They could smell the town before they could see it. It was nearly dusk, and the haze in the air was turning the horizon pink, accentuated further by the dull orange glow of fires, a false sunset masking the first, that had nearly sunk beyond the Sea of Squalls.
The road leading to town was littered with sundries and clothing, then heavier items like trunks and furniture as they got closer. Then full carts and wagons. Lastly, arrows and bolts, sticking out of the ground like feathered flora. Some found trees, some the sides of carts, and more than a few found bodies. Bodies of guardsmen some, but most found the backs of townsmen and their families as they fled from the invaders.
It would seem that the people of White Wind, who did not initially evacuate the town, felt that help was on the way, or that their goods were too valuable to leave behind. It did not matter.
The town was too small for a garrison from the capital, and the town guard was more than like hired swords employed by the sea town’s portlord, and funded by the local merchants and few nobles.
“Piss and blood,” Timette said, kicking at a smashed barrel that had fallen off a wagon in the flee. “I guess the race is over. We lost.” Either the battle this morning took a sight longer than it seemed, or the Mjardi ships are moving a little faster these days.
Sellswords liked money but they liked living a whole lot more. The guardsmen corpses strewn all over the road were either very loyal or very stupid. Not that there’s much of a difference.
“They must’ve thought aid was on the way.” Ruby said, from bent knee. He picked up a straw doll that the dead girl next to it dropped as a bolt had found the small of her back earlier that day. The big man tucked the doll under the dead child’s arm. He grunted angrily and stood back up, “Guess not.”
Sandi pulled a gold ring off a man’s index finger who was pinned to a tree with a bloody spear, “An’ what of it? You’re wasting your tears an’ temper for naught.” Sandi inspected the bronze bauble grimacing, and tossed it back to the corpse.
“These poor sods made their choice. Fools all. Well,” he glanced at the little body next to Rikk, “Perhaps not all.”

“You’re a heartless shite, you know that?” Jodfrey said, shaking his head and blowing out his mustache."
Beldan stared at the little girl as well. Not our fault. Not our fight. We stick to the plan. “We stick to the plan.”

“The plan?” Sandi laughed as he blew a tuft of straw-yellow hair from his eyes, “Now, no one doubts you to be a shrewd negotiator Beldan, but how much you reckon you can haggle from a corpse?” The archer hooked his foot under a dead guardsman and flipped him on his back, his patchwork mail thudding...