"So this is his ploy," Greeves said, gripping the wall of the ramparts with a tightness, making his knuckles go white. "This is it, Nila."
"You warned us," she said. "For that, at least, we can be thankful."
For all the grizzly efforts that Greeves had delivered in the darkness, they at least knew to expect something of this quality. The defences were as prepared as they could be, as were the men, and as were the villagers. They had all the supplies that they needed to endure it.
"This bastard… I wish I'd gone to the Capital with the boy, so I could get a look of a man that was even more rotten than me," Greeves said. "I would have charged him in the middle of the chamber, and given my life for his. There would have been meaning in that. Might even have washed away all my sins. For that High King is a pissin' rot."
"You know it to be him?" Nila said.
