Maud thrust. Seveline lashed at her, but she was too slow. Maud’s blade pierced her chest.

Too low. Missed the heart. Missed my chance.

Seveline dropped her sword, still impaled, and locked her hands on Maud’s throat. The air in Maud’s lungs turned to fire. Spots exploded in her vision. There was no way to break the hold. Seveline was too strong. Maud clamped both hands on her sword’s grip and dragged the blade, still buried in Seveline’s chest, upward, through the muscle and bone.

She will not kill me. I will not die here, with her hands around my throat.

Seveline was screaming, loud, so loud, spitting blood into Maud’s face. Maud’s lungs turned to molten lead. She forced the blade up farther, sawing through living flesh.

The light dimmed, Seveline’s face swimming out of focus.

With a last desperate jerk, Maud twisted the blade. The hands crushing her neck fell away. Seveline stumbled back and collapsed, her blond hair fanning out as she fell. Maud dropped to her knees. Her stomach spasmed and she retched.

Red liquid burst from her mouth and she didn’t know if it was wine or blood.

Get up. Get up, get up, get up.

She crawled to Seveline on her hands and knees and locked her hand on her sword. Seveline’s dead face glared at her with empty eyes. Maud forced herself up, into a crouch, then to her feet. She gripped her sword, put her foot on Seveline’s chest and pulled the weapon free.

The fighting around them was drawing to an end. She saw Arland walking toward her, armor stained with blood. Their gazes met and suddenly Maud knew that everything would be alright now.

The ceiling of the medward was pristine and white. Every cell in her ached, as if her whole body had been through such a long and grueling punishment that it simply gave up and now wallowed in self-pity and pain.

Maud blinked at the whiteness above her. She remembered many different medward ceilings from the last two years: the grimy mud-brown stone of the Karhari’s East Plateau, the thick metal plates of the Kurabi Fort, the multitude of chains hanging from the darkness at the Broken Well…She had woken up a few times like this, in pain and unsure, surprised to be alive. This ceiling was, by far, the cleanest.

I survived again.

She didn’t remember losing consciousness. There was Arland coming toward her, covered in blood, and after that, soft darkness.

To the side, quiet voices murmured. Maud focused on them and the formless noise congealed into words.

“…what if she doesn’t wake up?”

Helen.

“She will wake up.” Arland. “Her injuries are serious but not life-threatening.”

“But what if she doesn’t?”

Maud turned her head. Arland lay in an identical medcot. Helen sat by his feet, her blond hair drooping over her face. A smile played on Maud’s lips. There you two are.

“Am I in the habit of lying?” A touch of steel crept into his voice.

“No, Lord Arland.”

“Your mother will wake up. Have you thought of what you will tell her?”

“Nothing she can tell me will make me less mad,” Maud said. “There will be repercussions. Huge repercussions.”

Helen flew off the medcot and jumped the five feet separating them. Maud barely had a chance to move her legs out of the way. Helen threw herself at Maud, small arms wrapping around her neck. “Mommy!”

Maud hugged her daughter to her. “You’re in so much trouble.”

Helen stuck her face into Maud’s shoulder, like a kitten waiting for a stroke.

Arland was looking at them. His eyes were so blue.

Maud reached over to him, but her arm fell short.

“Hold on.” He fiddled with the controls on the side of his medcot. It slid toward hers. The two beds touched. Arland moved toward her and held out his arm. She slipped under it, ignoring the muscles screaming in protest, and settled on his chest. He kissed her. A hot electric thrill dashed through her, from her neck all the way down into her feet. Maud laughed softly. They stretched against each other, their bodies touching. Maud pulled Helen closer to her. Arland sighed next to her, sounding completely content.

“How did you get on the battle station?” Maud asked.

Helen didn’t say anything.

“Go ahead,” Arland said. “Tell her.”

Helen pulled the blanket over her head and burrowed under it.

Maud looked at Arland.

“She walked onto the transport and presented herself to the guards,” he said. “When they asked her what she was doing there, she told them, ‘My mommy is the Maven and she is waiting for me.’”

Maud drew in a theatrically shocked breath. “Helen! You lied!”

Helen curled into a ball, trying to make herself smaller.

“And nobody thought to confirm this?” Maud asked quietly.

“No. When I asked them why they let a child onto the transport going to the battle station, I was told she was very convincing and had an air of confidence. She didn’t try to sneak in or ask permission, she walked up to them and looked them in the eyes, as if reporting for duty, which apparently persuaded the battle-hardened knights that she was following orders and was exactly where she was required to be. All of our iron-clad security measures have been defeated by a five-year-old,” Arland said, his tone dry. “I’m less than pleased.”

That was pure Melizard. He could talk anyone into anything with a wink and a smile.

“What were you thinking?” Maud squeezed her daughter to her.

“I was helping,” Helen said in a small voice. “Am I punished?”

“Yes,” Maud told her. “As soon as I can think of a floor large enough for you to scrub with your brush.”

“I don’t care,” Helen said. “I helped. You didn’t die.”

Maud sighed and kissed her daughter’s forehead. “What are we going to do with you?”

“Command training,” Arland said. “As soon as she is old enough, in about two years, maybe sooner. She needs to learn responsibility for the people she will lead, or we will all be in a lot of trouble when she reaches adolescence.”

“I can’t think about that right now.” Maud shivered.

Arland wrapped his arm tighter around her. The heat of his body warmed her. She could’ve stayed like this forever.

“I love you, Arland,” she whispered. “You know that, right?”

“I know,” he told her. “I love you, too, with all my heart. Will you have me?”

“I will.” She brushed his lips with hers.

“Even though I am an arrogant idiot who took on nine knights at once?”

“Even though. You’re mine. All mine.”

He grinned at her.

The medward’s doors opened and Ilemina and Otubar marched in.

“You’re awake,” Ilemina announced. “Good.”

Maud had a powerful urge to bury her head under the blanket. Arland let out a low growl.

“Have you told her?” Ilemina demanded.

“No. I was about to, Mother.”

“Well, I’ll tell her.” Ilemina smiled at Maud. “We won. We destroyed over half of the pirate fleet. The rest of the cowards fled. We captured seven vessels and picked up a few dozen escape pods, all of them crewed with members of Kozor and Serak. Of the two hundred wedding guests, only sixty-eight survived. It was a resounding victory.” She turned to her husband. “Well? Say something to the boy.”

Otubar fixed Arland with a heavy stare. “You did well.”

Arland looked like hiding under the blanket had occurred to him as well and he was seriously pondering the merits of that idea.

“We are breaking the survivors up into small batches and shipping them off to Karhari,” Ilemina said. “We have several drop points around the planet, so there will be little chance of them reuniting.”

“What about the Kozor and Serak Houses?” Maud asked. “Who will be in charge now?”

Ilemina sneered. “House Krahr doesn’t concern itself with the petty political squabbles of minor Houses. I can tell you who won’t be in charge: the idiots who thought to test the might of Krahr. If they want to travel to Karhari and retrieve what’s left of their former leaders, that is their burden. I have a feeling they will be in no hurry to do so. No matter; on to more important things. I understand my son has asked you to marry him?”

“Mother,” Arland snarled.

“Yes,” Maud said.

“Did you accept?”

“Yes.”

Ilemina smiled, baring her fangs. “Excellent. We have some impressive recordings of the both of you from the battle on the station, lots of blood, many severed limbs. They are working on it now. We will splice it in with the wedding announcement. Shall we say a month from now? The valas will be in full bloom. You don’t want to get married on the battle station, do you?”

Arland put his left hand over his face.

Both Ilemina and Otubar stared at her.

“Ummm, no?” Maud said, not sure if she should brace herself. “I would prefer a traditional wedding…”

“That’s my girl,” Ilemina said. “Recuperate now. I will give the two of you the rest of today. Tomorrow the Marshal will need to assess our losses and the assets we’ve seized, and the Maven will have to go back to the negotiating table, because the aliens want edits to the pact and trade station plans and I cannot be trusted to not kill them while they bargain with us.”