Wildheart: Shattering the Warlord’s Silent Vow

The Warlord's Daughter plants a boot on the split stone and drives herself up the chimney first, one hand jammed into a crack, the other waving her fighters forward. Dust pours from above as the ledge groans behind them.

Tenda follows the line she marks, shoulders brushing rough rock as the passage narrows to a hard vertical squeeze. Below, the broken road sheds pebbles into the void, and the first pursuer's shadow wavers in the dust.

Daisy braces the Wounded Survivor from behind while Rex snarls up the shaft, teeth bared at the rim. The Warlord's Daughter glances back once, sharp and measuring, then slaps a palm against the rock to point out the safest foothold.

Tenda commits, hauling himself higher as the chimney opens by a handspan. Above them, the path bends toward a safer shelf, while behind, the ledge collapses again in a slow crack of stone and falling grit.

Tenda surges onto the shelf and plants both feet wide before the chimney can spit him back down. His hands shoot out on instinct, catching Daisy by the forearm as she climbs into reach.

He hauls once, clean and hard, and Daisy slides up beside him, breath sharp but steady. The Wounded Survivor follows on her heels, pulled by her grip and Tenda's brace against the rock.

Rex bounds onto the shelf last, turning in a low circle to face the break below. Dust spills past his shoulders, but the shelf holds.

The Wounded Survivor grips the rock with shaking fingers, then lets out one long breath as the climbing stops. Behind them, the chimney still groans, but the group now has solid footing and space to turn.