The cobblestones fifty feet below me seemed to move by me in slow motion, and the statue in the center of a fountain pointed its sword up at me as though signaling my flight. I always knew Alkandra was doomed. BeePorn “Can you heal yourself?” I asked softly. There, the few thousand Alkandran soldiers who survived the onslaught were fighting for their lives down the risers that led to the sands below. Carefully, I unwrapped my arms from the flagpole. “Ah, a farmer boy,” I said, smacking my lips, “and a vineyard horticulturalist to boot. Life’s a cruel and twisted bitch.Indeed. Here was the fulcrum of the battle. Hundreds of soldiers charged us, and only dozens lived long enough to run away. The world began to clear. On our way, other figures emerged from the haze. They crashed upon the building ten blocks away, then nine blocks away, then eight blocks away.
