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elated to be back here, too, elated that they had
conquered the McClouds, elated to see that Kendrick and the others were safe.
She took pride in seeing the McCloud corpses littered all over the place, and she
was thrilled to see that her brother Godfrey had managed to survive, sitting
off to the side nursing a wound, head in hand.
    Yet
at the same time, Gwendolyn could not quell her deep sense of foreboding, her
certainty that some other terrible calamity was coming for them all, and that
the best thing for her people to do was to evacuate before it was too late.
    But
her people were swept up in victory. They would hear no reason as she was
ushered, with thousands of others, into the sprawling city she knew so well. As
they entered, Gwen was relieved to see that, at least, the McClouds had been
killed quickly, before they’d had a chance to do any real damage to all of her
careful rebuilding.
    “Gwendolyn!”
    Gwendolyn
turned to see Kendrick dismount, rush forward, and embrace her. She hugged him
back, his armor hard and cold, as she handed Guwayne to Illepra beside her.
    “My
brother,” she said, looking up at him, his eyes shining with victory. “I am
proud of you. You’ve done more than hold our city—you have vanquished our attackers.
You and your Silver. You embody our code of honor. Father would be proud.”
    Kendrick
grinned as he bowed his head.
    “I
am grateful for your words, sister. I was not about to allow your city, our
city, father’s city, be destroyed by those heathens. I was not alone; you should
know that our brother Godfrey put up the first resistance. He and a small
handful of others, and even the Legion—they all helped hold back the attackers.”
    Gwen
turned to see Godfrey walking over at them, a beleaguered smile on his face,
holding one hand to the side of his head, caked with dried blood.
    “You
became a man today, my brother,” she said to him in earnest, draping a hand on
his shoulder. “Father would be proud.”
    Godfrey
smiled back sheepishly.
    “I
just wanted to warn you,” he said.
    She
smiled.
    “You
did far more than that.”
    Alongside
him came Elden, O’Connor, Conven, and dozens of Legion members.
    “My
lady,” Elden said. “Our men fought valiantly here today. Yet I’m sad to say, we
have lost many.”
    Gwen
looked past him and saw the dead bodies all over King’s Court. Thousands of McClouds—yet
also dozens of Legion recruits. Even a handful of Silver were dead. It brought
back painful memories of the last time her city was invaded. It was hard for
Gwen to look.
    She
turned and saw a dozen McClouds, captives, still alive, heads down, hands
behind their backs.
    “And
who are these?” she asked.
    “The
McCloud generals,” Kendrick replied. “We’ve kept them alive. They are all that
remains of their army. What do you command we do with them?”
    Gwendolyn
looked them over slowly, staring them in the eye as she did. Each one stared
back at her, proud, defiant. Their faces were crude, typical McClouds, never
showing remorse.
    Gwen
sighed. There had been a time when she had thought that peace was the answer to
everything, that if only she could be kind enough and gracious enough to her
neighbors, could show enough goodwill, then they’d be kind to her and her
people.
    But
the longer she ruled, the more she saw that others only interpreted overtures
of peace as a sign of weakness, as something to be taken advantage of. All her
efforts at peace had culminated in this: a surprise attack. And on Pilgrimage Day
no less, the holiest day of the year.
    Gwendolyn
felt herself hardening inside. She did not have the same naïveté, the same
faith in man, that she once did. More and more, she had faith in only one
thing: a reign of steel.
    As
Kendrick and the others all looked to her, Gwendolyn raised her voice:
    “Kill
them all,” she said.
    Their
eyes widened in surprise, and respect. They clearly had not expected this from
their queen who had always strived for