Yet another snowstorm came down over us and blanketed the world with more white. No one said much on the way out of the British camp. I rode my horse just behind Luthias's and recited Bible verses in my head: it kept my mind off of the gloomy feeling in my gut. Even Luthias seemed uneasy, but the others didn't say anything if they noticed it. The urge to touch his hand was painfully overwhelming and I kept having to push it back down inside.

This is no time to act like the silly little girl you are, I thought to myself, even if you both survive this war, he might not want you.

I wished right then I had never thought that, as it started a chain reaction. No man would have me for his wife…I had already given myself away. I would be forced to live either alone or with some other family as a maid or a nanny.

"What's the matter with you?" Luthias hissed in a whisper only I could hear. I didn't realize until then that a tear had trickled down my cheek. Hastily, I wiped it away and pretended I hadn't heard him.

Whither thou goest, I will go…I remembered from the book that had my real name.

Suddenly, the world exploded. Men came pouring out from around the trees. The little town lay just ahead, seemingly innocent of the fierce battle just a mile or two away. I realized in horror that the men attacking us had British uniforms.

"What in the Hell?" Luthias snarled in German just before someone shot at him. He dodged the bullet and Daredevil whirled around to face the attacker. It amazed me so much that rider and mount could so easily become one. I drew my sword and nudged mine into a hard run beside Daredevil. My sword sang as it sliced through the air. I didn't bother looking at the faces of the men I struck: I was too afraid I'd get sick and stop fighting if I did. Heinrich was firing his musket rounds into one soldier after another. There were minor injuries on our side, but nothing like the blood we spilled of the British. Luthias was snapping out commands and our unit was moving like well-choreographed dancers. Eventually, we found Nathaniel trying to hide in a bush.

"I didn't want to do it, honest! I was told to take you out!" he wailed.

Luthias pressed his sword against the older man's neck just enough to draw a drop or two of blood.

"Are there any others expecting us?" Luthias asked acidly.

"Yes…they're waiting for you in that clearing over there," Nathaniel sniveled, "they're hiding in the trees."

"I see…and what else haven't you told me?"

Another drop of blood trickled into Nathaniel's collar.

"Hiring you Hessians was the worst mistake we ever made! You care about nothing but yourselves! 'We need higher pay, better uniforms, better horses'. Our men are starving because of you!"

Luthias gave him an "are you serious" Look.

"Maybe it's because we are trying not to freeze," Luthias said calmly, "and because we know how to ration our food. You care nothing about your men and you treat them as though they are very easily replaceable. You are mistaken…I hope you know your God well, for He will be the next thing you see just before you meet the depths of Hell."

The slice was so fast that I didn't even register the movement until I saw Nathaniel's limp body.

It had no head. I sucked in a deep breath and Luthias cleaned his sword with a handful of snow. He turned to look at me and I knew exactly what his expression said.

"How did you know?" he demanded.

"It was the look in his eye every time he spoke to you," I said shakily, "it was as though he thought you weren't good enough for him."

He nodded. He glanced over his shoulder. Without our medical tent set up, the men were having to patch each other up as best they could. Thankfully, we didn't have any serious injuries or deaths. All around us, British bodies lay smearing the snow with blood. I wanted to leave.

"Come," Luthias said, motioning to me. I followed him and tried not to step on anyone's hands or legs. The other soldiers were rifling through the fallen's belongings to see what they could salvage. We got some money and a few other valuable possessions. Luthias had them pile it up on a clean patch of snow, then gave each one an equal share. The coins felt heavy in my pocket; I couldn't remember ever carrying this much money before.

"Now," he said as soon as everyone had gotten theirs, "I'm sure you know by now that the British have turned on us. I do not know if it applies to all of them or just this one unit. I can say without a doubt that it isn't a chance I'm willing to take."

There was a hushed murmuring amongst our crowd.

"I am curious…how many of you wouldn't mind switching sides?"

It was the craziest thing I'd heard him say and I hoped against hope that it was all hypothetical. Slowly, a swarm of hands around me raised. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My breath caught in my throat.

They would be on our side, on my side. I was no longer a traitor to my country anymore.

"I cannot make any promises," Luthias said, "but I will speak with some American generals and see what can be done. I want to get out of here as quickly as possible and we are not going that way."

He pointed towards the clearing.

While everyone was getting ready to leave again, I nudged my horse towards the clearing. It was silly, I know, but I had to see for myself. I gasped in shock.

There stood the crooked tree, all dead and withered. Two little girls in pink dresses were gathering firewood around its trunk. One of them looked up at me and I got chills. I turned my horse around and made it go as fast as it could away from there. Luthias gave me a questioning look as my horse suddenly appeared beside Daredevil.

"My dream…it almost came true…" I choked nervously, "it was all there…that little girl and that tree…"

"Do not worry about it," he told me, "it's over now."

And we left that awful place just as the sun was setting. I had never been so relieved in my life.

We set up camp several miles from Sleepy Hollow. It was going to be a bitterly cold night, so everyone was taking extra precautions. Heinrich and I made some stew and put the stale bread by the fire so it would warm up. It wasn't much, but it satisfied our hunger. Many of us sat by the fire and talked for a long time. Some of the other soldiers were beginning to warm up a little bit. Adolf was a very seasoned soldier who had seen a lot of battles and wore a lot of scars. The man had such a humorous nature that you'd never guess he'd been through several wars and buried two wives. He had friendly dark eyes and told entertaining stories. Jaegar was a very handsome man though he was roughly thirty-five or so. He was a little full of himself at times, but his loyalty to Luthias and the others ran very deep. He had no family or wife, so he considered us his family. Klaus was a very nervous, very high-strung little man who jumped at every shadow and sound, but he was quite dangerous on the battlefield. His overreaction to threats actually made him better in combat situations. Viktor was a man with a family at home and was just biding his time and earning money to provide for them. When we stopped at towns, he often sent a letter home to his wife. Ivan was originally Russian, but his family had lived in Germany for so long that he considered it his homeland. He had been there since he was small and his Russian accent was nearly invisible. There were many, many others, but these were the ones I remember the most.

"My father and brother were shearing the sheep one day and my job was to carry all the bundled-up fleeces to the loft," Adolf said, "and they said 'Adolf, you will never catch up with us.' They went to go eat the midday meal and I said I would be right there. I led one of the sheep upstairs and gave her some hay to keep her quiet. Then I joined them. After we finished what they thought was the last sheep, they said 'we beat you, Adolf'. I said 'no, you didn't…there is a fleece upstairs that you have not sheared yet'."

Everyone dissolved into laughter.

"You should have seen their faces," Adolf chuckled, "the sheep started bleating when she heard the others down in the pasture. They had to carry her back down the stairs."

Luthias and I took the first watch of that evening. I reluctantly watched everyone else go inside their tents to their nice, warm blankets. It was hard to believe I'd actually gotten used to the cold.

"I can't believe it," he muttered, "they're completely fooled…all of them."

"That's what you wanted, isn't it?" I asked.

"I never dreamed you'd do it so well. You act more like a man than half of the men in this unit."

I suppressed a laugh.

"That's a compliment, right?"

He almost smiled.

"What are you going to do after this war?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"I really don't know," he confessed, "there is nothing for me in Hesse. That's why I left."

"I see," I replied, "there was nothing for me where I was as well…"

Luthias gazed out across the frozen landscape.

"Being a soldier is all that I really know how to do," he told me, "I started when I was very young. My father was a paid mercenary and he taught me when the sword was almost bigger than I was. He was quite proud of me. He sent me to a military academy with the last bit of money we had. Shortly afterward, my mother passed away in childbirth. My sister never saw the light of day. It made us closer and we wrote letters back and forth all the time. He did not die a soldier's death—he died of illness, slowly wasting away into nothing. The doctors could not tell us what was wrong. I buried him in his boots, his armor, and with his sword in his hand just as he asked me to."

It was a terrible thing to have in common with someone, but it actually made me feel better to know that he'd felt the awful loss of a parent. Though he didn't get emotional (I hardly expected him to), I could see that he missed his father greatly.

"After I return home each time," Luthias said, "I visit his grave and I bring things back from other countries to leave there."

We fell into silence. I wished dearly that I could reach over and hug him, but I couldn't. There was always that chance that someone could see us. Then, suddenly, he asked "Which do you like better? Being a boy or being a girl?"

I laughed.

"What kind of question is that?"

"No, I am curious."

He really was.

I thought that over.

"Well…other than having to be very careful about others finding out," I finally said, "it's great. I don't have to wear those stupid corsets or layers upon layers of fabric to the point that I can barely move. I feel as if I can be myself more. And I really, really don't miss having to fix my hair or powder my face! People listen to me and seem to care what I have to say when I wear my uniform. If they knew I was a girl, I don't think they'd respect me at all. Even when I wasn't pretending…I suppose the catch is that I'll always have to hide some part of who I am."

The moonlight was reflecting out of his eyes, making them seem even more surrealistic than before.

"The sad part is that I cannot remember what you look like in a dress," he chuckled, "I would have to stay after the war just for that."

Something in the air shifted and it was as though the whole world hung on that one sentence. Though my chest tightened, I couldn't help but ask.

"Is that a promise?"

He grinned mysteriously, baring all those sharp teeth.

"I make no promises," he told me, "but the chances are in your favor."