Here's the opening again:

The bodies on the Ramshead battlefield were still warm when Old Alice came. Healers made furtive warding signs as she passed. Even the scavengers looting the dead scurried out of her way, not willing to risk her attention no matter what the reward. “You’ll find plenty to satisfy you later, you vultures,” Alice cackled. “I’m not here for rings and trinkets.”

She picked her way through the bodies, peering into the stunned and disbelieving faces of the dead. The defending Lymen and invading Uskars lay side by side now, their limbs intertwined like lovers. Most of the Lymen were from the Avan Gathering, she noted with satisfaction, with only a few from her own Lyon clan. “That’s what happens when you cross the Lyon Gathering,” she remarked to the corpse of young Dharmid of Avan.
 

Alice is walking through corpses for two paragraphs. She's talking to herself too much. There really is nothing going on here.

Your first line is passive.

Your tags are awkward. "Cackled" really, really stuck out. So did 'remarked.'

This is only 13 lines, yet we are already introduced to the following:

Ramshead field

Old Alice

Healers

Uskars

Lymen

Lyon Gathering

Dharmid of Avan

Lyon Clan

Warding Signs

Avan Gathering

I understand this is only 2000 words and that you feel the need to get this info out there. But it serves no purpose. It's just a lot of exposition that has nothing to do with anything. These names may sound cool, but they're just empty shells. Either drop all these references or make them work for you. This is a shallow attempt at world building, as it stands.

Does it matter where these people are from? Does any of this expostion, other than the fact that two factions are at war, serve any sort of purpose?

What exactly are Healers? I hate that term because it just sounds so RPG, D&D. Are they magical? They are noted making warding signs; what is that?

If you bring something up, you're going to need to explain it. Better to not bring these things up in the first place if you don't have the room to explain.

In 2000 words, I don't see how you can address any of this.

[This message has been edited by Swimming Bird (edited October 12, 2005).]
 

You've done a lot in that introduction, really. I have a strong opening sense of Old Alice as a character, which is good.

What I think I'd like to see by this point is where she's going, what the story is likely going to be about, and so forth. Everything we see here is in the past, so it doesn't build much of a sense of conflict or introduce (for me) a powerful question.

Both paragraphs seem to work, though. I don't think anything needs to be removed. However, if you can introduce more of a hook before that second paragraph, I would do it.

Others seem to like it, so it might be just myself that wasn't as hooked by those lines.