A second mixed group of Bellatis and mercenaries formed around Isobel and her coven. Finn moved me to stand at the head of ten Bellatis, surrounded by his mixed horde of thugs and Dires.
Three groups. I cast an eye to the town below, and the two glows to each side, and ground my teeth. Three targets.
Galeran raised his arm. “Kill them all,” he said. “Every man. Woman. And child.”
My gut twisted as he dropped his arm, and my brethren broke into the ground-devouring run for which we be famous. They scorned the road, but rather poured down off the hill, heading for the glow in the distance.
Isobel’s group galloped off in the other direction, while our motley bunch withdrew to stand among the stumps, waiting to descend on the closest target. The small group of Bellatis assigned to us shifted to human form, their eyes gleaming crimson as they clutched their spiral swords.
We didn’t have to wait long. A pulse of pure energy shot skyward from Isobel’s target.Redenergy.
Finn slashed with the icefire whip to send me down the slope. The rabble came with us, the moonlight flashing off their swords and knives. The Dires’ red tongues lolled between their wicked teeth.
The small group of Bellatis assigned to us ran well ahead of the galloping Trantils and snarling Dires. As though a few feet could isolate them from the ragged army panting eagerly at their heels.
I had to warn the residents. As I ran, I filled my lungs, and screamed.
Finn laughed and lashed me again, not caring that I be shrieking like a Banshee. He leaned over my neck. “That’s it, Sebastian! Scream like a little girl. It’ll keep us from having to dig the soon-to-be-dead locals out of their cozy little hovels.”
I stopped screaming and tried bolting. Perhaps if I carried Finn away, it would confuse those that reported to him. But he blasted so much energy along my headstall that I stumbled to my knees. He laughed again and lashed me wickedly with the whip, yanking life energy from his surroundings and using it to drive me down the hill to the town.
I’d thought my nightmares couldn’t get any worse, but I be wrong. When I’d been with Galeran, I’d seen plenty of carnage. Nikolai’s power had forced nature to rise up against those who threatened to destroy it. Tsunamis, earthquakes, even monster tornadoes.
Death, but from a distance.
This be hands-on, brutal, and bloody. Sometimes, they used explosives to drive the residents into the streets, but most often, they crashed into their homes and sliced them to pieces. The lucky ones died quickly.
Finn forced me through the thick of it while my mind reeled with horror. I be a warrior, but this be not a war. It be a slaughter. The deaths be like a million javelins to my soul.
The town be small, I estimated maybe a few thousand residents. Galeran’s army sliced through them without effort and left nothing but corpses in our wake.
At the end, Finn rode me down the bloodied streets while his thugs looted and pillaged and sliced any survivors to pieces. Two of his minions followed us on their Trantil mounts. Each had a selection of captives bound and slung over the backs of extra beasts brought for that purpose.
I shook all over, my teeth champing until froth mixed with the blood dripping off my nose.
“Take a good look,” Finn crowed. “Gartaka is no more. Galeran always gets his man. Or, in this case, town.”
“What’s in it for you?” I barely managed to form the words. My beast raged through my brain, incoherent and helpless.
Finn laughed. “Mayhem. I have everything I’ve ever wanted. Power. Influence. A coveted ride.” His heels drummed against my ribs as he waved to the bound victims. “I have my pick of men or women to fuck. An army at my disposal. I have never had it so good.”
I stopped talking. It be too difficult, and there be no point. Finn be true to his Torshin heritage—both his father and his brother be now dead, but they’d been just like him.
Evil to the core.
Then Galeran appeared. He might have been content to stand and watch while his son’s power wrought havoc, but now his Trantil be coated in gore—and so be his spiral sword, hanging from his belt. His gaze shone red in an unhealthy triumph.
This god now liked to kill. He rode the creature right up to me.
“All your betrayal has done,” he hissed, “is slow us down. You have achieved nothing.”
“You are a monsteer, Galeran,” I snarled.
His eyes ignited, and Finn cut me again with the whip as the Bellati reined the Trantil away.
When at long last the army regathered and Isobel gated us home, I be so exhausted I could barely do what I’d come to do—to observe the gating process, and see if I could glean anything from it that would give away our location.
But there be nothing.
