I start feeling silly pretty soon after running away.

Like, yes, of course get away from Luke and Alex after delivering my message, best not give them the opportunity to ask any more questions or to conscript me into fighting—and probably dying—in the battle.

But what am I supposed to do now? I can’t just keep aimlessly wandering the castle halls until morning. The servants and guards around are too frantic to pay me any attention at the moment. But eventually someone will. As the front gate guard showed, at least some in the castle recognize me. And when they do, I’ll be right back to the awkward questions and possible conscription.

I can only hope that Alex and Luke and anyone else they might ask about me are too busy with defending Silverwood Keep to really care where I went, or mount a proper search.

Ugh, why couldn’t Aurelia have kept a lower profile in this universe?

Should I, like, actually go find the dungeons and play dead? Maybe I can finagle access somehow.

But I don’t even know where they are. Dungeons are always underground right? Do I just keep taking the stairs down, until I bump into them? Or maybe I can stop a servant and ask for directions? Would that be too suspicious?

I look up to see if I can spot any dim-looking servant to ask—and stop in my tracks.

While I’ve been throwing together a plan, the people around me have… changed.

More specifically, in addition to the harried soldiers and servants I was seeing before, there’s now a… full-on stream of speed-walking women and children, flowing in the same direction as me. All of them have absolutely terrified expressions on their faces.

What is going on?

I hesitate—but they’re clearly not castle staff, they likely don’t know me from Eve. I step forward and tap the shoulder of the first approachable woman I see.

She jerks, and I realize she’s not a woman but a girl, really, not much older than me. From farther away, I’d been fooled by the way her pleasant features wrinkled with worry. She’s holding the hand of the girl next to her in a death grip, and wearing a flower crown that’s seen better days. Full blossoms are missing from the semi-circle in her hair, and even the surviving ones are going brown at the edges.

“Where are you all headed?” I ask.

Her expression gets tighter. “To the chapel, as we were instructed.” She grips the hand in hers even more, if that’s possible. “Is there a problem?”

Oh. Now that she’s said it, it seems perfectly obvious what they are. Luke had even said in front of me that all women and children were welcome to take shelter in the Keep.

And of course she thinks I’m castle staff or something. A fellow sanctuary-keeper wouldn’t have asked what I’d just asked.

I raise both my hands in front of me. “No, no, not at all. Sorry to bother, I just got turned inside-out in here. The Keep is so big, you know?”

Her frown deepens. But she visibly decides it’s none of her business. She nods, and without another word sidesteps me.

I look at the stream of women and children from the sidelines for a few more moments.

Well. I’m a woman. And I’m looking for safety.

The crowd’s big too—and presumably the bulk of them had traveled from far and wide to attend the Harvest Festival like Winfred. They would’ve never seen Aurelia before.

I duck my head. And with another step, slip into the flow like a tributary joining the main stream.

 

It’s a good plan, if I do say so myself.

I almost carry it off without a hitch too.

Unfortunately—

“Aurelia?” A deep burly voice shouts into the crowd, just as I’m crossing the interior courtyard and am steps away from moving up the steps to the chapel.

I hunch down and scan around for some tall human to hide behind. But it’s useless. Aurelia’s too tall, especially in a crowd of all women, and way too distinctive with her bright copper hair.

Why oh why hadn’t I searched Aurelia’s cabin for a hooded cloak of some kind? That’s like, item number five in the list of medieval outfit essentials.

“Aurelia!” The voice shouts again. This time, it sounds like it’s directly behind me. And yup, that’s a hand on my shoulder.

I sigh, steel my posture, and turn around.

The guard greeting me is… honestly, a cliche of a guard: ruddy face, bushy beard, thick and stocky body. Granted, he looks a little past his prime, but still seems plenty able to out-run and out-muscle me.

“What are you doing here, lass?” The guard says. “Did Lord Alexandrius have more instructions for us?” He nods towards the chapel entrance, which is flanked on both sides by several grim guards.

Ugh, my precious. So close and yet so far.

I swallow around a dry mouth. “Oh, no. I’m just, you know”—I wave vaguely—“ joining the sanctuary seekers.”

The guard frowns. “For what? Aren’t you helping defend the Keep?”

“Uhm, no?” Like all the guards up by the chapel doors, the guy has a sword strapped to his belt and a shield strapped to his left hand. “Alex told me to stay here, instead? With the woman and children?”

He gives me a weird look. “And you let him send you away from the fighting? I never thought I’d see the day you follow that sort of direction.” ¹Joke’s on him, because I'd run away from the fighting even without any direction. Maybe badass, trained fighter Aurelia would’ve stood her ground—but I'm not her. Not that it ended up making a difference in the end, considering that in the process of protecting the weak and all that, she'd, you know, died.

“Well, you know, it’s super hectic right now, didn’t seem like a great time to push back,” I hedge.

The weird look doesn’t dissipate. If anything, it looks even more skeptical.

Come on, Gemma, I know you weren’t raised to lie well, but think of a better excuse!

The proverbial lightbulb lights up with a ding in my head.

“Alex needed someone out front. He sent me so we could do a swap and you wouldn’t be short a body. I think he figured it’d be good to have at least one woman guarding the women and children.”

That seems pretty plausible, right? There isn’t a female guard in sight. Hopefully one’s not lurking in the back or anything.

This... unexpectedly makes the guard fold his arms and scowl. “If Lord Alexandrius thinks my men would take liberties of any kind with these poor souls—“

“No, no,” I rush out. “It’s just to make them feel better. I can, you know, help calm and soothe them. Since I’m a woman.”

He looks at me for another moment.

And then he snorts. “Relying on you for feminine gentleness?” He shakes his head. Sighs. “As the Lord Alexandrius wants. Did he mention which of my men he needed?”

Did I just get insulted? ²Okay, I know he was referring to Aurelia but for the record, I have plenty of feminine gentleness! Whenever we visit my mom’s side of the family in Texas, all my aunts and their kids love me. I’m terrific at reading stories. And chasingthe kids around during tag and pretending to get super mad about losing.

But whatever, because I can’t believe that actually worked. Score one for Gemma and her golden mouth.

I bite my lips and scan the guards by the doors. Obviously I don’t know any of them from Adam, but—

“Him,” I say, pointing to the burliest-looking one. He’s got the face of a wrestler to boot.

The guard in front of me raises both of his eyebrows. “Gordon?”

There’s a lot of skepticism in his voice. I’m not really sure why. Maybe that man’s very important to the unit or something. But in for a penny, in for a pound.

“Yes,” I say, projecting as much confidence into my voice as possible.

He looks at me for another beat. I don’t let my expression waver.

Finally he nods.

“All right, I’ll send Gordon right now.” the guard says. “If you’re to keep an eye on the women and children, then you best stay inside the chapel. If the fighting takes a turn for the worse, we’ll either have you come out or reinforce the doors from in here.” He pauses. “Though enemies make it all the way to the inner courtyard, neither will make any difference. But we can at least buy time for those in the chapel to say their goodbyes and decide how they want to pass on.”

Well. That’s a cheery thought.

“Sounds a plan,” I grimace out a smile, and turn away. The faster I can get inside, the less time he’ll have to change his mind—

“Wait! Aurelia.”

Oh no. What now?

When I turn back, his eyes are on my waist. “No sword?” he chides. “I know you don’t prefer them, but in a fight like this, their reach is critical. I’ll get someone to bring you one from the storeroom.”

“Great, great. Thank you. I’ll be inside.”

I hustle away, ignoring the hisses of annoyance that follow me as a I shoulder my way through the crowd.