“Dead. Bolt through the chest. Casualties here?”
“None.”
“Good.” Niel nodded. He sent four more men down below to clear the rest of the wood, in case the volley began again, and to check the stable over and make sure Niel hadn’t missed any sparks. Niel fetched his cloak from where he’d dropped it in the snow and wrapped it around his shoulders.
And then they waited. His clothes had gotten wet in the snow, and he ached with cold now that he wasn’t moving. He hadn’t realized the sleeve that caught fire had burned him, but now that arm stung terribly.
“You ought to go inside,” Kerr suggested at last. The enemy fires on the ground had died down.
“Like fuck. If they attack again…”
“We’ll need you rested,” Kerr said firmly. “I suggest you go in, my lord, and most of the men too. Unless you’dratherkeep all your soldiers awake and on sentry duty through the night. It’s your order.”
Kerr said the words lightly, giving Niel ample opportunity to put his fist down. But as usual, Kerr was thinking more clearly about command than Niel was.
He’d be much happier working alone. If it were just Niel, hewouldhave stayed up all night, hunting the shadows for signs of movement. But Kerr was right. There was no use wasting their full force on sentry duty, and having all the men delirious with exhaustion if his brother attacked at dawn. And it must have been near eleventh, time for new sentries to switch out and Niel to go in, even if there had been no attack.
“They’ll be careful on the watch?” Niel asked gruffly.
“Never a sentry so alert as one who’s just been shot at,” Kerr said, his tone still conversational. Niel nodded curtly and rose to his feet, his body aching from hours of cold. Those of his men Kerr dismissed filtered into the castle ahead of him. Niel spared one last look out at the wall, the remaining men heavily cloaked and evenly spaced down the torchlit walls.
Ayla stood inside the hallway, her hands clasped together as she watched the soldiers filter back in. Her eyes widened as Niel stepped into the hall and closed the door firmly behind him. Had she been waiting here the whole time? She was wearing the same dress, a soft blue that brought out her gray eyes, even though he’d spilled hot water on it.
Niel folded his arms, legs shoulder width apart, and looked down at her. This passageway of the castle was dimly lit by lanterns, the walls and floor unornamented stone. The ceilingof the passageway was low for a man of his height, only a few inches over his head.
“Thought I told you to wait in your room.”
“Is it over?” she asked, completely ignoring his statement. Her voice shook slightly.
“Yes. You’re safe.”
He watched her shoulders loosen, fractionally. The movement was barely visible beneath her cloak, but he’d trained to pick up on subtle movements to see attacks coming.
He felt the irrational urge to gather her into his arms and feel the beat of her heart against his. He did not act on it.
“Did anyone—did they—?” she asked.
He drew a deep breath, his throat tight. He didn’t want to tell her how much of the lumber they’d lost. Oh, he and the men had saved a good deal of it for how quickly the bonfire had melted the snow and spread through the logpile, but at a quick estimate he thought they’d lost a third of the wood or more.
The rest of the winter siege was going to be fuckingcold.
“We lost Erit,” Niel admitted after a moment. Realizing she might not know all their names, he added: “he was the dark-haired man, with the missing finger.”
“The one who liked to play dice?” she asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“Ah.” She bowed her head for a moment. “I’m sorry.”
“Earlier. When I tackled you. That was wrongly done.”
She blinked at him, forehead wrinkling.
“Don’t be silly. You saved my life.”
“It wouldn’t have hit you.” The arrow had been at least a few inches off from where she’d stood.
“It could have.”
