FicWad

Crosspoint City’s residents live in constant fear of their new masters. Parts of the city are charred remains, and other parts light the night for miles around, many residents being burned alive in their homes simply for being loyal to their government. The city has been on the edge of a war zone for two years and has always had sporadic periods of violence in its history, being situated on the border of two nations, but the residents have never lived in perpetual fear for their lives, as they do now. For many, the city has become too dangerous for their families. They rely on the old networks leftover from the Revolution, when Crosspoint was a relatively safe city and a supplier of contraband to cities like Bridgeton, to smuggle their families out of the city and into safer territory, leaving behind their homes and possessions to be looted and destroyed. For some of the men who left Bridgeton during the Revolution to come to Crosspoint and for some of the older soldiers who remember the early days of the Revolution in Bridgeton, parts of Crosspoint look hauntingly familiar. The charred remains remind them of the injustices done to Bridgeton by the king, the very injustices that incited the Revolution.

In a small establishment in the village of Stillwater called The Thistledown Inn, a ragtag group of soldiers from several units and hometowns drink and plan, sitting far from the local regulars in their own corner. The locals are nice enough, but the patrons want nothing to do with plots that amount to war crimes, lest they should be caught. Their leader is the man with the lowest rank, which the locals find odd. He alone is determined enough to make their plot succeed, and he alone is seemingly determined to drink the rest of them into oblivion. The wiser heads do not dare to say anything to him, despite his misplaced idealism because none of them have thought of a way to penetrate the enemy’s defenses or move through the city unnoticed, and he honestly believes that he has. He has spent several days figuring out a way to make his plan succeed with nothing but determination and drunkenness to fuel his efforts.

Conan is convinced that his plan to sneak in in out of Crosspoint and to win it back through trickery will work. There is a deserted road to the north of the city that was abandoned when the cobblestone thoroughfare between Crosspoint and Stillwater was built. In order to use it to enter and exit the city, the timing must be precise. Colonel Callahan, who gambles with enemy colonels for small stakes, has amassed a small collection of enemy uniform pieces, which he told his gambling partners were to be presents for his son, nephews, and younger brothers. He has been collecting them since the war started, some as trophies and others for the children in Bridgeton, but he never realized that they might be of tactical importance until his younger brother asked for them. The group of men planning to sneak into Crosspoint is relatively small, but there is also an auxiliary force of local farmers, who are now barred from the market because of the occupation and who have crops to sell, who have volunteered to smuggle people out of the city and weapons into the city in order to arm the citizenry, reversing the trade routes used to smuggle weapons out of Crosspoint for shipment to Bridgeton during the Revolution.

Rose-Marie Callahan, desperate to get her husband back, allows her fifth-born son to help his brothers plan their father’s escape. He is eager to be allowed to help, but his mother tells him that once their father is safe, he must return to Bridgeton with her for another four years before he is allowed to join the Army. He would join today if he could, but his true loyalty is to his family. He is a dutiful son, and the Army would not accept him as a soldier at his age, especially considering the fact that his father is a General. He is not as big, nor as imposing as his four older brothers. He will not be allowed into the prison, but he is to stand guard wearing an enemy uniform and to lead the way out of the city. He has been practicing firing a musket for several days now in order to become more accustomed to the kickback and running with the weight, and he is beginning to realize that glory is not always what his father makes it seem. It is far messier and harder to achieve than it would appear to be. Devon’s brothers fear that he will be injured or killed during their operation, since he is inexperienced, small, and naïve.

Doctor Sparrow is a reluctant accomplice to the plot. Conan has convinced him to go into the prison with them and to act as if he were a combatant in order to gain access to the injured so that they may be triaged before they are smuggled out of the city. He must carry a gun for this task, and he is uncomfortable doing so. He is not a soldier. He is a man of peace and healing, just as Father O’Dunphy is. Conan has convinced both of them to go against their nature in order to help those who need it most. Liam has promised to keep his eyes peeled and to watch over them. Liam is excited to be fighting just as they did in the Revolution, when he smuggled weapons, and he is excited to be smuggling people in and out of the city, because smuggling is his expertise. In camp, he has become a great asset. Food and supplies are still woefully scarce, and, though the ground is currently dry, the snows have begun for the year. Liam’s travel and survival experience has become the difference between survival and death for many of the men in camp, and they are grateful for his assistance.

Major Fitzmaurice is afraid. He typically fears very little and can charge into battle completely unafraid of what he will see, but the thought of what might have happened to Lieutenant Barrett frightens him. He has taken to sleeping in Doctor Sparrow’s tent because he wakes frequently throughout the night. He trusts Doctor Sparrow not to tell a soul, but he does not trust the other majors nearly so much. He would trust them with his life, but he would not trust them with his secrets. Every night, he wakes several times in a cold sweat, screaming, shaking, and crying out. Only Liam and Doctor Sparrow know. To everyone else he is stalwart, reliable, and emotionless, despite the fact that Lieutenant Barrett, his fiancée, whom he loves dearly, was captured. The only difference that the rest of the unit sees in him is that he is somewhat less mirthful and that he has a newfound tendency to drink in the evenings. They do not know that he cannot sleep without whiskey and that he is slowly torturing himself with thoughts and nightmares of various things that may have happened to Lieutenant Barrett. He does not know if knowing will be better than not knowing. He merely hopes that the nightmares will wane or cease when he sees her again, if she is, in fact, still alive. He fears the worst. He realizes that she may be dead or that the sight of her could be so gruesome that he will never be able to forget it.

Major Moynihan is a steadfast supporter of his unit and would follow his Colonel anywhere, even into certain death. He is honest and loyal, but he has given a great deal of personal sacrifice in order to become a major. He has lost many men, but he remembers every name and every face. They haunt him every night before he goes to sleep, reminding him that he failed to save and protect them and that he must be humble. He is honorable and duty-bound, and he has given up the prospect of a happy life with his childhood sweetheart, having married the army instead. He sees her in the face of Mary and of Lieutenant Barrett. He lost her to a blacksmith while he was on a two-year deployment guarding the border nearly ten years ago, and not a day has passed since that his thoughts have strayed from the life he wishes he had chosen. He thinks every night about the life they could have had together and about the children that will never be, all because he chose the army instead of her. He asked her to wait for him only two more years, thinking that she would, but she did not. He is not angry with her. He is angry with himself. She told him that she did not want him to go to the border, and she told him that she would not be there when he returned. He thought she was bluffing, and he was very wrong. He was a new Captain at the time. He, like Major Fitzmaurice, attended Bridgeton Military Academy, though he did so when Major Fitzmaurice was merely a child. He had completed his required five years shortly before he left to guard the border. She asked him to resign his commission, and he refused. He still has not forgiven himself for her or for the men he has lost over the years. He knows that his only real family is his unit, and he would do anything for his men. He is on this mission because two of his fellow majors need him to be there for them. Major Callahan needs his father, and Major Fitzmaurice needs his fiancée. They are his comrades, his family. He is married to the Army, and that means defending his brethren, even if they are not as faithful to the Army as he is, even if they have families and women to whom they are more faithful.

Colonel Callahan is still not feeling well. He knows that he should not be rushing into battle and that he risks the chance of ripping his stitches a fifth time, the first time having been when he was drinking the night that Conan injured his eye, the second having been at Liam’s wedding when he stood on the table and it crashed under his weight, the third having been when he was in the woods with Doctor Sparrow, and the fourth having been when he insisted upon charging into battle with the rest of his unit despite Doctor Sparrow’s warnings. He is patiently biding his time, never riding his horse faster than a walk and refraining from his usual forms of exercise, such as knife and axe throwing and practicing his swordplay with his younger brother Brendan. He wants nothing more than for his side to heal so that he can continue his life as if nothing ever happened, but he lacks the patience to truly do so. Doctor Sparrow cannot convince him to be still and rest while his father is still in an enemy prison somewhere. He knows that if his father is killed, his head will be placed on a pike for all to see, a trophy of the enemy’s military might and a tool to break their will to fight. He will not allow it to happen for his country’s sake, but he also has personal motives. Colonel Callahan does not want to see his younger brothers go fatherless, nor does he want them to see their father dishonored. He does not want his mother or younger brothers to see the General’s head on a pike. Additionally, General Callahan would be proud to undergo torture in the name of his country. He would see it as a form of glory, but if he were to be dishonored in death, his sons doubt that his soul would ever rest. They believe that he would haunt their memories forever, never letting them forget how they failed him.

Brendan Callahan, who is, by all accounts, far quieter than his brothers, sits off to the side wearing an enemy captain’s hat, the trousers from his own uniform, and a white shirt, which is clean but somewhat dilapidated. He reclines and smokes cigarette after cigarette, glad, though guilty for being so, that he has some after having come to Stillwater, since he has been missing them desperately since he became trapped in Crosspoint. It was he who informed Conan of the escape route because he himself used it to leave the city when he became trapped. He is eager to save his father, but he worries that Kian, Conan, and Devon will not be prepared for the horror that they will see. He worries about himself and Owen as well, though less so, but he forces it out of his mind. Even Kian, a well-seasoned lieutenant, is unlikely to be able to stomach the sight of his own father after torture.

Kian Callahan is not nervous at all. He is the calmest man present. He sits leaning forward, eagerly listening to his brother, amazed at Conan’s thought and competence and wishing he had thought of it first so that he could have the glory. He is relieved to be out of camp for an evening. Normally, he sees his outings as a nice respite, but he has never truly needed them as he does now. With the weather having turned so cold so quickly, he misses the company of women, and with the camp being so low on supplies and with so many men injured, ill, missing, and dead, the morale is low. Kian himself remains unaffected, but he hates to see those around him so miserable. He, himself, prefers joviality, even in the most dire of situations, so to be surrounded by misery is a continual reminder of what he could have had. He does not long for Bridgeton or for Crosspoint. He longs for any city because cities have taverns and women. He hates to be without companionship but particularly without the companionship of women. Stillwater, though a lovely village, lacks women of questionable moral character in desperate situations. There is only one tavern, and there are no prostitutes. The people are quiet, coltish country folk. Kian, ever the party boy, misses city life.

Doctor Considine and Doctor Kiersey are amongst the men present, ready to help Doctor Sparrow with the casualties, knowing that there will be many. Doctor Considine is a seasoned combat veteran as well as a surgeon, though he has never fought in an urban environment before. He is eager to have life return to normal and to appease the gods of war, whoever they be. Doctor Kiersey, by contrast, has only been in the military for nearly one year. He is an old friend of Doctor Sparrow, and he only joined so that he could continue to serve Colonel Hagan’s unit in a medical capacity. His aims were admirable, but battle has left him nervous and wary. He is a man of medicine, not a man of action. Like Doctor Sparrow, he prefers to receive his casualties and to treat them, not to risk being amongst them, though he tries his best to show a brave face and to fight as hard as the men whose lives depend on him. He wants nothing more than to save the lives of men who would otherwise die slow, painful deaths caused by injury and subsequent infection. Unlike Doctor Considine, who has long been an indoctrinated soldier, he is not eager to cause more work for an enemy surgeon, though he keeps his thoughts on the matter to himself, especially since he serves with Colonel Hagan’s unit.

Colonel Hagan, normally outspoken and violent, drinks beer instead of scotch for a change. He is ill-tempered and impatient most of the time, but, for once, both having failed to discern a plan of action himself and having failed to find a fellow officer who was able to formulate one, he quietly sits, nursing his drink slowly, listening intently to a mere sergeant, whom he held in very low esteem until relatively recently, divulge a scheme that he himself would be proud to have as his own. He is eager to act because without high-level leadership, there is no action except defense, and he is a man of action. His men are eager for a fight, and so is he. He wants to retake Crosspoint by Yule, before the worst of the snows arrive and render the low roads into the city completely impassible. He is ambitious, but he knows what his men are capable of and that their loyalty to him is unfaltering. Few of his men are with him now, though. They are otherwise occupied with smuggling people out of the city and weapons into it. They are heavy infantrymen at heart, whose skill is skull bashing. They are ill-suited to the type of subtlety required to smuggle people out of a prison in a burning city. They are more suited to being the ones doing the burning. They are stalwart and fearless, but they are not, in any way, devious enough or quiet enough to perform rescue missions. He, on the other hand, is determined to prove to the Generals that he is more than a heavy infantry brute.

Michael Jameson volunteered to help for Major Fitzmaurice’s sake. He comes from a cavalry unit, but he was in a light infantry unit during the Revolution and has urban combat experience. His former unit is no longer in existence, having disbanded due to heavy casualties near the end of the Revolution. Its few surviving members were honored by the Senate, and most joined other units afterward, their experience having been instrumental in aiding the transition from the revolutionary norms and anarchical society to the return of laws, routines, and structure as well as the transition from ragtag bands of volunteers to a trained army, which helped to rebuild Bridgeton. Michael Jameson saw his sister imprisoned and saw her disappear at a youthful age, and he hates to think about how Lieutenant Barrett must be suffering. He owes it to his sister’s honor to ensure that no woman meets the fate for which she was initially destined if he can do anything to prevent it. He owes it to Mary to be the savior who comes for Emily, especially because her fate is guaranteed to be far worse than Mary’s ever would have been if she is not rescued quickly. He is not a religious man, but he is duty-bound to his sister and to his honor. He could not, in good conscience, abandon Emily, nor could he abandon Major Fitzmaurice, who needs a show of solidarity more than anyone else that he knows.

Lieutenant Hackett sits between Liam and Kian. Like Kian, he misses the spirit of camaraderie and joviality that once pervaded the camp, despite the casualties. He is compelled to help rescue the leadership because he wishes to establish a reputation for himself as being loyal to the Southern Army, despite having only recently transferred to it from the Northern Army. He feels compelled to show his patriotism and allegiance with the hope that he will be further embraced by the men from his new hometown, the city his father left in order to raise him and his siblings in safety, and the city to which he will return, in hopes that the south feels more like a home than the north does with no family left and only emptiness in the town he once called his home. At least among the men from Bridgeton, he has friends, though they are slow to trust an outsider.

Captain Boland, finally well enough to truly be of use, is eager to return to battle, despite the grim circumstances and the fact that the mission is nearly impossible to complete, let alone to complete successfully. The three doctors worry that Captain Boland’s lungs will not be able to handle the smoke hanging in the air in the city proper, as he is short of breath sitting near Major Callahan, who has been chain-smoking all evening, but he insists upon being involved, regardless of any potential consequences to his health. He is determined to be involved as a show of solidarity to his brethren. He is also determined to prove something. His loyalty is known, but his usefulness is in question. Some of the men doubt that he is still capable to hold the position that he does, since he has been bedridden for so long. He has his personal honor to uphold, as well as his loyalty to his friends to maintain.

Captain Morrison and Lieutenant Coffey sit together, largely refraining from consuming the amount of alcohol that their companions do. Captain Morrison is there out of loyalty to his Anglo-Irish heritage and to Major Fitzmaurice, who, like Morrison, Coffey, Hackett, and Lieutenant Barrett, is Anglo-Irish himself. Despite having finally become accustomed to the occasional drink, he is still a teetotaler most of the time and disapproves intensely of the consumption of alcohol on or before entering the battlefield, which is a habit in which most of his companions indulge. His attempts to rid himself of the nickname “Goblin” have been unsuccessful, despite his best efforts. He has become somewhat more open to his men, but he finds his place in the Captains’ quarters an awkward fit. He keeps in the company of Lieutenant Coffey, his lifelong friend, much of the time. He sincerely hopes that by participating in this rescue attempt, he will garner some degree of respect and esteem among his somewhat reckless, glory hungry troops.

Lieutenant Coffey is present to ameliorate his own reputation as well. He is well-liked and well-regarded by the men, but he hopes to earn himself a promotion, a medal, or, at the very least, a chance for a promotion in the near future by rescuing the Colonel’s father. He hopes to earn a reputation that will differentiate him from the other lieutenants. He is not power-hungry, nor is he desperate for a promotion. He is merely hoping for what every lieutenant wants: a chance for a little more responsibility and trust. He feels a small amount of guilt for taking advantage of such an awful situation and attempting to use it for personal gain, but his guilt is easily assuaged by focusing on the fact that there truly is a job at hand that must be completed for the welfare of the men involved, for his dear Major, who gave him every chance possible and treated him far more fairly than the others did, and for the greater good.

Lieutenant Killane is a quiet man. He serves directly under Liam. He has his doubts about the leadership’s abilities, but he is loyal to Liam and to the nation. He would die to save the lives of his men or to save Liam or Lieutenant Gaffney, but he does not entirely trust the decisions made by the generals or those made by Colonel Callahan. He is an astute observer by nature, and he knows that Colonel Callahan is not the most trustworthy of men. He has seen the Colonel sneak into camp in the middle of the night, long after curfew, with contraband items, so drunk that he can scarcely walk, and he has seen the same Colonel flog men for returning a minute past when they should have been in camp because they stopped to help men from neighboring units. Lieutenant Killane has also seen the way the generals party in town, even while men are dying on the battlefield. He knows that wars cannot be without casualties, but he does not understand what motive the generals could possibly have for sitting around drinking, fraternizing, and enjoying the company of women while their men are suffering and dying. He does not understand why they are not there when they are needed most. Knowing that Conan is the Colonel’s brother and the General’s son, Lieutenant Killane is unsure if he can trust him or not. He is wary of anyone whose allegiance might lie with men who are so unreliable in their own nature. He wants to trust Conan, for Conan is the only hope they have. He hopes that Conan is a man of his word, unlike his brothers and father. He hopes that Conan is trustworthy and dependable. He hopes that Conan is ready to plan and capable of planning such a thing. He knows that he is duty-bound to save the Generals if he believes in his country, his army, and their cause, but he is not certain that the current leadership is the best leadership. He will do his duty, regardless, and if he dies, he knows that it will be for Liam and not for the Generals.

Lieutenant Gaffney is more trusting than Lieutenant Killane. He also serves directly under Liam, and he also trusts him with his life, but it is in his nature to trust peoples’ intentions and motives, if not their judgment. He is critical of Conan’s plan, though not because he doubts Conan’s motives. He doubts Sergeant Callahan’s experience. Between every bit of explanation, he asks Conan many questions. He does not want to stop the plan, nor does he want to discourage Conan. He wants to force Conan to think long and hard about whether or not his plan is thorough enough and whether or not it can be successfully completed in the amount of time that they have between the time they will arrive in the city and the time they must leave it. He wants Conan to consider the coordination and possible outcomes carefully, and he does not want Conan to be too eager or too confident when they begin. He wants to prevent potential casualties by over-preparing. Some men present believe that his course of action is unnecessary, but he reminds them that they are about to walk into the most dangerous battle of the entire war thus far and that the likelihood of all of them returning alive with all of the prisoners they intend to rescue is very small and that carelessness only makes that outcome more unlikely. He is determined to make the plan work more smoothly by casting doubt over the potential for that possibility to happen and by ensuring that every man knows the risks and is prepared to face them with all of the knowledge they will need in order to successfully complete their mission.

The two female sergeants from the Thirteenth Bridgeton Light Infantry sit together. They have never before voluntarily spent time amongst the men. They have their own tent, and they keep to themselves. They bathe while the men are not present, and they do not mingle with them, socially or sexually. The men present do not know how to react to them. They barely know their names and yet are about to trust them with their lives. Major Fitzmaurice, always the gentleman, personally implored them to help him recover Lieutenant Barrett. Their initial reaction was one of confusion that a man, an officer at that, would ask them for any type of favor, personal or professional, rather than just handing them an order. Their next reaction was to decline, as granting his request would lead to other, less professional requests and would mean spending a certain amount of time with the men in the unit, which neither of them is entirely comfortable doing. Their final consideration was that Major Fitzmaurice would never harm them and only asked that they be there because his beloved Lieutenant, a female soldier herself, who understands what they live through every day, is one of the prisoners. Sergeant Anne Lydon is the more sympathetic of the two. She sits next to Sergeant Molly Tracey, whom she was only able to convince to help an hour before the meeting.

Conan Callahan, very unfamiliar with how operations and attacks are typically planned and ordered, painstakingly sat at his older brother’s desk copying a map of Crosspoint. Knowing from refugees that the jail where he was once held himself is being used to house the prisoners of war and knowing its location, he drew a detailed map of the area of the city that they will need to traverse. The older, wiser men huddle around the table while he points to streets on his map and refers to a list of notes that he made for his own reference, telling each of them where they must locate themselves and asking them to memorize only their own location and that of their two nearest companions. He knows that some of them will have to wear enemy uniforms and distributes them to the biggest of the men, the only ones whom the uniforms they have will fit properly. An ill-fitting uniform on a man or an enemy uniform on a woman would be more conspicuous than not having a uniform at all. He realizes this, and he has planned for it. They will enter the city silently at precisely half an hour to eight the next night. It is to be a new moon, and the weather conditions are correct for it to be foggy. He intends for them to use the darkness and the poor weather conditions to their advantage, helping them to conceal their entrance to and exit from the city and to make their move while the watch, which will probably be driven inside by the cold, is on its rounds. They will wait for the changing of the guard at midnight to exit the city.

Ever the skeptic, Lieutenant Gaffney asks Conan how they intend to conceal their race. Though some of the bigger men could pass for Werewolves and fit into their uniforms, the entire Callahan family has red hair. There is an exceptionally low prevalence of red hair among Werewolves but particularly so among their military officers because they have a law that requires all of their officers to have a proven link to a member of their nobility, even local nobility, either by marriage, adoption, or blood. Because all of their nobility is interrelated the prevalence of certain traits amongst them, and therefore, the officers, is very low. The number of blood relatives amongst the Werewolvish officers is very high, and the number of them displaying certain traits, such as red hair, is very small. Only a handful of officers who married into the family or were adopted into it for other reasons have such genetics. The likelihood of so many of them being on guard duty in the same location at the same time is nonexistent. Any Werewolvish soldier passing by will know that they are not truly Werewolvish officers if they are caught in such a manner, and they will be discovered immediately. Shaving their heads is not an option because completely shorn hair is a sign of shame in the Werewolvish culture, as well as because of the fact that men from Bridgeton rarely have short hair, and those who do are often Anglo-Irish, unlike the Callahans. Since many Werewolves have cropped hairstyles, Conan proposes that each of the men with long hair tucks his hair into his hat and that those with red hair use sloe berries and coal dust to tint their hair darker, since it is the proper season for picking the berries and since the current camp is surrounded by blackthorn bushes. Such a substance can be easily washed away in the creek along the road between Crosspoint and Stillwater, which is not yet frozen solid and where they will have to remain for some time to ensure that they have evaded capture before returning safely to camp, so as not to compromise its position to the enemy, particularly while its residents are asleep.

Still curious in regards to the specifics of the plan, Lieutenant Gaffney asks how they will get Devon and Sergeants Lydon and Tracey past the enemy. Devon is tall for his age, but he is still far shorter than the average Werewolf, is as thin as a rail, and has no beard. Devon is quick to point out that many Werewolvish soldiers are clean-shaven and that some are short, and he proposes using the same pillow trick that he used to impersonate the Colonel, since Devon can easily smuggle weapons into Crosspoint by hiding them the same way his mother concealed supplies for the men in Bridgeton during the Revolution, though he will be impersonating a heavyset grown man, while his mother pretended to be with child. He will hide the weapons in the uniform he will be wearing. Sergeant Lydon is tall for a woman, though thin. She herself suggests binding her breasts and hiding her dirty blonde hair in her hat, much in the way the longer-haired men will be doing. She is eager to prove her worth as if she were one of the men. Doctor Sparrow, whom she trusts, briefly coaches her on the structural differences in the anatomy of a man and that of a woman and briefly coaches her on how to walk and move like a man. He also suggests that she scream until she is hoarse before they go to town, so that her falsely low voice sounds more convincing. Colonel Callahan warns her not to let the rest of the men in the unit see her in trousers, lest they get any ideas, and she reminds him that she is well aware of the risks, having taken part in battle with them. Kian Callahan loudly encourages her to parade about in trousers for him, which is swiftly met by Major Fitzmaurice, Captain Boland, Colonel Callahan, Major Callahan, Major Moynihan, and Liam throwing various food items in his direction. Sergeant Tracey laughs, unable to keep a straight face at the sight of Kian Callahan, well known for his womanizing antics, sitting with three rolls and a potato on his lap and bits of broken glass from the two empty bottles he dodged on his shoulders, in his hair, and resting upon the brim of the Werewolvish Captain’s hat, which he took from Brendan shortly before dinner. Brendan removes it from Kian’s head, brushes the glass off of it, dons it again himself, and calls his brother a fool.

The group leaves The Thistledown Inn, the only tavern in The Village of Stillwater, and proceeds to the local cemetery. Tradition is strong amongst the men, and tradition dictates that, in order to ensure success before a battle, particularly before an urban battle, the battle dead of the past must be toasted. Stillwater Cemetery is small, and the local gravedigger, who has never before heard such a request, lets them inside, though visiting hours are long finished, with no argument and only a moment of consideration for his own duty after hearing their reasons for being there and tradition and making them promise that they will merely toast the dead and not disturb or disrespect them. They give him a bottle of fine whiskey from Bridgeton, and they leave him to it. He sulks into the shadows and observes their ritual from afar. His eyes are accustomed to the darkness, and nothing ever happens in Stillwater Cemetery at night, so they have his attention. They separate and search the graveyard looking for something. One of them finds a grave and signals to the rest.

He knows that the grave they have selected belongs to a soldier who died in the Revolution. His entire savings went into his burial, and he had no family to mourn him when he died, only one close friend. His name was Daniel Hand, and he was a friend of the gravedigger. Only the local priest and the gravediggers attended his funeral. The day he died was the day that Joseph Meade left the revolutionary army and volunteered to become the gravedigger’s apprentice, staying forever in his friend’s hometown, rather than returning to his own native village. He dug his master’s grave three short years after helping to dig his first grave, his friend’s grave, and he has yet to take an apprentice himself. He keeps his friend’s grave in good order as an act of love. The village does not pay him to keep the graves of the forgotten dead so beautiful, but he does. He is secretly glad that someone besides himself is mourning Daniel and showing him the respect he deserves, considering his honorable death in battle and the fact that his native village has forgotten him. It is nice to see that somebody cares about a forgotten, long-dead soldier, even if they are strangers. Each of them kneels, blesses himself, abd places a white flower on Daniel’s grave over where his heart would have rested, careful not to step over any part of his coffin or body. They then pull out a bottle of whiskey. The gravedigger cannot hear exactly what they are saying, but it sounds like a toast. The young man with the bandage over his eye speaks. He then kneels at the foot of the grave and pours a portion of the whiskey onto the soil, a sacrifice to the dead. He then drinks from it himself and passes it to the next man, who takes his share and passes it on until everyone has toasted the dead. They nod to the gravedigger by the gate on their way out of the cemetery. They then spit by the gate to rid themselves of any evil spirits and return to their unit, leaving Joseph Meade alone with his ghosts.

Those involved in the plot return to the camp of the Thirteenth Bridgeton Light Infantry. Those from other units have been temporarily reassigned for the week, as per Jack’s direct, personal orders, given from his sickbed, and the unit itself does not have enough able-boded men to join in combat. They sleep until nightfall, joining the rest of the unit for their meager dinner rations. Supplies are low, and morale is lower. There is no mail and therefore no way for men to tell their relatives that they are alright, and there is no way for the families of the deceased and missing to know, other than if their loved ones requested to be buried in Bridgeton. There are many pine boxes returning to that city, and many more that are buried in the empty fields around Crosspoint and its neighboring villages or that are unburied somewhere in a field, along a road, or in the woods, dead without a witness, mostly having died due to starvation or the cold, though some are victims of enemy bayonets and have not been returned or buried with information given, as per the rules of combat. What is left of the unit’s grain is largely being used for alcohol, in an attempt to use it in a manner that will preserve it, since much of the grain has been lost to moisture and rot. There is no meat. The unit is largely surviving on alcohol from Liam’s still and boiled root vegetables. Dinner consists of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and onions, boiled into a makeshift stew with no meat. The portions are small because there is no news of when supplies might arrive, leaving the unit unsure of how long they might be forced to survive on such meager rations.

During dinner, an injured animal wanders into camp. It is a thin, haggard she-wolf, carrying a single cub in her mouth. Many of the men, who are starving, suggest shooting her and dividing her up amongst themselves. Even as they run to get their guns, Colonel Callahan shouts for them to halt. In a final, desperate act, she collapses, her form morphing into that of a woman, her baby in her arms. Colonel Callahan calls for the Doctors and the priest. Jack staggers outside, ill dressed for the cold weather, the pain from his wounds hampering his motions severely. Conan and Kian lift her emaciated body gently onto the operating table to examine her wounds, which include a badly broken forearm. Jack bends down onto his knees and lifts the baby into his arms. He enters the surgical tent as Kian and Conan leave and tells the doctors to allow him to speak with the mother and have her wishes known before they operate, lest she lose her life.

Jack whispers to her in broken Werewolvish, and she replies in equally broken Vampiric. She tells him that her baby is only six months old and that she cannot produce enough milk to sustain it, nor can she afford to feed it. It is her first child, a young girl named Angela. The girl’s father is unknown, one of many soldiers who raped her and left her in the woods to die. She found her way into Crosspoint where she was taken in by a kindly couple with no children of their own, but she was shot and forced to flee the city earlier that day. She ran into the woods and hid until dark, and then she followed the scent of the cooking to camp. She tells Jack that her child would be better off drowned than alive, should she die, and Jack tells her that he would gladly raise the girl as his own and will not see her harmed, or, if she prefers, have his Werewolvish brother raise her. The woman thanks him for his kindness before the doctors put her to sleep to attempt to heal her.

Jack brings the baby girl into Stillwater and asks a local farmer near the edge of the village if he might have some milk for her. The man is shocked to have anyone ask him for milk, as most locals have a single cow for their own baking needs, and he usually makes cheese, but he brings Jack to his barn, regardless of his surprise. He finds it odd that a man in pieces of a tattered Vampric Army uniform, and one which looks extremely important, would be carrying a baby girl dressed in the rags of a Werewolvish folk costume and swaddled in blankets with traditional Werewolvish designs, but he is a quiet country man and glad for the extra business. Jack asks if there is a meat market nearby, and the man replies that there is a butcher in the center of the village but that it has closed for the evening. Jack pays him for his services and returns to camp with Angela in his arms. He wraps the baby in a spare woolen shirt as an extra blanket and places her in an empty crate, which he fills with rags to keep her safe, warm, and comfortable, and he watches her sleep, thinking of his own sons at home and how John is nearly two years old now but does not know him. Around eight in the evening, the doctors come into Jack’s tent to tell him that the she-wolf is awake but that she will probably not survive her injuries. They tell him that they will put her into a peaceful sleep soon so that she may die comfortably and that she wishes to say goodbye to her daughter before she dies, knowing that that daughter will have a future and a hope to change the lives of her people, despite her social disadvantage. Jack carries the infant gently into the surgical tent. He sees her mother’s blood everywhere, knowing that blood could save her, if only his brother or another Werewolf were there to give it to her. He tells her to sleep peacefully and promises her that he will send her daughter to live with Shane and Laura where she will be safe and well-loved, should her mother not survive her injuries. He promises to give the girl a fine education and silk robes and not to let her forget her mother or her nationality. He promises that the girl will one day be wed and have a family of her own, and he watches the doctors administer opium, which lets the ill-fated mother rest, free of pain. He then brings Doctor Considine behind the tent and orders him to get a syringe full of Werewolf blood while in town from one of the freshly killed prison guards, so that they may attempt to heal her another way. He will not let her die if it can be prevented. He personally watches over her and her infant, sleeping lightly in a chair in the surgical tent while he waits for the men to return.

Some of the men change into uniforms, while others wear civilian clothing. They toast at ten and then walk the long road to Crosspoint in complete silence to wait in the forest outside the city for the moment when they can enter it. At precisely midnight, the guard disappears, and they sneak out of the woods and silently up the path and into the back alleys of the city. After half an hour, they find the prison. Major Fitzmaurice leaves the group in order to find the whorehouse where he left Kerrigan’s son. When he arrives, he sees an array of beautiful women, each with a price for her love, each dead, each having been raped and having had her throat slashed. He steps gingerly between the bodies as if they could feel it, painfully aware of the blood covering the bottoms of his boots, the painful price of harboring a wealthy woman’s child. He finds the madam still alive, though barely so. She is too far gone for even blood to save her. She is on the verge of Death, whom he can see in his peripheral vision, ready to claim the poor woman’s soul. All of a sudden, her arm reaches up and grabs Major Fitzmaurice tightly by the wrist in a final desperate attempt to save those whom she and her girls have died to protect. She hisses that he must take her own son as well as Kerrigan’s, and then she falls away and breathes her last breath, satisfied that she was able to stay alive long enough to ensure her child’s safety. Major Fitzmaurice hides the two infants in the winter overcoat of an enemy colonel, which is much too large for him. He returns to the forest alone, taking a circuitous route around the city, and waits by the dead tree where they agreed to hide, hoping that the boys remain quiet and do not compromise his position. He will return to the camp before the others, as soon as he is sure that he is not being followed.

Inside the prison, where everyone else is rescuing the injured, having already handed weapons to citizens who were waiting for them outside, the situation is far more grim and gruesome. Although there are no civilians here, the imprisoned have been tortured for many days with no hope of death. With the only man who knows how to pick locks otherwise occupied, Major Jameson and Liam, who both have experience with urban fighting, break the iron locks, made somewhat more fragile by the cold weather, with hammers and extreme force, once the Callahans have slit the throats of the guards and stolen their uniforms to facilitate removing the prisoners from the city. Doctor Sparrow, unaccustomed to such personal violence, vomits in the corridor after seeing a few low-level prisoners released. Lieutenant O’Dunphy crosses himself and whispers a Hail Mary. Liam stops breaking locks at the end of the floor and returns to comfort Doctor Sparrow, who must muster the courage to accompany them to the uppermost level, which contains the most important of the prisoners: those who must be removed from the city in the clothing of the guards. They will be the victims of the worst forms of torture, and, after seeing a young captain blinded and maimed, forever reduced to a life of begging, he is genuinely afraid of what he will see when he sees the torture saved for the generals. He fears most what might have happened to Emmy.

Once the lower floors are evacuated, the members of the group who have not already left ascend to the topmost level of the prison. Their time is dwindling. They have only one hour left to reach the edge of the city to wait to leave after the four o’clock rounds, when the guards rendezvous and those inside and outside the city at that particular stretch of the border trade places. If they do not arrive at the edge of the city in time, they will have to wait until eight o’clock the next night for an opportunity to leave the city under cover of darkness and find somewhere in the city where they can hide until then, and their crime will be discovered at daybreak when the next shift of prison guards arrives, making the escapees targets of a manhunt. Liam and Michael are the first to enter the top floor. There are only four prisoners there. Only a few members of the rescuing party remain in the prison. Two more stand on watch outside. Liam and Michael break into the two occupied cells before the rest of the group reaches the landing.

General Vaughan of the Western Army emerges from his solitary cell, severely beaten and starving. He is barely recognizable, and his body is bent double, straining to support his own weight. He has broken ribs and a shattered eye socket as well as numerous cuts and bruises, but Doctor Sparrow is confident that he can easily solve these issues surgically. General Malone emerges next, aided by Michael Jameson, who brings him downstairs and orders Lieutenant Hackett to bring him to the edge of the city. He has one leg that hangs uselessly, dragging painfully behind him with every step, broken in several places. His walking must be aided, since he can put no weight on that leg. He also has broken ribs, a skull fracture, a jaw fracture, broken teeth, and numerous half-healed cuts and bruises. Doctor Sparrow plans on making him comfortable during a long, painful healing process induced by blood. General Callahan received the worst of the torture. Kian and Conan help their father leave. They must carry him on a stretcher made from the wooden cot where he is collapsed, a blanket torn into strips and tied around him for stability, and the legs broken off, turned sideways, and nailed onto the bottom as handles. He is delirious from the pain of his injuries. He has broken teeth, nails driven into his arms, two badly broken legs, a skull fracture, broken fingers and arms, a badly broken jaw that is tied shut, an ear that is only attached by a small amount of skin, no fingernails, patches of skin missing from his back, shattered eye sockets, shattered cheekbones, a broken hip, a dislocated shoulder, a broken collarbone, several broken ribs, and numerous cuts and bruises. He also has a high fever from an infection which has already become serious. He is barely recognizable, except by his long red hair, but his sons dutifully carry their father, careful not to cause him any pain on the journey, wrapped in an enemy uniform and laying on his stretcher under a blanket from his cell. Devon Callahan accompanies them from the door to the edge of the city, forbidden by his older brothers from seeing their father’s face, lest it should give him nightmares. Kian is himself nauseated by the sight of what their father must have endured, and Conan, though outwardly cold, is furious at the men who did it to him. Neither of them wants their mother to see their father in such a state, and they don’t want young Devon to have his innocence shattered. They would rather he think his father dead than see the truth of the enemy’s depravity, a truth they have known for a painfully long time.

Liam walks to the end of the corridor and sees Lieutenant Barrett’s body motionless. He turns to go, believing it to be too late to save her. He hates to think of her buried in an unmarked grave, but he cannot compromise the mission by bringing a dead body with him for sentimental value. Then he hears her whimper faintly. He tries desperately, but he cannot break the lock to her cell. He throws himself against the bars, but they do not budge. Michael Jameson runs to search for the key ring. Liam kicks at the door, shouting promises for Lieutenant Barrett. He dislocates his own shoulder throwing his weight against the door, and Doctor Sparrow stops Liam’s efforts so that he is able to return it to its rightful place. Liam cannot feel his own pain any longer. He is too mentally invested in saving the life of the last prisoner. He rattles the bars of Lieutenant Barrett’s cell, but he cannot open it. He collapses in frustration, and Doctor Sparrow lifts the hammer. He shatters the lock with a single blow, using all his strength and anger. He staggers backward in shock at his own rage and actions, and he drops the hammer to the floor with a loud clang. Liam wraps Lieutenant Barrett in a blanket as if she were a baby and gingerly carries her close to his body, her head tucked into his shoulder.

By the time they reach the edge of the city, the guard is already in its meeting, and they are free to cross. By the time Liam reaches the tree, Major Fitzmaurice is already gone. For this, Liam is glad. He saw what Emily Barrett looks like when he wrapped her in her blanket, and he does not want Major Fitzmaurice to see her until Doctor Sparrow is done with her. He does not want to see Major Fitzmaurice repulsed by the sight of his own fiancée, and he does not want to fathom what that would do to Emily, who seems determined not to cry for the sake of the men around her. She is quick to praise Liam, whispering into his shoulder that he is her savior. He promises that he will keep her safe and warm until Doctor Sparrow can see her, and he continually tells her that she is still beautiful and that it is her duty to fight for her life as the men have fought to save her.

At daybreak, they reach the camp of the Thirteenth Bridgeton Light Infantry. Major Considine and Lieutenant Kiersey returned to their own camps with many of the lower level prisoners, leaving Doctor Sparrow the three Generals and Emily Barrett. Many of the enlisted men taken in by the other units are maimed, missing finger bones or entire fingers. Some are blind, having had their eyes removed. Doctor Sparrow wishes that he, or anyone, could help them, but only a magical healer could fix such an ailment, and there are none available. Doctor Sparrow gives Liam some aspirin for his shoulder and sends him to bed. He then makes General Malone comfortable, sets his bones, and gives him blood. He does this to prevent unnecessary suffering, though General Malone’s injuries would, given time, heal easily. General Vaughan rests, and he is given blood as well. General Callahan, who cannot speak and is still delirious, is exposed to the cold in order to bring his fever down to a reasonable level, which makes him somewhat more lucid. Unfortunately, with lucidity comes the characteristic Callahan stubbornness that Doctor Sparrow has grown to resent in the General’s sons. He refuses the general anesthetics of opium and ether as well as the local anesthetic of cocaine. Doctor Sparrow removes the nails from his arms, which is an extremely painful process, cleans his wounds, and sets all of his bones, nearly covering him with plaster, and then gives him a gill of Jack’s blood to drink. Jack insisted that it be his blood to save General Callahan, despite his own injuries, which are healing slowly but surely, because he once swore a blood oath with Keegan Callahan during the Revolution to save each other at any cost to their personal wellbeing, and he intends to uphold it, believing the symbolism to be a powerful force that will aid in healing the badly injured General.

Major Fitzmaurice and Rose-Marie Callahan stand outside the surgical tent, impatient to see their loved ones. Doctor Sparrow tells them that they must rest themselves and wait patiently. He then returns to examine Emily Barrett. Her injuries are better hidden under her clothing than General Callahan’s. They have slashed her body to pieces but left her face and breasts intact, and Doctor Sparrow must stitch each wound individually. The hours are long and exhausting, but he carefully stitches her with his finest, tightest stitches, making her into work of art for Major Fitzmaurice’s sake. He also examines her and finds evidence that she was raped several times. Major Fitzmaurice leaves blood for her and returns to his tent to collapse alongside two small boys, whom he has put in boxes, much in the manner that Jack nestled Angela. His sleep is restless, and he worries, though he can do nothing but wait. Doctor Sparrow carries Emily to a private bed once she has taken her blood and nestles her gently amongst the blankets, as if she were an infant. He lets her sleep and heal, despite his friend’s eagerness to reunite with her. He, too, succumbs to fatigue and collapses on his bunk in his own tent, still wearing an enemy uniform and a surgical apron. He is exhausted, and he can do nothing further. Lieutenant O’Dunphy says a prayer for the victims before falling asleep himself. He can do no more, but a prayer is the only medicine that he has.