magical, as though spells were woven into his words to soften his hearers’ fears or steel their resolve, but Cart didn’t know how to draw the line between the Lord General’s natural leadership and his sorcery. It didn’t matter-his soldiers would follow Haldren gladly to their deaths.
Another chorus of howls erupted in the distance just as the canyon mouth came into view. The sound didn’t seem to be coming from the gap in the wall of boulders, but farther into the canyon. With a sudden jolt, Cart remembered how the worgs had caught him off guard before, with Tesh and Caylen-the constant sound of distant howls that didn’t seem to draw any nearer.
“On your guard!” he called. “Expect an ambush!”
Three worgs leaped out from hiding places in the brush and rubble ahead of them, and a quick glance behind showed him three more advancing on the rear.
Haldren didn’t hesitate and didn’t move an inch-he pointed at the three worgs behind them, the ones closest to each other, and engulfed them in a burst of flame. One of them staggered forward a few steps and then fell to the ground, its fur smoldering with foul black smoke. The other two hesitated, then turned and fled.
Cart could feel the elation of the other soldiers-with Haldren leading them, they felt invincible. They were chomping at the bit, ready to charge the remaining worgs. He reined them back-“Stay close. Let them come to us. Haldren is our sword. You’re his shield.”
At Cart’s reminder, the soldiers pulled back into a loose ring around Haldren and waited. Two blasts of flame erupted from Haldren’s hands and consumed another worg. The remaining two circled warily, careful to keep some distance between them so a single spell couldn’t easily encompass them both. Haldren snorted, spread his arms wide, and channeled a bolt of lightning in a line connecting him to the two worgs, passing neatly between the soldiers in their defensive ring.
Magic charged the air. Cart’s whole body, made and enlivened by magic, hummed with the echoes of the power Haldren had unleashed. The others must have felt it as well-they surged forward with Haldren as he resumed his stride, swept up in his storm of devastation.
CHAPTER 24
Haldren’s magic blasted a path through the gap against the canyon wall. For every new group of worgs that stepped up to defend the narrow way, Haldren had another spell ready to scour them with fire or sear them with lightning. As the Lord General had predicted, the narrow gap actually proved a hindrance to the worgs rather than a defensive advantage. Perhaps recognizing that fact, the worgs soon fell back and ceded the gap to Haldren.
Haldren seemed as swept up in the thrill of his power as the soldiers were, ready to storm into the canyon and obliterate any resistance the worgs tried to offer. Cart, though, suddenly realized the flaw in their plan, and he tried to hold Haldren back. “Lord General,” he said, “there might be a problem.”
“Damn right there’s a problem,” Haldren barked. “I’m thirsty. Somebody give me a drink.”
Tesh tossed a waterskin to Haldren, who drank deeply while Cart tried to explain.
“We expected the worgs to concentrate their defense in the gap, but they don’t fight like that. If they see a significant threat, they fall back and regroup.”
“They can only fall back so far,” Haldren said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “We’ll catch them all.”
“No, Lord General, that’s just it. They’ll do exactly what we hoped to do to them-they’ll harry us and fall back, again and again, slowly wearing down our strength until we decide to retreat. But then we’ll have to fight our way through the gap again-they’ll block it from behind us.”
Cart was relieved to see the Lord General pause at least long enough to consider his warning. “What do you suggest?”
From his tone, Haldren clearly had no expectation that Cart could produce a better suggestion. He bit back a soldier’s curse that sprang to mind, and considered the situation. “I suggest we fall back and circle the canyon as the other squads are doing. We’ll wear them down from the outside in, like peeling an onion.”
Haldren grinned. “I suggest a different simile,” he said. “I say we pit them like a cherry-continue in until we find their heart, then cut it out.”
A chorus of cheers drowned out Cart’s attempt to protest further, and he shrugged. Perhaps Haldren was right-he’d had no difficulty yet in dispatching every worg they met. There didn’t seem to be any reason to expect more trouble. That was exactly why he did expect it.
Haldren’s confidence seemed fully justified, even if Cart also had good reason for his trepidation. They advanced slowly through the canyon, encountering occasional packs of worgs who nipped at their heels briefly before retreating, usually with at least one worg dead and no serious harm done to Haldren or his squad. Cart had been correct in his reading of the worgs’ tactics, but Haldren had apparently been right in assessing the threat they posed.
After routing the third group of worgs, the group advanced steadily for an hour without seeing any more of the demon-wolves. Distant howls assured them that there were still worgs to fight, but no more attacked them, even as they drew close to the end of the canyon. Near the canyon’s head, it was a narrow, jagged cut in the earth, and Cart couldn’t see more than a dozen yards ahead of them at any time. Tesh scouted at the front of the group, wary of an ambush.
When Tesh fell to his knees, Cart’s first thought was that he’d been hit by an enemy arrow-but of course the worgs didn’t use arrows. The scout had crept up to the next turn and peered around a rocky buttress jutting from the canyon wall, and whatever he saw sapped his strength. Cart ran to his side.
“What is it?” he demanded. “Keep it together, soldier.”
Tesh got to his feet, but he was pale and unsteady. He said nothing, only waved a weak hand at the canyon ahead.
Cart looked around the corner, and his limbs suddenly felt like lead. He saw Verren first-spread-eagled on the canyon floor, his guts ripped out and strewn across the ground, linking him in a line with the other members of his squad, crossing the width of the canyon. As mangled as their bodies were, their faces were all intact, wrenched into expressions of terrible pain. The worgs had wanted to make sure the dead soldiers’ friends would recognize them.
Haldren strode forward to stand behind Cart. “What is the problem?” he asked.
“It’s one of our squads, Lord General,” Cart said. His mind felt blank, and he couldn’t remember the name of the squad’s sergeant.
“All dead.”
“Idiots,” Haldren spat. “Let me see.” He pushed past Cart. “The worgs left them as a warning.”
“That’s more than a warning,” Haldren said. “That’s a barrier.”
“Lord General?”
“They used the bodies in a ritual to create a wall we can’t penetrate, at least not right away. I can get it down, but it will take some time.”
“A wall?” Tesh said. Wide-eyed, he looked back along the canyon. “That means we’re trapped here.”
“They’ll attack here, certainly,” Cart said. “We’ll have to fight them off before you take the wall down.”
For the first time, Haldren seemed nervous about the possibility of a worg attack. “I’ll start on the wall now. There’s a chance I can get it done before they attack, and we won’t be boxed in. If not, I can pick up where I left off after we’ve killed them all.” He turned the corner and started toward the bodies, but turned back after a few steps. “Cart, keep the others back. They don’t need to see this.”
Cart put a hand on Tesh’s shoulder and steered him back to the rest of the squad. He addressed the sergeant, Kovin. “We wait here-there’s a… an obstacle ahead that only Haldren can clear. Watch our rear, but catch your breath while we wait.”
Kovin ordered Tesh and another soldier back to the last turn in the canyon, and told the other two to rest. Tesh still looked pale, and he hung his head as he walked. His companion was turned toward him, talking with her hands, inquisitive. She wanted to know what he had seen, but Cart could tell Tesh wasn’t talking. Good, Cart thought. Perhaps in the act of lowering the wall, Haldren could also remove the bodies, or at least put them into a less unsettling position.
Cart was still watching when the pair reached the bend in the canyon and a worg erupted around the corner,
