Dash?’
‘Before we reach the border?’ Dashain said. ‘Not many — another week and we’ll be into Circle City territory.’
‘And another week on from there before we sight Byora?’
‘Or an army marching out to defend it.’
‘You think they would face us?’ Emin looked back down the long column of soldiers behind them: nearly twenty thousand heavily armed men, Narkang recruits mainly, in this army alone, with Denei mercenaries adding a swift and savage edge.
‘Azaer does not care about losses, only to blunt our advance. It has all the Knights of the Temples at its disposal, so why not throw some in our path to drain our strength? But I for one do not look forward to laying siege to Byora. We can’t encircle the whole of Blackfang and now the Circle City’s unified behind the shadow, we’ll be attacked on all sides as we try to break the Byoran walls.’
The king sighed, hearing the truth in her words. ‘We are the invaders,’ he agreed, ‘and whatever slaughter we inflict will only cement the impression Azaer wishes the Land to hold.’
‘That he’s the beleaguered emissary of the Gods, besieged while his followers are slaughtered across the Land. More and more will flock to his banner until he has enough followers to become a God. Would the shadow usurp Death Himself?’
Emin gave a bitter snort. ‘I’m sure it would love to — but we will not allow it. It cannot, not without Termin Mystt and the Skulls.’
‘What about-?’
Emin shot Dashain a furious look. ‘Not another word — don’t be such a fool!’
She ducked her head in apology. ‘Not a cheering thought, though, is it?’
‘No,’ Emin said, frowning, ‘but it only adds to my resolve. We must finish this now. Isak must use Death’s own weapon to end this finally. If we fail in this, it is only a matter of time-’
Captain,’ Dashain called suddenly, barking the word loud enough to make the general’s aide flinch in his saddle, ‘pick up the pace. The bastards can rest when we’re all dead — until then, march them harder.’
General Amber turned and felt the spear crash into his breastplate and bounce away. Following decades old training he cut down without seeing, following his own momentum to twist and bring his other scimitar around into the neck of his attacker. The man fell and Amber pushed past, his right hand held close to his body as he stepped behind the next soldier’s spear and shield and drove his scimitar down into the man’s arm. The Devoted yelled in pain, trying to fall back, but before he could, Amber reversed the sword and punched upwards, shattering his jaw with the guard. Another party of Menin appeared from behind some trees and charged straight into the Devoted flank. Nai was at their fore, and Amber’s attention was caught by the poorly fitting square edged helm on his head. He tore his eyes from the mage — distraction here could get him killed — but even as he did so the Devoted troops crumpled under the pressure. Some turned to run, but few made it more than a step or two before Menin spears and swords pierced their backs.
He stumbled over a fallen man and had to catch himself on the nearest soldier, a squat brute who stood over a downed enemy, huffing with restrained bloodlust.
The soldier flinched at his touch, then noticed Amber’s Menin armour. ‘Hurt, General?’
Amber grinned, though his shoulder was aching badly where an axe had dented his pauldron. ‘By these little fucks?’
The soldier laughed at that — he was perhaps the only Menin there who couldn’t look down on these short westerners. ‘And the pay for killing ’em ain’t bad.’
Amber grunted as he sheathed one scimitar and transferred the other to his right hand. His injured arm was starting to go numb — not broken, he guessed, but it wouldn’t be in any shape to swing a scimitar for much longer: his were savage chopping blades which required strength as well as skill. With an effort he stooped and tugged a shield free from a corpse. It wouldn’t be much fun taking a hit on his bad arm, but the fight was far from over.
‘Nai,’ Amber called, waving the necromancer over, ‘where’s the Legion?’
‘Not far.’ He limped over, and Amber noted blood running down the leg he was favouring. ‘About half a mile that way.’ He pointed towards the trees on the other side of the clearing. Little more than deer paths ran through the heavily wooded ground south of the Evemist Hills and the army was split into companies and regiments, fighting a hundred individual battles in this place where there were no clearings or fields to fight in. ‘Bastards are dug in like ticks,’ Nai added. ‘They’ve got scouting parties and support groups in all directions.’
‘Lancers!’ someone shouted, and Amber’s regiment immediately contracted, like a spider drawing its legs in close. Leaving their injured, the infantrymen ran for the cover of their comrades and raised a wall of shields against the threat.
Nai abandoned Amber without a further word as he returned to his unit.
The crash of horses through the undergrowth was coming from two directions. Amber craned his head around to see if anyone was left out in the open, but he couldn’t see anyone. Clearly the lancers had come to the same conclusion; urgent shouts rang through the trees, calling off their charge.
Amber could just about make them out as they wheeled about: the soldiers wore dark blue tabards, and red caparisons protected the horses.
‘Must be Vener’s army,’ Nai called from twenty yards away, answering Amber’s unvoiced question. ‘That’s full uniform they’re wearing.’
‘So these are the men they’ve sent ahead,’ Amber realised at last. ‘Thought there were too many left to be the Akell troops.’ He looked up at the sky, squinting for a moment through the yellowed autumn leaves, but the sun was hidden behind thick cloud. ‘Someone find me west,’ he growled, glancing at his wrist where there was a tear in the sleeve under his vambrace.
A lieutenant shouldered his way over and pulled a lodestone from his own sleeve — it was a traditional gift for Menin receiving their commission. The mage-forged thin iron bar was hammered to a dull tip at each end, with a hole punched through it so it would hang free on a thread. It pointed west, towards the Palace of the Gods, the Land’s greatest concentration of power, unless skewed by something nearby.
‘That way,’ the officer said once the bar had settled on a direction. Both he and Amber looked east, following the other black-painted tip.
‘We can’t wait for those lancers to come back,’ Amber announced. ‘We’ll push through the trees there, move on another couple hundred yards, then settle down.’
The lieutenant repeated the order as he tucked his lodestone away, but the troops were already moving off, and Nai’s regiment followed suit a few moments later. The path was clear enough that they made good time, heading towards the same place the Legion were bound.
Amber caught the distant sound of fighting on the air, and looked around for a suitable place to defend if necessary. After some minutes he found a rise and positioned the two regiments up and around it. Once he was happy the men were properly deployed, he tried to get a better idea of the source of the sound: there were screams and shouts and the clash of weapons, but Amber was beginning to recognise the difference between normal troops in battle and the Legion.
‘Captain, hold this position until we return,’ he ordered, then turned to the necromancer. ‘Nai, you’re with me,’ he said, and pushed his way through his men. Two tall infantrymen fell in behind him; he was a general now, and the pair had been ordered not to leave his side without reason.
It didn’t take them long to find the source of the noise: a large encampment beside a river, surrounded on three sides by an earthen mound studded with stakes. It was filled with Devoted troops and a contingent from Tor Salan — Amber recognised the city-state’s standard — but the majority were not soldiers of any army. With a creeping sense of dread, Amber realised they were civilians, and they were being butchered.
‘Nai, order the Legion to withdraw,’ he hissed.
‘I’ve already tried,’ Nai said anxiously. ‘They’re ignoring me, or blocking me in some way. We can’t stop them.’
There had to be a thousand people in and around the camp, Amber thought. He could see some had weapons and were frantically trying to fight back, but the dead merceneries were savagely chopping through them.
‘Ruhen’s Children,’ he muttered, watching as two figures in long white robes went down under a flurry of axe blows. ‘They’ve brought their supporters here — are they supposed to be fighting with the army?’
‘I don’t call that fighting,’ Nai said darkly.
