Page 105 of Queen’s Gambit

Two dragons, either overeager or worried about hitting their targets, flew too low and were caught in the lethal volley. I offered a prayer for their survival, but a curse slipped free when I noticed the wind changing. The torches and flaming arrows on Tivalaran’s castle flickered in the strengthening breeze.

I can set them all alight. Need strained Cinared’s voice, but I couldn’t let him fly straight into a turret’s ballista. Not yet.

Wait and let me focus, I snapped, pushing the connection to the back of my mind. The screaming of tortured souls and the sickening stench of burning flesh wafted across the battlefield. Bile rose in my throat at the sight of the pyres. One was already alight, the dark silhouette of a man writhing in agony while the flames licked up the posts. Beneath the pyre, a Tangrian cleric stood, his visage twisted in fervent glee.

With the fire spreading, the Tangrian camp erupted like a giant ant’s nest, spilling countless warriors into the open. They filled the field until I could barely see past the sea of people.

The Tangrian army was more organised than I’d hoped for.

The first volley of arrows met my infantry head-on. They braced their shields in a protective formation, but so many men fell. Their shields, only loosely locked, couldn’t stop the dense volley.

‘They’re fighting as if we still had the mages,’ I muttered, cursing my shortsightedness. If not for the pillars, they’d be supported by battle mages and paladins, the arrows repelled by a shield of Aether.

‘Fourth archer cohort to cover the infantry,’ I commanded, and the messenger leapt onto his horse to deliver my orders.

Communication was another matter the mages usually handled.

The burning Tangrian man fell silent, his body still alight even as his soul drifted beyond the Veil. To my horror, fire flickered under a second pyre.

This time, the screams of tortured humans were drowned out by the shouts of my infantry as they clashed with the Tangrians. I’d never sat back and watched, commanding my men from the rear, but without psychic mages feeding me battlefield information and relaying my orders to my commanders, I had to stay in one place.

‘Sire, the second infantry cohort is asking for support!’ the panting messenger shouted.

‘Go to the dwarves. Send their unit,’ I ordered.

The infantry were failing, despite their constant efforts to draw the Tangrians beyond the traps set for the horses.

The second and third pyres burnt to ash as they fought. My men were losing more ground than they gained.

Vahin lost two more dragons. The ships catapulted srebrec dust into the air and the wind is lifting it higher.

Cinared’s report sent a tremor through my body. The dragons were vital for capturing the castle. I couldn’t afford to lose any more. The remaining galleons moved closer to the shore, almost into range of the battlefield.

I turned to Ivar. ‘Take the heavy cavalry and attack their camp from behind. Push through the fire but get the bastards past those traps and away from their ships. The dragons are falling back,’ I said, then confirmed the order with Cin in my mind.

My Lord Marshal nodded, saluting before he turned his horse around.

‘Do you want to live forever?’ he shouted, and the roar of a thousand throats answered.

I didn’t look. I couldn’t. Between the burning shore and sacrificial fires, I was sending the best of Dagome’s cavalry into toxic fumes, and even this might not be enough.

‘Your Majesty, the Tivalaran opened their gates. They’re joining the battle.’ I didn’t need a messenger to tell me that.

The gates of the castle, unguarded since my army pulled back, opened, and Tivalaran infantry, supported by Light Fae archers, spilled out. The same Lumivitae bastards who refused to pick up a weapon in the Necromancer’s War were now shooting my unprotected men.

‘Get the orcs and skirmishers. Make those bastards regret leaving the safety of the walls.’ That left my rear unguarded, but with such a large threat right in front of me, I couldn’t worry about something that hadn’t happened yet.

I needed a miracle, something, anything that would turn the tide of this war.

When the tenth pyre burned, I turned my horse to join the orcish riders. The berserker fought for control, and this time I didn’t resist. This war needed a monster, and for once I was grateful Roksana wasn’t by my side.

I would hate for her to see me fall.