maintained a watch.
Rain and darkness arrived. Behind the initial few yards of downpour the rain
slackened to a drizzle. Men appeared. They looked old and sad, ragged and pale,
vacant and hopeless, hunched against the chill. They looked as though they had
spent their entire lives in the rain. They bore their rusting weapons without
spirit. They could have been an army raised from the dead.
Their line passed the pits. Behind them came horsemen of the same sort,
advancing like zombies. Next came massed infantry. Then came the elephants.
The men in the pits spied the elephants. They used crossbows to speed poisoned
shafts. The elephants wore no belly armor. The poison caused intense pain. The
maddened beasts rampaged through their own formations. The Shadowlanders had no
idea why the animals were enraged.
Little shadows found the pits. They tried to slither inside. Candlelight drove
them back. They left a deeper chill and a smell of death behind.
The shadows found a pit where rain had gotten to the candle. They left
shrieking, grimacing death in a grave already dug.
Lady encountered the northbound laborers. She questioned them, considered the
cloud in the distance. “This may be what we’re after,” she told her companions.
“Ride!” She urged her stallion to a gallop. Foaled in sorcerous stables when she
was empress of the north, that giant black outdistanced the rest of her party
quickly. Lady studied the cloud as she galloped. Three similar clouds had been
reported near sites where ranger companies had been overrun. This was exactly
what she had come to investigate. It took only minutes to fathom how the raids
were managed. Lines of dark power had been laid down long before the
Shadowlanders withdrew from this region. The attackers were controlled through
those. They would fight without wills of their own while run by those lines.
She could scramble the lines easily now that she sensed them but chose not to do
so. Let the attack proceed. These things cost the Shadowlanders more dearly than
they cost Taglios.
Longshadow must realize that. So why did he find the exchange worthwhile ?
She entered the ranger encampment by leaping her mount over an upturned wagon.
She dismounted as an amazed Bucket ran to meet her. He looked like a condemned
man granted a last minute reprieve. “It’s the Howler, I think,” he said.
“Why?” Lady dragged her gear down from behind her saddle, started changing right
there. “What can he hope to accomplish?”
“I think it ain’t what they’re doing but who they’re doing it to that matters,
Lieutenant.” Though she commanded armies, Lady’s Company title remained
Lieutenant.
“Who they’re doing it to? Yes! Of course.” Every unit lost had been led by
Company men. Seven brothers had fallen. “They’re picking us off.” The belief
that the Company is invincible is the backbone of Taglian military morale and
the black beast of Taglian politics. “That’s crafty. Must be Howler’s idea. He
does love to blindside you.”
Bucket helped her with her armor. That was gothically ornate, black and shiny,
too pretty to be much use in close combat. But her job was to fight sorcery, not
soldiers. Her armor was surfaced by layer upon layer of protective spells.
Rain began to fall as she donned her helmet. Threads of fire snaked along
channels etched into the surface of her armor. She followed Bucket up the
watchtower.
Rain roared down. Sounds of combat grew louder, nearer. Lady ignored those,
extended sorcerous senses in a search for the sorcerer known as the Howler. That
ancient and evil being did not betray himself but he was out there somewhere.
She could smell him.
Was it possible he had learned to control his screaming?
“I’ll catch up with you, you little bastard. Meantime . . . ” She reached down.
A fog formed, became dense, slithered between the raindrops, gained color.
Pastels swirled,
Rain and darkness arrived. Behind the initial few yards of downpour the rain
slackened to a drizzle. Men appeared. They looked old and sad, ragged and pale,
vacant and hopeless, hunched against the chill. They looked as though they had
spent their entire lives in the rain. They bore their rusting weapons without
spirit. They could have been an army raised from the dead.
Their line passed the pits. Behind them came horsemen of the same sort,
advancing like zombies. Next came massed infantry. Then came the elephants.
The men in the pits spied the elephants. They used crossbows to speed poisoned
shafts. The elephants wore no belly armor. The poison caused intense pain. The
maddened beasts rampaged through their own formations. The Shadowlanders had no
idea why the animals were enraged.
Little shadows found the pits. They tried to slither inside. Candlelight drove
them back. They left a deeper chill and a smell of death behind.
The shadows found a pit where rain had gotten to the candle. They left
shrieking, grimacing death in a grave already dug.
Lady encountered the northbound laborers. She questioned them, considered the
cloud in the distance. “This may be what we’re after,” she told her companions.
“Ride!” She urged her stallion to a gallop. Foaled in sorcerous stables when she
was empress of the north, that giant black outdistanced the rest of her party
quickly. Lady studied the cloud as she galloped. Three similar clouds had been
reported near sites where ranger companies had been overrun. This was exactly
what she had come to investigate. It took only minutes to fathom how the raids
were managed. Lines of dark power had been laid down long before the
Shadowlanders withdrew from this region. The attackers were controlled through
those. They would fight without wills of their own while run by those lines.
She could scramble the lines easily now that she sensed them but chose not to do
so. Let the attack proceed. These things cost the Shadowlanders more dearly than
they cost Taglios.
Longshadow must realize that. So why did he find the exchange worthwhile ?
She entered the ranger encampment by leaping her mount over an upturned wagon.
She dismounted as an amazed Bucket ran to meet her. He looked like a condemned
man granted a last minute reprieve. “It’s the Howler, I think,” he said.
“Why?” Lady dragged her gear down from behind her saddle, started changing right
there. “What can he hope to accomplish?”
“I think it ain’t what they’re doing but who they’re doing it to that matters,
Lieutenant.” Though she commanded armies, Lady’s Company title remained
Lieutenant.
“Who they’re doing it to? Yes! Of course.” Every unit lost had been led by
Company men. Seven brothers had fallen. “They’re picking us off.” The belief
that the Company is invincible is the backbone of Taglian military morale and
the black beast of Taglian politics. “That’s crafty. Must be Howler’s idea. He
does love to blindside you.”
Bucket helped her with her armor. That was gothically ornate, black and shiny,
too pretty to be much use in close combat. But her job was to fight sorcery, not
soldiers. Her armor was surfaced by layer upon layer of protective spells.
Rain began to fall as she donned her helmet. Threads of fire snaked along
channels etched into the surface of her armor. She followed Bucket up the
watchtower.
Rain roared down. Sounds of combat grew louder, nearer. Lady ignored those,
extended sorcerous senses in a search for the sorcerer known as the Howler. That
ancient and evil being did not betray himself but he was out there somewhere.
She could smell him.
Was it possible he had learned to control his screaming?
“I’ll catch up with you, you little bastard. Meantime . . . ” She reached down.
A fog formed, became dense, slithered between the raindrops, gained color.
Pastels swirled,
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