“Yes, there is that murdering prick too,” I growled, earning a few raised eyebrows. “Oh please, how do you not know that so-called god is our old mentor, Byzant?”
They all stared at me. “What? I thought everybody knew his crimes by now.” In his enforced absence I’d done my best to ruin his previously glorious reputation, but apparently had not been quite as successful as I’d hoped. It was petty revenge, but for now it was all I could do in exchange for ruining my life and trying to get me killed when I was younger.
Eva cleared her throat. “Be that as it may, Walker, do you have any knowledge of their magi or military insights into the Clanholds you would care to share?”
I nodded. “Their magi are known as druí, but they do not use their Gift in our manner. Instead they make pacts with spirits who do as the druí ask in exchange for a portion of their magic.”
Granville and Vincent exchanged horrified glances. “As for the terrain,” I added, “it is rougher than the ale in the Warrens and armies travel slowly through the valleys, but the Clansfolk know all sorts of secret paths through the mountains.
A few locals can easily stay ahead of any foreign army. You will see farms here and there on the valley floor, even small villages, but the actual Clanholds are burrowed deep into the stone of the mountains for safety. The Skallgrim won’t be able to overrun them easily or quickly and they will pay a heavy price in blood if they try.”
“What about their daemon allies?” Secca asked.
I looked to Eva, who answered for me. “The breed and number remains unknown to the Arcanum at this time. I expect the Clansfolk will be able to provide more details.”
“Speaking of numbers,” Bryden said. “How many of the disgusting overseas savages do we face?”
“Our seers estimated a Skallgrim force numbering four to five thousand,” she replied. “With at least a handful of halrúna shaman and an unknown number of daemon allies.”
“And how many do we have?” I asked. “Seven magi and a hundred wardens.”
A magus could be worth over a hundred armed wardens at times, but still…ouch.
“Pardon?” Granville said. “I thought the Free Towns Alliance was sending an army?”
Eva unfurled a scroll. “Still ten days off according to the messenger this morning. Doubtless they will not mind us killing each other before they arrive in time to drink up all the glory.”
That silenced us all for a few stunned moments, then Secca spoke. “Their own towns stand directly in the path of destruction should the Skallgrim be allowed to pass through the Clanholds. Why do they still choose to play these petty games of politics?”
Granville scowled and ignored her, “How many warriors can the Clanholds field?”
Cormac answered: “Dun Bhailiol and Dun Clachan are regarded much as we in the Old Town view the inhabitants of the Warrens and East Docklands. The other nearby holdfasts will be unlikely to offer up any sizeable force when they can fortify their own holds instead. Combined, these two holdfasts can field a thousand at most. As for Kil Noth…” He glanced to me, unsure of how to phrase it, given my family name.
“Their army cannot take Kil Noth,” I said with finality. “How can you be so sure?” Eva said, her eye scrutinising me behind that impassive steel mask.
“I’ve been there,” I replied. “No army can take it, not even one backed by halrúna blood sorcerers and daemons. There are worse things than those dwelling in the darkness beneath Kil Noth.” My mother’s ancestral home was a fucking death-trap and the place where the first druí made their pacts with ancient spirits. It was a sacred place inhabited by fanatics.
“They may have more of those devices that brought down the Templarum Magestus,” Eva countered. “If they do, then no fortress can be safe.”
I had to concede the point. Not even ancient holdfasts cut deep into the stony hearts of mountains would survive that. We discussed the known details of the expedition and learned much from Eva’s experience. She was young as magi went, but as a knight she had already seen more conflict than most wardens ever would, and a few summers campaigning with the legions overseas ensured she was one of the very few people this side of the Cyrulean Sea with any actual experience of full-blown warfare. Or she had been before last autumn.
“We are not here to win,” she said as a parting statement. “All we have to do is delay them long enough to allow Archmagus Krandus to take Ironport and advance on their rear-guard. Then the enemy will be stranded in the Clanholds with no base and no supplies, with the Setharii army behind them and the Free Towns Alliance ahead.”
It sounded like a desperate and dangerous plan, but it was all we had. Come tomorrow we would be led into the heart of the Clanholds, and there were only a few on my own side I trusted not to stab me in the back.
Surprise! Nothing ever goes to plan where good things for me are concerned: our guides never arrived.
While I trained my aeromancy, the wardens and my coterie spent their time at weapon practice and working out cramped and stiff muscles. We waited all day, and half-way through the next again before Eva called it. She didn’t even ask for her commander’s opinion, not that I had anything worthwhile to add.
“Something must have happened to them, but we cannot afford to wait any longer – we must advance into the Clanholds under our own guidance. Walker, Cormac, do you know anything about this area?”
Cormac shook his head but I grimaced and gave a hesitant nod. “I might know the way from here to Kil Noth.” The memory was mostly of a blind and bloodied flight to freedom heading in the other direction. “I’d rather head for Dun Clachan or Dun Bhailiol.”
“I’m sure we would all rather be heading somewhere else,” she replied. “But unless you know the way then we have no other option.”
I couldn’t think of any polite and reasonable response, so despite my fears, it had to be Kil Noth. I consoled myself by remembering that I was not the weak and whining man I once was, nor was I wearing the mask of a drunken wastrel that had in truth grown into far more than a mere mask. I had killed a god and destroyed monsters. Surely now I could face down my own grandmother?
I flexed my right hand, testing the increasing stiffness. There would be a steep price for her help. And if she refused, well, then I would just have to force her in my own dreadful way. That malicious viper deserved everything I could inflict upon her.
And so we entered the Clanholds without a guide.
Chapter 10
My coterie and I pulled up the hoods of our cloaks and went forward with the scouts, following the course of the half-frozen river that cut through valley floor, deeper snow crumping underfoot. The rest of our force snaked out in single file a long way behind us as the foothills grew into looming grey mountains on either side, the sheer cliff faces appearing as if icy giants had carved passages through the mountains with their bare hands back in the dawn days of the world.
All was still in the valley ahead, with only the gush and gurgle of water and the mournful, distant cry of a lonely hawk to break the silence. It felt good to be away from the bulk of our army, as if a huge mental pressure was dissipating. My coterie’s thoughts were only a muted buzz in the back of my mind, peaceful compared to the deafening hubbub of Setharis or the middle of camp. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be alone with my thoughts, and I picked up the pace to gain even more distance. It was so wearying to constantly keep from clamouring in my head.
The scouts signalled they had found something and led me to a squat stone farmhouse every bit as drab and gloomy as most Clanholds homes. Above the mossy turf roof no smoke drifted from the chimney, and there was no sign of sheep or goats within the fenced garden or barn. The place was abandoned, but signs of recent habitation were everywhere. Iron tools had been left to rust out in the snow by the doorway, something no poor farmer would ever contemplate unless their lives were in immediate danger. A swathe of snow had been cleared from the doorway within the last few days, and footprints led to and from the barn but nowhere else.