“We smash!” Drok snarled, slamming his massive fist into his meaty palm.
“Damn right, my barbarian friend, damn right.” I smiled darkly. “Elyse, you’re able to harness the light of the full moon in much the same way as you would the sun, right?”
“That’s correct, Vance,” she said.
“Good. Then you fry those Church commanders and fighting bishops; fry them in their armor and melt its steel. Burn the fuckers alive, give ‘em a taste of justice!”
“Oh, they’ll taste justice tonight, Vance.” She clenched her jaw as a hard light flashed across her sultry blue eyes. She had never forgiven the Church of Light leadership for excommunicating her and robbing her of her bishopric.
“Rami-Xayon, I need you to use your Wind powers to whip up one hell of a dust storm. It’ll add to the chaos and confusion and fragment the shattered Church army even more. The less those assholes can see of what’s happening, the better. A thick dust storm at night, even with the bright moonlight, will make them as good as blind.”
“I’ll conjure a dust storm so intense they’ll barely be able to breathe.” Rami-Xayon gave me a firm nod, her dark eyes gleaming with intensity.
“Rollar, you’ll lead the charge out of the city gates on your undead direbear. I’ll support you from the sky, with Talon flying me in. Meet me on the battlefield; Talon will drop me in the center of the commanders’ square, and there we’ll deal with the commanders of the army personally. And you, Drok, you come along right behind Rollar. I want you by my side when we start cutting down Church commanders. Elyse and Isu, you protect our rear while we’re wrecking the Church commanders’ square. And Anna-Lucielle, I know you’re not an elite warrior like the rest of us, but you’re handy with a bow. Do your best to snipe for us from atop the city walls and keep an eye on us; take out anyone you see trying to make any sneak attacks.”
“I’ll do that, Vance,” she said. She had her panther with her now, and the huge, savage beast was purring like a lap cat, seduced by the goddess’s powerful Charm powers as well as her command of the powers of the Beast Helm.
“Oh, and send that kitty cat out onto the battlefield to ‘play’ with a few Church soldiers too, huh?” I said to her with a wink.
“She’ll rip ‘em apart like a cat playing with mice,” Anna-Lucielle said.
After this, I gave my orders to the Captain of the Guards, who had assembled all the remaining guards and defenders of Brakith to join us on our charge out of the city. They would form our rearguard. After the hammering they’d been taking from the besieging army over the last few weeks, and all the suffering and starvation they and their families had endured, they were champing at the bit to take revenge.
The Church Army knew I’d sent a few undead harpies to Brakith; they’d seen my party and some supplies being flown into the city. I’d kept the bulk of the harpies back, though, having them perch deep in the mountains behind Brakith, where no scouts from the Church of Light Army could spot them.
Now that the time for our attack was near, I commanded these hundreds of harpies to fly from their hiding places.
We all watched the sky to the rear, which was clear and starry … but then a darkness began to blot out the stars, and the sky grew ever blacker as the army of harpies drew nearer. The flapping of their wings sounded at first like the gentlest whispering of a night breeze, but soon it became a distant droning, and then, as we began to see individual harpies in the moonlight instead of just one ominous black mass, it became a roar.
Outside the walls of Brakith, my insidious rebellion had almost reached a tipping point. Swords and spears were in the hands of tens of thousands of conscripts who were arguing heatedly with the Church commanders and veteran troops. However, the droning roar of the approaching harpies soon stopped these arguments and made the Church troops—loyalists and rebels alike—look up to the sky. And when they did, I was sure that more than a few of them filled their breeches with shit, for all the stars were gone, and the entire sky above them was black with beating wings and bared claws.
“Open the gates!” I commanded, with my kusarigama in my hands.
The gatekeepers whipped the weary, emaciated oxen. As the beasts pulled the wheels and gears, the enormous gates of Brakith slowly opened. They had held firm against the continued assaults from the Church troops, but had been battered to splinters, and one more determined assault would have smashed through them.
It didn’t matter, though, because there wouldn’t be another assault. This Church Army was about to become my army. Those whom I would slaughter, I would raise as zombies. The living troops who switched allegiance and turned on their Church commanders would serve me too.
Either way, the enemy force was about to be annihilated.
I called Talon down, and she picked me up and flew me up over the city walls. I hovered above the enemy, looking down at their commanders as my small but courageous band of warriors and city guards marched out onto the battlefield. I knew Elandriel would be watching this through his supernatural eyes. This
