and Lopir. Dashain and Forrow lurked behind.
‘Your Majesty,’ Doranei called to announce himself, ‘Endine’s got news you need to hear.’
The king turned with a frown. The lack of sleep was clear on his handsome face, greying hair more obvious for the lack of his customary ostentatious hat. ‘Doranei. Should General Bessarei hear this? He was about to march the Kingsguard out.’
‘Ashain and Holtai are dead,’ Doranei said bluntly. ‘Endine’s just had word from Moorview.’
His words were met with a stony silence, though he could tell this was truly news to them all. But there were no gasps, no oaths or promises of retribution. We all know the enemy we face; we know how ruthless and inventive Azaer is. Our king expects setbacks already, and we’ve not even crossed the border!
‘It seems two regiments were not enough,’ the king muttered angrily. ‘I should have been more forceful with them.’
‘Your Majesty,’ Endine interrupted, ‘you and Ashain kept your distance for a reason, to preserve the truce between you. That he was too proud to accept a greater escort-’
‘Is my fault,’ Emin finished. ‘I should have given him no choice! To prevent a spat between supporters I allowed one to make a choice I knew was dangerous — and as a result that we have lost two of the Crystal Skulls. The damage those could do to our armies…’ His voice tailed off as he glanced down at the thousands of eager young men who might be about to bear the brunt of such a decision.
‘The Devoted have no mages to use them,’ General Bessarei reminded him, ‘and Dashain reported there are few in the Circle City to match ours — Tor Salan too, thanks to the Menin.’
‘And we still hold the majority,’ Emin said, seeming to rally from his despondency. ‘Dash, that’s your priority: bodyguards for each of the Skull Bearers, trusted men only. Not all of them have Endine’s skill or Vesna’s martial prowess.’
‘Morghien and Lahk are deployed well behind enemy lines; it may be weeks before even a mage could track them down-’
‘Then get started immediately — Doranei, take the news personally to those we need to protect. Tell them to gather together and consolidate their strength — though I doubt even Ilumene would try to kill them right under our noses.’
‘What about you, Sire?’
‘Me?’ Emin shook his head. ‘I’m in no danger from him.’
‘Are you sure?’
The king’s face hardened. ‘Azaer wants me there at the end, Ilumene too. This is personal for all of us; it has been for years now.’
‘Tactically it makes no sense either,’ Dashain added. At a look from both men she explained, ‘You make the greater command decisions, Sire; you are a known entity to them. To kill you when you are no Chosen makes no difference to the skill of armies, but it forces a new leader. It hardens the resolve of your people and most likely Count Vesna would take your place as supreme commander, aided by more experienced generals like Suzerain Torl and General Lahk. They might be foreigners, but they’re allies the legions will trust.’
‘It weakens the child’s claim to act as intercessory for the Gods too,’ Emin agreed, ‘if it’s the Mortal-Aspect of Karkarn whose banner flies over the army.’ He paused and looked out over the fluttering standards arrayed across the town and fields around it. ‘In fact, Dash, make that happen.’
‘I will.’
‘Ah, Sire, there was something else: most of the garrison was killed. Some managed to flee, and the civilians weren’t harmed, but the attackers stayed to fight anyone who’d face them. When the guards returned, they — ah, they found one of their own on the gate.’
‘On the gate?’ Emin stiffened. ‘Pinned to it? Impaled to the wood?’
Dornanei ducked his head. That was how Ilumene had left one of the king’s closest supporters on the night of his bloody defection to Azaer.
‘You bitter little child,’ King Emin whispered to the wind, ‘always the braggart and bully.’ He straightened and looked at Dashain. ‘Organise greater protection for the queen and my son as well. Dragoon all retired Brotherhood for the job. He’ll be keen to return to Ruhen’s side, but we take no chances.’
Dashain left immediately, almost running in her haste to get to the restricted chambers of the castle, where their more unconventional methods of communication were kept.
The king turned back to his view. He was silent for a long time.
‘All these recruits,’ King Emin said at last, ‘all these men we have gathered in haste… who knows how many Ilumene has seeded among them?’
‘That’s always the way,’ Doranei said. ‘In an army there are always strangers, men with unknown pasts.’
‘General Bessarei, lead them out; make all haste to support the advance army. We’ve already decided our plan. The worst we can do now is allow Azaer to distract us from the course at hand. This war must be won by swift action.’
Doranei looked at the tens of thousands beyond the castle walls. Their armies now were larger than the fifty thousand who’d faced the Menin at Moorview. Mercenaries from the Western Isles and the Denei Peninsula, battle- clans from Canar Fell and recruits from up and down the coast, men grown tall and strong over decades of plenty in the kingdom, bolstered by the finest of the Farlan and Amber’s hardened veterans. ‘It will be,’ he declared with certainty.
Emin nodded. ‘We’ve seen to that, Isak and I. We have escalated and hurried this conflict to disrupt the patient plans of an immortal. The lives lost by consequence are on us, chains we will drag up Ghain’s slope. The pace of war quickens. These are the final days, my friend. Soon the Land will be remade and Death’s Judgment against us all will be set in stone.’
Morghien watched the shadows lengthen from a marker-stone at the side of the road, pipe in hand but barely remembered as he waited. Tsatach’s eye was bright in a clear sky, casting warm yellow light over the young oaks lining the road. The air was cool, but his jacket was thick and covered in metal scales, so the journey here had been enough to warm an old man’s bones.
‘Too much of my life’s been spent waiting at a roadside,’ he muttered to the empty air.
‘ It is who you are,’ said a voice in his mind, feminine and as delicate as a wisp of smoke. ‘ A choice you made a century ago. ’
He drew on the pipe, just about managing to coax the last embers back into life. ‘I thought it was because I welcomed a Finntrail into my soul. Don’t think I ever felt the urge before.’
‘ What, then, are the treacherous gifts it compels you to leave for travellers at the roadside? ’
Morghien smiled. The origins of the Finntrail were a mystery even to him, but it was common knowledge that when a desperate traveller found food or drink by the roadside around twilight, they had likely been left by a Finntrail. Once the gift was consumed, the Finntrail would haunt their prey for days, slowing draining the life from them.
‘Wisdom,’ he decided. ‘Wisdom’s a treacherous thing in the hands of most.’
‘ Only its application. ’
Morghien shrugged. ‘And yet I pass on wisdom to all those I meet, Seliasei, irrespective of the brains they might have to apply it. Look at Lord Isak now, I opened his eyes to the unnnatural side of this Land and see how he plans to use that knowledge?’
The Aspect laughed, the trickle of water in a stream. She had been with Morghien longer than any of the others inhabiting his soul and knew his humour well. ‘ So you did — perhaps all this can be blamed on you. Without you I’m certain this fulcrum of history, this instrument of the Gods, would never have found his own way to destiny.’
‘Bah, you’ve been consorting with the Brotherhood too much, my lady,’ Morghien said with mock displeasure. ‘Starting to pick up their bad manners.’
‘ The company I keep… ’
‘Includes ghosts, Finntrail, unaligned spirits and other lost voices,’ Morghien reminded her. ‘I’m a civilising influence on the lot of you.’
He felt the Crystal Skull at his waist pulse as Seliasei drew briefly on its power, his eyesight suddenly sharpening to a hawk’s piercing clarity. ‘ Seekers of wisdom approach. ’
