She skirted D.C., the smoke, the circling crows.

The time was coming, she thought, when she would meet the forces there, all of them. They’d come from the south, the west, the north, the east, ten thousand strong.

And when they freed those held in cages and labs and camps, the army would swell.

“Your mind’s busy,” Tonia commented. “It’s buzzing all over.”

“They fight for nothing there. They can’t stop. The city’s dead, a rubble on charred bones, but they won’t stop. Once we take it, all that’ll be left are ghosts and the hollow ring of false power.”

She left it behind, winged south. “See, a few camps scattered through the hills. Nothing permanent or structured.”

“Good hiding places,” Tonia said. “Bad roads, and the winters would be hard. A couple feet of snow, what roads there are would be rough going without a good horse or enough fuel to run a Humvee like Chuck’s, or a tank or snowplow.”

“Plenty of game, wood, water.” Fallon circled.

“Lots of water—lots of fish, probably mussels, crabs, clams. Get some boats seaworthy, and it’s seafood time.”

“Merpeople,” Fallon pointed out, and watched the jeweled tails flash as they dived. “Good warriors.”

They circled up, over a bluff. Good, high ground, to Fallon’s mind.

“No power,” she noted, “but those cabins look sturdy. There’s a clearing. I’m going down.”

The air sparkled, fresh, clean, and cooler than it had been. She smelled pine, and water from a stream, a hint of smoke from a camp a few miles west.

She walked toward a cabin that reminded her of the one she’d spent her first night in with Mallick on the way to his cottage.

“A hunting cabin most likely, or a vacation place. Log, well built. No power, but we can restore it.”

She saw the red flash of a fox, deer scat, tracks from bear.

“This is nice.” Tonia turned a circle. “I’m not especially a nature girl, but this is nice.”

Fallon flicked a hand at the door, opening it as she approached.

“Scavengers picked it clean,” she noted. “Nomads, probably, since they left the heavier furniture and there’s no sign anyone settled in for long. Ashes in the fireplace, old and cold.”

“The other cabins around here are likely the same. No supplies, but solid walls, roof, fireplace for heat. Tiny kitchen.” Tonia turned the rusted tap on a shallow sink. “No running water, but yeah, we can fix that, too.”

“One bath, toilet and shower. Serviceable, and more than I had for a year with Mallick.”

Tonia’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously? A year?”

“Deadly. This is better than I thought,” she decided as she walked out, pushed her way along an overgrown track to another cabin. “Secluded but strategic. Get the basics up and running, add security, sentry posts, communications. Clear some of the land for a decent garden, a greenhouse, beehives, fortify the cabins, and use one as an armory. Get those boats on the waterways. Flash or fly in supplies. There’s plenty of wood to build more cabins, for fuel. Let’s see how many…” She trailed off, looked at Tonia.

I hear them, Tonia said in her mind. North and south.

About three dozen. Hold on.

Not wanting to frighten off, but ready to defend, Fallon spoke clearly. “We’re not here to harm, or take. You have nothing to fear from us unless you attack. Then you have everything to fear.”

“Big talk from little girls.”

The man who stepped into the clearing made John Little look spindly. He reached seven feet, with a burly, muscled body clad in a scarred leather vest and boots, and denim pants worn to holes at the knees.

He had a face like carved ebony, a black beard that hung to his chest, black hair in a grungy series of braids.

And an arrow nocked in his bow.

Some of the handful behind him held wooden spears or bows. One held a sword in a way that told Fallon he didn’t actually know how to use it.

“Anyone would be little measured against you,” Fallon said easily, and kept her hands at her sides. “Is this your land?”

“We’re standing on it.”

“And so are we. If it’s your land, you haven’t made much use of it. Still, you’ve got no need to defend it from us. We’re not here to fight you.”

He smiled wide, showed the gap of a missing tooth. “Why would you? You’re outnumbered. Skinny girl with a big sword, best go back the way you came before we have to hurt you.”

“You know what?” Tonia cocked a hip, set a hand on it in a gesture of defiance. “I don’t like being threatened for walking in the woods. You?” she said to Fallon.

“No.”

Faol Ban slipped out of the trees, growled low in his throat. As the big man pivoted, drew back on the bow, Taibhse swooped down, gripped the arrow in his talons.

“If any of you threaten what’s mine, you’ll regret it.” She spoke to her spirit animals quietly in Irish. The wolf slipped into the shadows; the owl perched on a high branch. “Is this how you treat strangers who cross your path?”

“Strangers who try to take what we have, sell us into slavery.”

“We don’t steal, and we free slaves.”

His lip curled over the missing tooth. “Skinny girls with a wolf and trained owl free slaves?”

“Are there magickals among you?”

His face hardened, and despite the owl, the wolf, he drew another arrow out of his quiver. “Go. While you can still walk.”

Fallon pushed out power, just a leading edge. As she did, as the big man and the people behind him stepped back, she heard a baby’s quick cry.

She pulled back quickly. “You have children with you.”

Face fierce, he grabbed a spear from the man beside him. “You’ll never take them.”

“Oh, for the sake of all the gods. We don’t harm children, or take them. Wait.” She held up a hand, rippled the air between them, and drew her sword. She thrust it up, filled it with light so it gleamed silver.

“I am Fallon Swift. I am pledged to defend the light, to protect the innocent. I come to destroy the dark, to tear down all who seek to harm those who seek peace. With this sword, I will lead into battle those who choose to follow me. And we will cut down all who stand against us.”

“She’s damn good at it, too,” Tonia commented. “Come on, people. You’ve never heard of The One?”

“Just a story. A tale told to children around the campfire.”

“No.” A woman, a child gripping her hand, a baby in a sling at her breasts, pushed through.

“Liana, get back!”

“No.” She laid a hand on the big man’s arm. “I told you it wasn’t a story. Kilo, why won’t you listen? You’re The One.”

“Yes. And I see the light in you, your elfin blood.”

The woman had eyes as dark as night. Her dusky face bore a long scar down her left cheek.

“And in you.” Fallon crouched down to the level of the little boy with hair as dense and soft as a black cloud. “Do you see me? Do you see the light in me?”

The boy giggled, then pressed his face shyly to his mother’s leg, peeked out.

“He’s hungry.” She called Laoch. When the alicorn landed in the clearing, people gasped and murmured, drew closer together.

“We bring no harm, no threat. Tonia, there’s a peach in my saddlebag.”

Tonia brought it to her, kept her gaze, cool and even, on Kilo’s face.

“Is it all right?” Fallon asked Liana.

“Yes, yes, of course. Thank you. Say thank you, Eli.”

He whispered it, still shyly clinging to his mother. But he reached out to take the peach after Fallon mimed biting into it.

When he bit into it himself, his wide eyes and the long mmm as juice dripped down his chin made Fallon laugh.

“It’s all I have, but we can bring you more.”

“Why?” Kilo demanded.

Still crouched, she shot him a look of sheer annoyance. “Because your boy doesn’t have to be hungry, your people don’t have to be afraid. Because we’re not your enemy.” She straightened. “I’ll ask again. Is this your land?”

“We’re camped here, until we move on and camp somewhere else.”

“How many are you?”

When he folded his arms, Liana sighed. “Kilo, if you won’t trust her, trust me. I see who and what she is. What they are.”

“Thirty-six,” he muttered.

“Eight are children,” Liana added. “And one will bring another into the world soon.”

“Do you have medicals with you, healers?”

“I do what I can,” Liana said. “But I’m not skilled enough. The one who’s pregnant needs to rest. So we stopped here, only a few hours ago. Don’t you see the miracle, Kilo? Only a few hours ago.”

“There are no miracles.”

Fallon lifted an arm, and the owl landed on it. Faol Ban walked out of the woods to stand at her side. She gestured to Laoch. “A leader, even a stubborn one, should believe his own eyes. Would you stay if you had supplies, defenses, more people and weapons? If the shelters here could be made to serve?”

“A moving target’s harder to hit.”

“How long do you want to be a target?” she retorted. “How long do you want your children to be targets? If you stay, I can and will send supplies, weapons, more people who can train yours how to fight, how to plant, how to fish, how to build a community, and one with security. Milk,” she said to Liana. “Fruit, vegetables, blankets, clothing.”

“What do you want for all this you’ll bring?” Kilo demanded.

“An army. War’s coming. I’ll build that army whether you go or stay. I’ll bring supplies whether you go or stay, because your people need them. Whether you go or stay I’ll build here, in this place, because it serves my cause. And if you stay, or wherever you go, I’ll fight for you. She’ll fight for you,” she said, laying a hand on Tonia’s shoulder. “The army we raise will fight for you.”