Liam woke shortly before dawn, covered in sweat and shaking. He sat up and put his head in his hands. He'd been expecting the nightmares. He had gotten them when Padraig had gone down while he was a Squire, and six men had died after he took over command. They had gone away fairly quickly, but he knew these wouldn't. He'd willingly led his people in for a slaughter. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the negative thoughts and got up. He checked on each of the wounded, pleased with the progress of two of the more severely wounded men, but worried about Sandra. Her fever was still bad, and she was shaking despite the many layers covering her. He rummaged through the supplies and found a meat bone and some vegetables. He put it them in water to boil over the fire, hoping a strong broth would help revive Sandra, assuming she could be woken and fed in a few hours.

Liam let them all sleep past dawn, but eventually he shook Aron, Pila and Jayseb awake. He sent them out with the horses to look for any more survivors, warning them to be careful.

A few people trickled into camp as the day continued, and Pila and the others brought back more survivors than Liam had hoped for, but he was left drained and exhausted as he struggled to keep every one alive. After the second day, they had thirty-seven survivors. A blizzard hit that evening, and Liam scrambled to keep everyone warm enough. Sandra in particular was fading fast, and though Pila acted tough, Liam could tell that losing her would push her over the edge of her grief.

He and the few other healthy survivors worked endlessly to keep everyone alive. Keeping bandages dry and the fires going proved almost impossible as the snow continued to fall hard. Despite his efforts, two men died on the first day of the blizzard, and four more followed on the second. He'd expected Raoul and his men to arrive the third day when he'd begun rationing food, but the blizzard meant that their relief would be delayed. Their food supply was limited, and Liam was forced to begin rationing it, fearing that if they had no rescue and no way to hunt, they would run out of food.

Four days later, they were beginning to run low on food and Liam was down eleven more men. He hardly eaten anything in the last two days, his stomach unhappy with the amount of healing he'd been doing anyways so he'd decided to leave off to ensure that the wounded were getting enough to keep their strength up. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept more then an hour at a time. The blizzard was finally beginning to let up, but the snow was still falling steadily. As he checked on Sandra, he heard a cough behind him. He turned and saw Pila, shivering as she looked at him.

"How is she?" she crooked.

Liam shrugged. "The same, which is better then most are doing. Now that the snow is letting up, I'm hoping Raoul will get here within two days. Perhaps we can go hunt—"

He stopped as Pila began coughing again, finally doubling over as she fought to catch her breath. Liam cursed and walked over to her, feeling her forehead.

"You're burning up. How long have you been coughing?"

Pila shrugged. "I can't even tell the days apart at this point," she said tiredly. "Don't even think about healing me. I'll be—"

Another coughing fit interrupted her words. Liam struggled with his instinct to heal her. At this point she should be fine, though he worried about her food intake, suspecting she'd given most of her rations to others when he wasn't looking. She'd never recovered her body fat from the starvation she'd suffered before he and his men had arrived, and he doubted she'd been completely nourished even before the Scanrans came. Without the fat to draw energy on, her body would have nothing with which to fight even the most basic of colds, and she was well on her way to severe pneumonia.

"Into bed with you," he ordered. "Now, no arguments. Get in the bedroll with Sandra, pile the extras on. Maybe the two of you can keep each other warm. I need you to survive Pila. Do you understand me? You have to survive."

Seeing the look on his face, Pila nodded. Liam doubted she had the energy to fight him anyways. He watched her crawl in with Sandra, then dragged over a few of the extra bedrolls leftover from the men who died the day before and piled them on. Despite Pila's protest, he used a touch of his gift to ease the coughing that racked her, hoping she could sleep better then and her body could heal. Once she was asleep, Liam checked on all the men. Another one had died since he'd last checked. He waved Jayseb over and the big man helped him drag the body over to pile they'd made on the other side of the camp wall. Liam hated leaving them unburied for so long, but the snow meant that even Stormwings wouldn't disturb them for now. As he made his way back to the main camp he heard a horse whiney, and drew his sword wearily, wondering how he was going to summon up the energy to fight off Scanrans. He forced himself to run back to camp with difficulty, and Jayseb followed closely on his heels, his sword drawn as well.

By the time they got close enough to see, Liam could tell the camp was surrounded. He slowed and motioned to Jayseb to do the same, wondering where all these fighters had come from and why no one had so much as cried out.

He moved quietly towards the camp, careful to keep his footsteps silent. When he got closer, he cried out and dropped his sword. "Roald!"

His brother turned around and smiled at Liam, striding forward and hugging his brother warmly.

"There you are. Are you alright?" Even as Roald asked the question, Liam could feel his Gift moving through him, finishing up the healing on his arm and getting rid of the sniffles that Liam had woken up with that morning.

"Don't waste your Gift on me," Liam said. "I'm fine."

Roald ignored him, continuing his work. "We brought plenty of healers. Come on. You need food and to sit by the fire."

Out of habit as much as anything else, Liam obeyed his brother, letting him lead him to the fire, sit him down and wrap a blanket around him. When Roald handed him some food, he ate it mechanically.

"How are you?" Roald asked quietly. "I know this must have been hard."

Liam shrugged, not meeting his brother's eyes. Roald gripped his shoulder. "You did right. George just got word to us from our spies. You were right; they were headed for our grain stores. You ended the war before they starved this whole area."

Liam nodded numbly. "How did you get here through that blizzard?" Liam asked, not wanting to talk about his decisions.

"Daine got to us quickly, so we were most of the way here when the blizzard hit. We just trudged through each day. We didn't get far, but we didn't stop moving. Thank Mithros you are alright. Now drink this. You could use something warm in you."

Liam took the cup, not bothering to ask what it was before taking a deep gulp of the hot liquid. Now that there were others to deal with all the necessary logistics, Liam's thoughts moved to the nightmares that had plagued the few hours he'd managed to close his eyes.

Seeing the dazed look on his brother's face, Roald said, "Liam, go to sleep."

Liam shook his head. "First, I need to check on Pila. Then, I'll sleep."

"She's the mouthy one, right?"

Liam nodded.

"She's fine. I healed her up myself, while Alanna saw to her friend. Now sleep. You need it. We are going to try and send all of you and the soldiers to Giantkiller tomorrow morning. Second company and Raoul will stay here and continue your rebuilding efforts. I'll spell you to sleep through today and tonight. That might help restore some of your Gift stores."

Blue fire danced before his eyes, drowning out his protests and forcing his eyes shut and sleep to come. Despite his brother's spell, Liam's still woke him several hours before dawn. Drenched in cold sweat, Liam tossed his bedroll aside and stood. The snow had stopped and the skies were clear. Liam walked softly around, checking on his fighters. Those that were left would make it. He'd lost too many of them though, even after the battle was over. He climbed the ramparts and looked out over the snowfields. Freshly dug graves lined one side of the wall. They must have used magic to do it. The snow covered the bodies still left on the battlefield. As Liam looked out, he replayed his orders in his head. Pila was right. That moment when the line had broke was when it had turned ugly. Could he have prevented it? He repaired the break as quickly as possible. He was sure of yhsy. But why had the line broken? What could he have done? When dawn's first rays hit the sky, Alanna joined him on the ramparts.

"I talked to your men," Alanna commented. "You did well. You did all of us that had anything to do with your training proud."

"I could have done more," Liam whispered. "There must have been more I could have done."

"Could of's won't bring any of them back," Alanna said dryly. "Now pack your things."

Liam looked at her. "Now? Most of the men aren't awake. It will take us hours to get all the wounded up and ready to travel."

"True enough, but you and I are leaving now."

"Why?"

"Roald spoke to Jon last night. His majesty has decided I deserve some rest at Pirate's Swoop, as do you. The sooner we leave, the sooner I get to go home."

Liam immediately felt a leap of happiness at the thought of seeing Olivia, but he quickly deflated. "I can't leave them now."

"They are fine. You got them this far. The rest can take it from here. They'll get them healed up, give them special commendations and purses to match and make sure they have some place to go. None of them will have to do any more fighting."

When Liam opened his mouth to argue again, Alanna gave him her fiercest look. "Did you not hear me say the sooner we leave, the sooner I get to go home? Go pack. Now."

Liam grinned, knowing he wouldn't win the argument. He turned and raced down the stairs as quickly as he could. He packed quickly, but insisted on waiting till everyone woke to leave. He said good-bye to all those who'd been under his command individually and elicited a promise from Pila that she would come find him in Cours. At last he mounted the horse Roald had brought for him and dug his heels gently into the mare's side. He and Alanna headed South as fast as the snow would let them, both happy at the thought of returning home.

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Thanks for all those reviews for last chapter. It makes me happy and want to write more and faster so keep it up!!!

PS Zenobia teaser is up as well.