The gate gave way on the third strike.
Not because it was weak — because Kai found the point where the bars joined the frame and applied pressure exactly there, which was different from applying force to the center where the iron was densest.
The door swung inward.
The townspeople came out.
First those closest — three women from Mirfeld that Kai recognized from the fair.
Then more.
Then hunters from Valdris who had been captured during the night Lira arrived, with the expressions of people who'd spent hours in darkness and were still processing everything that had happened the day before.
Eris watched from behind.
When the last one came out, she approached Kai.
"You don't have to think about them anymore," she said.
It wasn't a conversation.
It was practical information — the same tone she'd used for everything important since the fight began.
Kai nodded.
---
The last two came out.
