counted on three supply routes: the river route to the sea, the mountain passes through Terbulin and Saen, and the fertile flood plain where we grew the Emperor's precious sugar cane along with everything we had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The sea was cut off about a year before I arrived when the enemy took the Gate to Hell. That left only Tower Six downstream to shield Carthia from river attacks.

The mountain routes were guarded by the castle at the Lake of Doom. That was where Miyani was stationed—she lost her family, her whole people when the Sewu'oni betrayed them. She still blamed herself.

The flood plain was guarded against river crossings by towers Two, Three, Four, and Five, and it was protected from overland attack by Tower One.

Was.

Because of me, Tower One, 'Praying Mantis' was now the perfect staging ground for attacks against the plain.

The rain outside was relatively tame, but it had gone on for hours. Trails of water seeped through the cracks in the ceiling and meandered down the walls, pooling on the floor in rings of fuzzy green algae.

I'd resolved to tell Davod's parents what truly happened.

To Dara and Haegan,

From Caleb,

You've probably received an official letter from the Marquis that Davod has been killed in battle, but I wanted to write to you personally and tell you what happened. You deserve to know the truth.

There is a vine here that's highly venomous. We were in pursuit of an enemy who'd tried to attack us earlier, but Davod made a charge at them and we had them running. He led us valiantly through the woods until they'd set a trap for us. I nearly fell in, but he pulled me back. He saved my life, but just then an enemy arrow caught his arm. It shouldn't have been fatal, but the shock of it made him lose his footing and he fell into the vine...

I crumpled it up and tossed it with the others. They deserved the truth.

And what about Geraln? I should write to his family as well. They were the ones who'd invited me over for Jhodash. Father Yewan didn't like me partaking in those pagan festivals, but what was he going to say? Geraln's mum made the absolute best halvystra. She poured honey into the gravy and made the roux out of carmelized onions, and my God.

Geraln had gone to the knowledge tournament in Heralia City, and had asked Talys to care for his herb garden while he was away. She ended up fixing everything he'd done wrong and had it thriving when he got back.