Urtica palmed the air, remaining quite calm. ‘In an emergency meeting of the Council late last night, it became apparent that substantial evidence was building to prove the incident had been arranged by the Empress – four witnesses in the Council, to name only a few. We could none of us stand by such a slaughter of the Empire’s citizens, no matter how dire the current predicament. The Council has decided that the Empress should be removed from office, pending trial – a precautionary measure. We merely wish to escort them to more comfortable surroundings for further questioning on the matter.’
Shocked, Eir glanced over at Rika, who was staring calmly at the chancellor, a couple of soldiers gently but firmly holding her arms. If the Empress felt any fear, she was not prepared to show it.
Eir looked up at Randur beside her. ‘It isn’t true…’
‘I know,’ he said, bringing her closer to him as several of the soldiers approached them.
‘Stay away from her,’ Randur demanded, holding out his palm to deter them. There was a further disturbance behind as a few of the other guests attempted to help the Empress, but the soldiers restrained them, smacking faces and breaking fingers. They weren’t messing around.
‘Stand aside,’ growled one of the men, pulling at the arm with which Randur held her.
‘Leave her the fuck alone!’ Randur threw a punch at one of the men, connecting with his jaw.
‘Please, stop!’ Eir shrieked in alarm.
Two other soldiers grabbed both of Randur’s arms, while a third set to work striking him repeatedly in the stomach, with swift and low and focused punches. When they finally released him, he collapsed to the floor, groaning. Another soldier kicked him across the mouth so that he spat blood across the ballroom floor.
‘Please!’ Eir cried out. ‘Let him be, I’m begging you. I’ll come, just stop beating him.’ She couldn’t bear to think of what else they might do to him.
As the soldiers dragged her away, blades now drawn, she looked back at her lover sprawled on the floor, his hand held out uselessly.
As if nothing had happened, the chancellor continued his speech, intoxicated by his own rhetoric.
‘I have taken it upon myself to save our nation from such a perfidious breach of our sacred laws of hospitality. They will go on trial in the morning, and the public will be made fully aware of their attempted acts of terror. I can assure you, we will bring these two evil women to a suitable justice.’
Eir heard these final words as the doors shut behind her.
How could this happen?
Why tonight?
The guards that had once protected her now hauled her, frightened for her life, into the darkness.
FORTY-THREE
The soldiers had landed their ships on the ice sooner than Brynd had anticipated. Firm ground was still some way to go, but the ice was so thick here that the horses could be safely unloaded.
The horizon was imperceptible, everything cloaked in all shades of grey and white. At least it wasn’t snowing, nor was there any particular wind. A lucky time to be fighting, if you could see anything good in it.
With the fresh recruits in the Night Guard, and the extra forces of the Dragoons, Empire soldiers rode together at a steady pace towards Tineag’l. The two hundred men and women advanced quickly through communities of refugees carrying their worldly belongings to the farthest fringe of their own territory. These people had barely stepped out of their villages, and now were struggling for a new existence, finding new boundaries to their lives. Brynd dispatched twenty of the Second Dragoons to see that these people got safely to the numerous vessels approaching the perimeter of the ice sheets to collect them.
To save causing them unnecessary alarm, Jurro was requested to proceed at some distance from the oncoming refugees. This he did with good grace, though they could doubtless see his hulking figure some distance off.
Brynd took a brief opportunity to interview some of the refugees, hoping to learn more of the unknown enemy. But most were escaping in advance of rumours rather than as a result of first-hand confrontation. Younger boys had the look of confused excitement on their faces, and discussed the possibility of the new race, of a rogue army, of Varltungs, of beings from other worlds, of gods. In the absence of fact, his men would have to ascertain for themselves what lay ahead.
For hours they rode on across the desolate island. Empty towns and villages were all that remained, framed by these vacant-looking skies. The wind picked up a little, stirring a fine powder that clouded the air immediately around them. They wrapped scarves around their faces, vision now coming through a slit.
All that Brynd might have learned about the geography was deeply covered with snow now. They could have been travelling in an alien world.
‘We’ll keep riding until we find something,’ Brynd decided, after being questioned about their current objective. He needed a garuda, but there had been none on standby in Villiren.
Brynd cantered up to the Dawnir who loomed over the men about him. ‘Is this everything you really wanted, Jurro – the military life, as we know it? Not always the most exciting experience.’
‘It is for me. You forget I’ve been staring at the same four walls for so many years. None of the previous Emperors would allow me to leave my confinement.’
‘Any of this prompt some memories then?’ Brynd said. ‘Nothing surfacing in that big head of yours?’
‘Nothing, I fear, so far.’
‘And what’re you hoping to find?’
‘Anything will do.’
Now wasn’t the time to be deciphering Jurro’s existential crisis.
Another quarter of an hour, and they were riding north again, and Brynd decided to spread out sections of the First Dragoons east and west, hoping to ascertain if there were any signs of life. They would converge at designated locations at every bell to report on any discoveries.
It wasn’t long until bad news came. Brynd had waited for it long enough. First, a private had gone missing beyond the town of Portastam, which lay at the centre of the island’s eastern plains. His riderless horse trotted to a troop of Dragoon soldiers out on a scout. Three followed the horse’s hoof prints to investigate. Only one returned, caked in blood and slumped in his saddle. Finally his unit managed to persuade the shivering man to dismount, revealing that his breast plate had been severed cleanly by something phenomenally sharp.
He did not speak for an hour.
When the words came they were initially incoherent, like the mad incantations of a disturbed beggar on the streets of Villjamur. He juddered. Then he managed to gibber about carnage and slaughter.
Brynd quickly organized his remaining troops and readied them for combat.
Blavat spent a moment enhancing the metal armour of the Night Guard with a vald, but she could only strengthen Brynd’s sabre in such a short space of time. He hoped that the technology of the Ancients would last long enough.
The plan would be to stay as one staggered unit, with the two flanks moving forwards, the centre slightly behind to form a pincer. The soldiers adjusted their armour and withdrew their weapons while the snow came and went in assiduous gusts.
Brynd shouted some final orders and the Jamur forces rode on.
Cresting a hill, they were presented with a small group of unknown creatures. In the thick of the snow it was impossible to determine what they were, but they were massed there like a regimental unit at the base of the slope, about fifty of them in all, and nothing else as far as the horizon. Brynd had to make a snap decision either to retreat or to charge, because his men were clearly visible now – and Nelum gave a nod to confirm what Brynd himself was thinking, so the call was given, and the Imperial troops, who outnumbered the creatures heavily, rode headlong into combat, hooves pounding against the snow.