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"They're going to kill the animals. It's time to send in the dead."
"Don't you want to rest?"
"I don't have time."
"Ethrian... "
"Be still." He reached out, gathered the threads. Corpses shambled toward the city. Dragons took the air. Some carried multiple riders, some supported the storming of the walls. The legions left off slaughtering livestock and rushed to the battlements.
Ethrian continued the attack till almost nothing remained of his army. He and Sahmanan were the only survivors outside the city. Inside, in the abandoned quarters, he squirreled away a thousand bodies.
He roamed the city in his out-of-body state, occasionally slipping into an animal to listen. His enemies were as tired as he.
Wearily, they resumed the slaughter. Some commenced a house-to-house search for the dead.
Ethrian returned to Sahmanan. "Rest, Ethrian," she insisted. "You're killing yourself."
"One more thing, just to keep them busy. Then I will."
He went back into Lioantung, seeking rats. And rats he found, of course, for Lioantung was an old city, well stocked with vermin.
He began in Lord Ssu-ma's citadel headquarters. In a hundred places rats suddenly streaked across rooms, overturning lamps. Most of the fires were extinguished immediately, yet a few started where there were no witnesses.
Ethrian returned to his body. "That should keep them occupied. Wake me if anything important happens."
He slept fourteen hours and wakened still only partially refreshed. "What's happened?" he demanded.
"Nothing. They've been too busy fighting fires."
He went into the city again. The last conflagrations were under control. Weary legio
Here, there, he sent rats to the jugulars of the sleeping. The dead he raised against the living. He shuttled from barracks to barracks. The Tervola mounted sleepwatches. He shifted his attention to the headquarters itself, then to the wall, hurling animal after animal at the sentries. He used dead men to open a gate, brought in beasts of the field and forest. Confuse and frighten, confuse and frighten, he chanted to himself.
When doing nothing else, he moved his hidden soldiers inward from the empty quarters. Slowly, slowly, they closed on Lord Ssu-ma's headquarters...
There were no more large city animals. He had no time to recruit in the forest. The Tervola turned their art to the destruction of mice, rats, and squirrels. "It's a race now," he told Sahmanan. "I have them diverted, though. With luck, my next attack will kill so many Tervola you can overpower the rest."
His attack lasted three hours. Afterward, he returned to Sahmanan. "That should do it. We'll finish after I've rested."
"Ethrian, something's happened to the Great One."
"What?"
"I don't know. I don't feel him there anymore. It worries me."
"Does it matter?"
"Maybe. We might need him again."
"Is he up to something?"
"I don't know."
"We'll go see when this is done."
"We can't. The flyers are gone."
Ethrian gave her a sharp look. He did not like her tone. "You trying to say something?"
"No... Yes. Ethrian, you're Nahaman all over again. Just as filled with bitterness and hate and unreason."
"Be quiet. I have to sleep. We finish them when I wake up."
A morning sun hung low and red when Ethrian sloughed his haunted dreams. Sahmanan was shaking him. "What?" he grumbled.
"Wake up. They're up to something. Look." She pointed toward the city. Soldiers had come forth. A squat, chunky Tervola bore a white flag. His bodyguard spread out near the gate. Strangers moved up on the Tervola's sides. Next to him, on either hand, a woman walked. A man walked outside each woman.
"Oh, Lord," Ethrian said, stricken. "Oh, Lord, no."
"What is it? What is it, Ethrian?"
His breathing became ragged. Deep inside him, something stirred. A shadow uncoiled. He shrieked. The darkness welled up. The world disappeared.
"Ethrian!" Sahmanan chafed his wrists, slapped his cheeks. "Wake up! Please?" She glanced toward the city. "They're almost here. I need somebody to tell me what to do."
Shih-ka'i stood at a stiff parade rest, ignoring the pain of his wounds. The Princess and her party entered the command center. He snapped to attention. His surviving commanders saluted. Mist eyed them, appalled. "What happened, Lord Ssu-ma?"
"We held, Mistress." Shih-ka'i studied her companions. Two men and a woman, of western stamp. The woman carried an infant. The younger man had the warrior look. His gaze did not rest. His lips were taut and pale. The older, thi
"The wizard Varthlokkur," she said, indicating the older man. A chill scrambled down Shih-ka'i's spine. "His wife, Nepanthe, and their daughter."
Shih-ka'i bowed to the woman. "My Lady."
Mist said, "I'll have to translate."
Shih-ka'i nodded, considered the third man. The wizard's bodyguard?
"King Bragi of Kavelin," Mist said.
Shih-ka'i went rigid. His commanders stirred angrily. He admonished them with a gesture. "The Ragnarson of Baxendala and Palmisano?"
"The same."
One of the Tervola stepped forward... "Meng Chiao! Comport yourself. Mistress, because of this man he lost three brothers, four sons, and his legion." Shih-ka'i planted himself before Ragnarson. The westerner towered over him. He removed his mask, stared into the man's eyes. He saw no fear in those pools of blue. The man said something.
Mist translated. "He says you look like an honest soldier. The first he's seen among Tervola."
Shih-ka'i smiled, replied, "You'd find me more stubborn than Lord Ko." He awaited Mist's translation, asked, "Mistress, what is this?"
"These people were close to the Deliverer once. His grandfather. His mother. His godfather."
The commanders stirred again. "Mistress?"
"And he's my nephew by marriage. Lord Chin kidnapped him during the Pracchia thing. We thought he'd died. Somehow, he survived, made an alliance with your godling, and came after us, assuming we were behind his misfortunes."
Shih-ka'i paced. Finally, "What do you propose, Mistress?"
"That we go talk to him. That we shatter his illusions. That we steal away his cause for destroying the empire."
Shih-ka'i surveyed the visitors. "These people have no reason to help."
"They will. For their own reasons."
"Then let's try it. Pan ku. Bodyguards."
"Lord!" Pan ku saluted snappily, departed. He returned in minutes. "Ready, Lord."
Shih-ka'i explained, "The Deliverer has made it impossible to walk the streets unguarded."
The city was a ruin gutted by fire, shattered by blows from the skull-faced things. Every street boasted its heap of charred bones.
Mist said something. Ragnarson grunted, conceding awe at the devastation. The wizard betrayed no reaction at all. He had a big anger on. His wife seemed included in the flame of his ire. Shih-ka'i dropped back, doffed his mask, examined the baby. He expressed his approval with a smile. The woman responded in kind.
"Why is it so quiet?" Mist asked.
"The calm before the storm. He's resting."
"Could you have stopped him again?"
"I doubt it. This's our last cast of the dice."
They reached the gate. Soldiers swung it wide. Pan ku handed his master a stick with a white cloth attached. Shih-ka'i stepped out of the city. "Hold the guards here, Pan ku."
"Lord?"
"If the Princess, the wizard Varthlokkur, and I can't hold our own out there, there's no hope anyway."
"As you command, Lord." Pan ku wheeled, rushed inside, hurried to the ramparts, found a light baliista. He laid it with all the care his master gave preparation of a spell. The Deliverer would hear from Pan ku if he attempted any treachery.