Chapter 16 - The Breaking

The courtyard skirmish had been going for twenty minutes over two sacks of grain.

"That warehouse is ours!" A soldier in bronze jabbed his spear toward the storage building. "We secured it three days ago!"

"You abandoned it yesterday!" The guard in blue stepped forward, hand on sword. "Anything left behind is forfeit!"

Five men on each side. All exhausted from days of civil war. All hungry. All ready to kill over supplies that wouldn't feed them for more than a week.

"The Commander says-"

"I don't care what your coward Commander says! He sits outside the walls while we starve in here!"

"Better than serving a mad lieutenant who threatens children!"

Steel cleared sheaths on both sides.