The Twilight herald

The general grunted. 'I suppose that's reasonable. What about the Lion Guard? Salen said he would disband it.'

'The Lion Guard will stay. I will, of course, take control of your armoury and disarm the men, but I realise the Lion Guard is not just a legion, to be disbanded and sent back to their homes. A Menin com¬mander will be appointed on your retirement. Someone with sense.'

'They won't stand for a Menin commander, and nor should any of the legions of the Ten Thousand have to.'

Styrax called softly, 'Gaur.' Soft footsteps entered the room and General Dev's eyes widened at the figure approaching. 'General Gaur,' said Lord Styrax, 'you have a new command: the Lion Guard of Thotel.'

'It will be an honour,' Gaur rumbled. 'They were competent, at least – one of the few we met on the field.'

'The few?' Dev spluttered. 'It was luck and bad leadership that lost that battle. A general possessed by a daemon is a poor tactician, and his lieutenants who replaced half the army commanders were just as bad. Without that, you would have been swept away by our phalanxes and died of thirst in the desert as you ran for home.'

Dev grimaced. Unable to leave his bed, he had been forced to lie there and hear of the fall of Thotel from a boy barely old enough to swing an axe. The Menin had swept across the Waste like a sudden spring storm and Lord Charr, or rather the daemon that possessed him, had rushed to meet them. In their haste the Chetse legions had been outflanked and outmanoeuvred. The core of their army, the Ten Thousand, had been severely mauled, but had managed to retreat while the rest were slaughtered on the field- and at the city gates, the Ten Thousand had found the way barred, Menin cavalry and cen¬taurs waiting to pick off any soldiers too exhausted or thirst-crazed to have the sense to surrender.

'Perhaps we would have found you a little more challenging,' Styrax agreed with a smile, 'but a man makes his own luck, and so does a general.'

General Dev gaped at Styrax. 'That really was you behind it all?'

'You find it so hard to believe? Chalat might have been limited as a ruler, but he was no fool, and he listened to men such as you. It would have been too great a risk to try to take this city with an army brought over the Waste; only a madman would divide his forces and force-march half to meet an unknown foe.'

'And in Charr you had that madman,' General Dev sighed. He looked his age now, his already withered skin pallid from the weeks of being bedridden.

'Not for certain,' said Styrax. 'Every agent said that Charr was an idiot, the sort that gives our kind a bad name; he should never have been Chosen – but it was always a risk that he might listen to his aides and not march out. A good general makes sure of victory before he offers battle.'

'But I still don't understand how you managed it.'

Styrax gave a dismissive wave. 'Some devotees of Larat playing with powers far beyond their control. A nasty business in all, but one that dropped a useful tool in my lap. The details – well, I think you would be safer not knowing. Now, time is rather against us so I must be leaving. I would appreciate it if you would accompany General Gaur to meet his new command staff. I'm certain you're not quite as ill as Salen believed. If he'd bothered to ask, he would have discovered that you were found on the Temples Plain, so clearly someone carried you here without killing you.'

'You want me to go now?'

'Certainly.' Styrax crouched down so he could speak more softly. 'Take care they are courteous. The beast is a valued advisor. Any harm coming to him would do more than have me revoke the promises I have made.' The white-eye gave a cold smile. 'Gaur is a humourless bastard most of the time, but if you want to hear him chuckle, tell him you're going to use him as a hostage when you bargain with me. Understand?'

General Dev nodded. 'I do. A lord's friendship is a fickle thing.'

'Then let us go. We will accompany you part of the way. The barracks overlook the sunken orchards, do they not?'

'They do.'

'Excellent. I might even put on a show in your honour.' Styrax stood and turned to leave, then hesitated. 'Did the guards even object when you asked for the door to be closed?'

General Dev gave a throaty chuckle. 'None that didn't fade before the face of an ill old man they wanted alive in the morning, although I can't say 1 expected you to be the one to take advantage of it!'

Styrax gave a snort and disappeared through the doorway, gesturing for Kohrad to accompany him. Gaur stepped toward the bed. With one taloned hand he gestured towards the shattered doorway. It was impossible for General Dev to make out Gaur's expression. The deep tangle of fur hid any clues.

'Come, General Dev. Our troops await us.'

CHAPTER 9

The screams of the dead soared up on thermals of violence and spilled blood. Ringed by beacons lit by the silent watching Chetse, the Menin trampled, stabbed, spitted and crushed their former comrades. Many of the attackers slipped on gore-slicked corpses and stumbled over severed limbs; the tapestry of gasps and cries was punctured by the constant clatter and crump of steel. In the borrowed light of a subjugated city, the Lord of the Menin waded through the slaughter all around him, slashing and piercing with blinding speed.

They had driven the Guards of the Hidden Tower out of the sunken orchards, their sudden thrust on two fronts sparking a panicked retreat. The stampede of confused infantry in Salen's blue and yellow livery had run as intended, into the Plain of Pillars, creating chaos in the ranks of General Quistal's centaur tribes. Swamped by their so-called allies, the centaurs milled about in confusion, wheeling and kicking at those barging past, then swinging tridents and long-bladed spears to clear themselves an avenue of escape.

From the far side of the Plain, General Gaur led the Bloodsworn, the Menin's fanatical heavy cavalry, in a thundering charge. Clad in black-iron and sporting Lord Styrax's fanged skull emblem, the dark knights had appeared like vengeful shadows to crash into the flank of Salen's traitorous troops. The beast that led them raged, going berserk as he drove deeper and deeper through the enemy.

Styrax had paused to watch his old friend arrive; even in the poor light he could see the fur around Gaur's roaring maw was matted with blood. Few had ever seen the softly spoken general this way and the knights he led hesitated briefly, then threw themselves into the attack with the abandon of men following a divine force.

Assailed on three sides, with a high stone ridge blocking their flight on the fourth, wiser heads soon realised no quarter was going to be

offered. Amidst the confusion of battle, some were stirred to sense as training took over and soldiers started to form tight units working in unison. A man at the heart of the largest of these straightened up in the gloom and recognised Styrax's looming shape not twenty yards away. He pointed at their goal and. the soldiers stepped forward, shields locked together against the onslaught rushing over them, like waves breaking on a stone and flowing past.

Styrax felt rather than saw the movement towards him as a unit of some thirty soldiers tramped forward. Laughter bubbled up in his throat. They thought he was vulnerable, open to a desperate and heroic last charge.

The Lord of the Menin gri

The group quickened its pace as helms dropped low behind tall shields, but the white-eye gave them no time to consider their folly. Greedily he drank in the energies swirling over the dusty plain as a sharp prickle burned at his fingertips. He felt Kobra tremble in his other hand, resonating with the rampant power. Casting the magic forward, Styrax saw the interlocked shields crumple and collapse as a dozen men fell, leaving the others staggering. Styrax did not press his advantage, for up above he heard a voice, then others: a savage chorus of ululating shrieks piercing the air as the Reavers' mages, cast their propelling spells with mechanical precision from behind the attacking main force.