The fighting had lasted for three long days. Finally a muted silence spread through the remains of the deserted small town like a creeping sea mist, dispelling the relentless waves of sound that had heralded the battlefield.
The clash of weapons, guttural roars of irrational adrenaline fuelled rage, screams of the wounded and dying, thundering hooves of the war horses and the steady thud of pack animals pulling the heavy artillery, had all been allowed to fall quiet, fading away with the remains of the fleeing enemy.
But there was no true peace yet. The victorious warriors of SHIELD could not afford to rest without making sure that this decimated town was a safe place to camp. Then they had to tend to their wounded, bury their dead and finally still their weary bodies to gather the strength to continue to the next battlefield in this seeming never-ending war.
Lady Commander Carter strode through the main thoroughfare of the small town after the battle. Hazy smoke and fine ash littered the burnt out remains of the buildings. The bitter tang would linger until those left alive could wash it away with copious drafts of watered down ale.
The Commander patrolled with her elite guards in the dusk. She allowed the Captain to take point in the silence of the town. They had nearly cleared it and found no-one. The town's people had been warned to leave upon her army's arrival four days past but the patrols would be alert for their presence whilst they searched for stragglers from the defeated Hydra forces.
SHIELD, the legendary army of the great Queen of Cerrara, Her Merciful Majesty Maria d'Carbonell, had fought Hydra too long for her experienced warriors to trust the silence and seeming safety of a deserted post battle town. Hydra could be hiding and biding their time for one last act of defiant revenge against the victorious SHIELD army, more specifically against the Lady Carter, Triad Second Consort and Commander of the Queen's Army and her husband the Lord Stark, Triad First Consort and Weapons Master.
Thus the Lady Commander's personal guard and strike team, known and feared as the Queen's Avengers, wove silently through the town, weapons at the ready, hyper-vigilant after the carnage they had endured. They would not relax until they knew this abandoned ruined settlement was empty of any threat.
The Lady Commander noted the particular shadow flanking her to the left. A familiar but almost comforting sight. Not that she would admit that in words, ever. She hid her smile.
The Captain was utterly predictable with his stubborn determination to protect his Commander. Though sometimes the whimsical thought that the Winter Soldier was there to provide protection for the poor fools who annoyed her, tickled her fancy. Most especially when she saw his usually impassive face almost twitch with the effort to keep his lips still during one of her more edifying and loud corrections on the behaviour of one of said fools.
She did not rant despite what her foolish consorts thought. When there had been peace in their world, Howard would lounge there in front of her, that silly moustache twitching with amusement until she was distracted from her righteous indignation with the pressing need to drag him off to their chambers. Her Queen would tilt her head, her eyes would brighten until they gleamed with rich satisfaction, and then she would stalk her Lady Commander through the halls of the Royal Court with predatory grace. It had been a long time since the Lady Commander had been at the Tower to encourage such behaviour.
No-one dared to voice any objections to the fact that the Lady Commander herself strode with them. The first time the Captain had made that mistake, he had spent the following seven days running the camp perimeter in full gear, morning, noon and evening.
They were all garbed in the legendary masks, so deeply red that they seemed to absorb the light around them. No one was allowed to see the faces of the elite Queen's Avengers on the battlefield. And until the town was cleared and safe, they were still on the battlefield.
Their equally famous red and gold cloaks were turned inwards so that the black lining faded into the evening shadows as they quartered the area with hyper-aware vigilance.
The silence weighed on them heavily but their long day was nearly over. They had reached the western outskirts of the town where only the ruins of an ancient temple still stood. The lingering hint of lavender growing wild in what would once have been the temple's small herb garden unconsciously eased tension from sword arms and lowered taught shoulders.
"Stay sharp Avengers" the Captain hissed, knowing all too well the dangers of relaxing their vigilance when it appeared that all was safe. At his nod, the Archer took to the trees lining the small grove whilst the rest of the squad spread out in a well-practised and familiar move, although to the Lady Commander's wry exasperation, her personal shadow remained where he was.
She would need to have words again with the Captain about his over protective attitude but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, all her warriors came to a sudden halt, tense and ready as the silence was broken by an unexpected soft noise.
The Captain held up his hand and no-one moved, no-one breathed. The Lady Commander felt the adrenaline rush through her body and her grip tightened on her perfectly balanced weapon. The sword gifted to her by her Queen and specially created for her by the First Consort, her two beloved soulmates.
She saw her warriors flow into their battle stance with nary a sound and pride flooded after the adrenaline. There was a reason these were the best of her soldiers. That they were the Queen's Avengers.
The noise resumed and she saw the Captain swing his head towards her, eyebrows raised in silent bafflement. It took a few seconds for her to recognise what it was, she must have been wearier than she realised.
Someone was singing, soft and sweet. It echoed strangely from all around them.
She saw how the Captain tilted his head to try to identify where it was coming from, until her bodyguard Winter stepped forward and pointed silently at the base of the temple ruins. He slipped smoothly back into the shadows close to her once he was sure that the Captain had understood.
The Lady Commander took in everything, her mind running through scenarios and making plans but there was a part of her brain that was dedicated to that soft sound. It was hauntingly familiar, as if it came to her from the depths of time.
Time. Time. The splinters of a buried memory headed towards her beating heart with the deadly casting precision of the warrior mages of the
Kamar-taj.
By the Three, she recognised that sound. Her pulse pounded in her veins. She recognised that sound, the tune, and those sweet loving words.
For the first time in years her eyes were wet with unexpected unshed tears. She was truly grateful for the encroaching darkness surrounding them. The Lady Commander never allowed weakness in front of her warriors. She never showed weakness at all if she could help it. She drew a shallow breath, using her training and experience to calm herself.
A lullaby. Someone was singing a lullaby in this burnt out husk of a town.
But not just any lullaby. Someone was singing "Sleep little Sun". That simple old tune which was breaking her heart all over again and forcing luminous, agonising memories to the front of her brain.
Maria had been so beautiful when she sang that sweet tune, in her tired husky voice to their perfect new-born baby. The song had become a favourite for the child, for them all, it had soothed and settled the child to hear it and it had soothed and settled the parents to sing it. The baby had even enjoyed listening to Howard's off key rumbly tenor.
That lullaby instantly took her back to the place and time when they had all been so happy together, when the future had looked bright and the only things they had to worry over was who would get to hold their son first. Not even Maria's status as their beloved Queen exempted her from the soulmate squabble over their baby boy. He was so utterly wondrous and they had adored him at first sight. The tiny sun they had revolved around like star struck moons, with joy and excitement.
Sixteen years ago. That memory was sixteen years old. Their beautiful first born would have been sixteen now, declared a man, as they would have celebrated his rite of adulthood ceremony on the day of his birth. And their second wee one, the joyous addition to their little family, the babe she had carried for her Soulmates because Maria's poor body would carry no more after Antonio. Her wee soul would have been six now. If the child had lived, if either of them had lived.
Because five years ago their lives had descended into a cursed cruel hell when the land of Cerrara had been betrayed by soulless traitors and Hydra had invaded.
Their people had fought so bravely but the cost had been too high. The Royal Triad had lost their children at the final battle even as the victory cries were ringing through the city, as the Invaders fled ignominiously from determined Cerrarian warriors and vengeful citizens.
May the soul of that foul Betrayer Stane rot for eternity under the wrath of the blessed Tri-Souls, of the Goddess and her husbands, the Mage and the Wanderer. For he had murdered the young heirs in cold-blood, turning to laugh mockingly at the Triad's horrified faces when he threw first the children and then himself from the battlements into the retreating Hydra forces below.
They had all heard Antonio scream in terror as they plummeted to their deaths. Their hearts had been ripped from their bodies at that sound. It was the mercy of the Goddess that the babe would have been too small to understand what was happening.
The light had gone from the Queen's eyes that day and cracks had formed in their Triad. The grief and rage flooded through their bond until the only relief was to mute their link.
Maria had stayed to govern Cerrara whilst hunting for any remaining traitors, a pale cold imitation of the vibrant woman who had wooed and won her triad Lord and Lady.
Peggy's broken heart had sought ease in rage and vengeance and the permission of her Queen to form SHIELD to wipe the child killers from the very earth that they tainted with their existence.
Howard their husband subsumed his grief by advancing the technology of war and creating weapons which were the envy of the world, all the while travelling between the pair of them because neither would relent in their efforts to root out the evil of Hydra and send it to hell to join the Betrayer's black shrivelled soul.
Why was she hearing the song now, was she going mad? But it wasn't Maria's beloved voice singing so sweetly, it was the voice of a young lad. Though exhaustion and fear were layered through the soft voice, it was the love and devotion that rang true through the song which so forcefully reminded her of long ago happier days.
Peggy Carter might have been caught unawares by that old song but she was the Lady Commander of SHIELD and the Queen's Avengers. There were questions to be answered. They were near a quarter of a year's ride from Cerrara, the land the Carbonell's had ruled for centuries. So why was there an old Cerrarian lullaby being sung word perfectly in a Hydra infested region?
Logically there would be refugees from all parts of their war torn world but Maria had been determined to make Cerrara as safe as possible after the invasion. She had vowed to the Goddess herself to do her utmost to ensure that no more children in Cerrara would die because of the War.
SHIELD did not allow families to follow the army. Civilian adults were allowed to provide their goods and services to the travelling army after careful vetting but children were not allowed near. At least in that one way Peggy could aid her Queen and keep other people's children safe from the war, even though she couldn't protect or save her own.
The Lady Commander could unfortunately find no legitimate reason for a Cerrarian, young or not, to be in this war torn area, unless they were part of the traitorous group who had betrayed their birth land. All new recruits to the army had to serve the requisite six weeks at the various training camps dotted throughout Cerrara and the lands of their allies. They only made it to their cohort in the Army when they could at least hold a weapon without dropping it or slicing off a finger.
But that lullaby sung so gently with such care and love tugged at her heart. That sweet voice, brought up bitter and beloved memories of their Antonio. Their darling vibrant Antonio. Always smiling. Always talking. Always curious because he was fascinated with everything and everyone around him. All that intensity had focused on his new sibling. He had utterly adored the babe. The last bitter soul rending memory of his darling face was of his desperation to protect the little one from that Betrayer. The Lady Commander would take that memory with her when she faced the Goddess for her soul's judgement.
The Lady Commander straightened her shoulders and raised her chin. She refused to give into weak tears. The children had both been dead for five years.
Howard went been back to the Tower regularly to visit Maria but Peggy avoided it. Even now she saw her children falling from the battlements in her dreams. She could face hordes of screaming evil Hydra scum with nary a qualm but that marble and mortar monument to the murder of her children was beyond her courage.
When the souls bonds were finally stretched too far and the royal triad needed to come together for succour, Maria, her Queen, her beloved, would order her Lady Commander to the borders of their Land and the three would sate themselves with pain, fury, passion and finally utter adoration in the Royal tent under the leafy canopy of the huge forests of the ancestral lands of the Stark family.
Still the haunting singing persisted, the dulcet Cerrarian voice piercing her heart as sharply as a true Wakandan blade. She gave into her instincts. The Lady Commander would reserve judgement this once. The lad would be fed and safe tonight in honour of those beloved memories. Then he would be interrogated in the morning.
She would task her Intelligence Officer Ranger Coulson with discerning the lad's guilt or innocence. The Ranger was unassuming enough not to frighten the boy but he would get to the truth. Winter and her best scout Widow would likely be listening in but there was no need to terrify the boy into incoherence if he had to face them instead. Time enough for that if his guilt was proven.
As long as he was true to his Queen and country, she would even allow him to travel with them until they reached their main base and he could be put to work with the support staff if he didn't want to be a soldier or at least granted safe passage back to Cerrara.
"Widow, take the Archer and find me the lad who is singing. Bring him back to the Command tent"
The redhead nodded impassively and she slipped away followed by the Archer, whose eyes had sharpened with the focus of a bird of prey.
Carter watched them go and turned to face the rest of her officers. She could feel the intense assessing gaze from her personal shadow, and the puzzled frown of her stalwart blonde blue-eyed Captain that was sure to be on his handsome face behind the mask.
She ignored them both.
Ranger Coulson was the only one who did not show any confusion. There was a knowing look in his eyes. He was her best intelligence officer and if he wasn't aware of her family's history then he shouldn't have the job.
She refused to confirm anything though, just shot him a look of haughty indifference, hiding the small spark of her usual amusement at his long suffering scowl.
She took one last lingering glance at the shadowed temple ruins and then straightened her cloak as she raised her chin and ordered briskly:
"I want the rest of the area cleared now Avengers and allocate the perimeter guards. Get a move on, we've all still got to have our mandatory check with Healer Banner before we can eat. We don't want to make him angry. Nobody likes it when he's angry."