Kylon muttered something as Netherfarm came into view, and Keira looked down at the buildings. A crowd had gathered in the farmyard, with many pointing up at them.

  She smirked. ‘Guess they saw the smoke, then.’

  She glanced over her shoulder at the trail of warriors following her down the steep track. In their midst were the four captives, linked with ropes, and stumbling over the grassy hillside. With their blindfolds on, Keira found it hard to tell them apart. To her eyes the Rahain all looked alike. They were shorter by a good foot, and slighter-built. Apart from their eyes and tongues, their faces looked much the same as those of Keira’s folk, but those two differences were enough for her.

  ‘Shit,’ said Lacey. ‘There’s Brendan.’

  Keira turned back to face the farm, and saw the company commander in the centre of the yard, surrounded by his officers. Even from that distance, she could see him frown in the evening light.

  ‘Time for another arse-kicking,’ Kylon said.

  They reached the edge of the dyke where it halted by a rockface, and entered through the farm gates, where two warriors greeted them with silent grins.

  ‘What the fuck are you looking at?’ Keira scowled. ‘Pair of wee wanks.’

  She climbed up the low slope to the yard, which lay in front of the main farmhouse. The officers cleared a path for her and her squad, and they approached Brendan.

  ‘A hero’s welcome?’ Keira cried. ‘It’s about time ye recognised my talents.’

  Brendan shook his head.

  Keira came to a halt, five paces from the commander. Kylon nudged his way to her side. Flanking the squad, the faces of the assembled officers were closed with anger and contempt. Keira glanced around, keeping her head high, daring anyone to catch her eye.

  ‘When I saw the smoke rising from the mountainside,’ Brendan said, ‘I knew there was only one person in this company stupid enough to signal our presence to the entire Rahain army. Just what were you doing up there? Explain.’

  Keira said nothing.

  Brendan’s face grew red. ‘I said explain, mage!’

  Keira blinked. ‘You talking to me?’ She laughed. ‘Must’ve drifted off for a minute, I’ve no idea what ye just said. Anyway, I’ve brought ye a present. Kylon, show these pricks what we found.’

  Kylon gestured to the squad to bring forward the Rahain captives.

  ‘Behold,’ Keira said, pointing at them, ‘a talking lizard!’

  One of Brendan’s officers laughed, but was silenced by a glare from the commander.

  ‘Is this a joke?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Keira said. ‘One of these wee scaly fuckers can speak our language. And get this, the treacherous bastard’s willing to give up all their secrets. See? Thought that might impress ye.’

  ‘Prove it,’ said one of the officers, a tall blonde Domm woman.

  Keira glanced at the captives, frowned, then turned to Kylon.

  ‘Which one of them is it?’ she whispered.

  ‘Stop this foolishness,’ Brendan said. ‘Even if it were true, there’s nothing a Rahain could say to me that I’d believe. The reason I’m standing out here in the yard is to try to understand how you could endanger us all. Your orders could not be clearer: no engagement with the enemy. Do you want the Rahain to return to Brig and Domm? We have three hundred warriors here in the pass against thousands of Rahain. Our folk are only just starting to recover from the invasion, and here you are, provoking the enemy…’

  ‘Oh, shut up,’ Keira said. ‘I’ll not take lessons from the coward of Marchside.’

  Brendan’s face burned in rage, and he spluttered.

  ‘That’s it,’ he cried, ‘I’m not having you poisoning the company with your lies. I told the council in Domm that you’d be a liability, but they wouldn’t listen. You talk about cowardice, but my actions ensured my company survived Marchside. What about you, mage? You fled from the temple under Fire Mountain, leaving your folk, your squad, and your brother to die.’

  Keira’s rage boiled over and she sprang at Brendan, but was hauled back by Kylon and Bedig, their arms gripping her shoulders.

  ‘Strike a nerve, mage?’ said Brendan.

  Keira pushed Kylon and Bedig away from her, glaring at them. She spat on the ground in front of Brendan.

  ‘If ye mention my wee brother again I’ll kill you,’ she said. ‘He was a better man than any of you.’

  ‘Your threats are like those of an angry child,’ Brendan said. ‘I know you’re trying to bait me, mage. It won’t work, but your blatant insubordination cannot go completely unpunished. The council in Domm, to whom we all answer, have decreed that you are an essential part of this expedition, so I’m unable to execute or banish you.’

  Keira glared at him, while her squad shifted uncomfortably behind her.

  ‘From now on,’ Brendan said, ‘I’m removing you from scouting duty. You’re too irresponsible for such work. Instead, starting tomorrow morning, you and your squad are assigned to the Crags, where you’ll assist in the burial of the Domm that fell there last winter.’

  The squad groaned.

  Kylon gestured at the four Rahain captives. ‘What about them, Commander?’

  ‘They’re your problem now,’ Brendan smiled. ‘Dismissed.’

  Keira said nothing, but turned and strode off towards the lines of tents by the dyke, the officers in the yard clearing a space for her.

  ‘When will you learn to keep your mouth shut?’ Kylon muttered beside her as they walked.

  She ignored him. The squad left the farmyard, and filed towards the dyke. To their right were two enormous mounds, covered in fresh turf cut from the hillside. The sight of them each day acted as a reminder of the disaster that had befallen their nations since the Rahain had invaded in the spring of the previous year. Keira saw the squads’ eyes flicker over to the mounds as they walked.

  ‘Aye,’ she said, ‘take a good fucking look. All those bodies under there, killed by lizard bastards. The same lizard bastards Brendan says we’re not allowed to fight any more, in case it angers them.’

  The squad said nothing, avoiding eye-contact with her.

  They got a few waves and shouted greetings as they approached the dyke. Unlike Brendan and the officers, the ordinary warriors had less patience with the company’s cautious approach. Most had seen combat over the previous year and ached to be fighting those who had invaded their lands and enslaved their loved ones.

  ‘Hi Keira,’ yelled another squad-leader, from where she was sitting with her warriors making arrows.

  ‘Kalma,’ Keira nodded.

  ‘Was that you I could hear Brendan shouting at?’

  ‘Aye.’

  Kalma squinted. ‘Is that Rahain you’ve got with ye?’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘What the fuck are you doing with four prisoners?’

  ‘Was getting bored of the food round here. Going to have them for dinner. We’re not sharing though. If ye want any, you’ll have to catch your own.’

  ‘They’re too scrawny to eat,’ Kalma said, as Keira reached her squad’s collection of tents.

  Kylon nudged the prisoners forward, and made them sit by the unlit hearth next to the tent he shared with Keira.

  ‘Bedig,’ he said, ‘you’re on first shift watching the prisoners. Kill them if they try to run away.’

  ‘Aye, boss,’ Bedig said.

  Keira nodded to Lacey. ‘Get the fire lit, hen.’

  She sat on the grass, and watched her squad settle by the hearth, pulling off their shields and stacking them by the dyke. She knew most of them had fought to be part of her squad, the famous mage who had destroyed the Rahain artillery at the Battle of Marchside, and she wondered if any were regretting their decision.

  ‘What are the Crags?’ hissed a voice.

  Keira glanced over at the four Rahain, sitting by the hearth as Lacey was lighting the wood piled there. She scowled at Bedig.

  ‘Who the fuck said you could take their blindfolds off?’

  Bedig shrugged. ‘How else are they supposed to eat?’

  ‘Eat?’ she frowned. ‘They’re eating fuck all, unless you want to give them some of yours.’

  ‘No chance,’ said Lacey, the fire catching in front of her. The Lach woman sat back, her hands grimy.

  ‘Good job,’ Keira nodded to her. ‘Now, I want food and booze, and I don’t want to hear any fucking complaining about tomorrow.’

  None of the warriors met her eye as she glared at them.

  ‘Excuse me, miss,’ said Baoryn. ‘The Crags?’

  She ignored him, and started to unlace her boots.

  ‘It’s a fort,’ she heard Bedig say, ‘about eight miles up the pass.’

  The Rahain pointed to the entrance to the gorge a hundred yards beyond the farmhouse. ‘Through there?’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘Bedig,’ Kylon said, his voice low. ‘Enough.’

  Keira examined the Rahain as someone passed her a jug of ale. Baoryn looked tough for a lizard, but the other three, two men and a woman, were trembling, their faces pale and drawn in fear.

  ‘You say that you’d help us?’ she said to Baoryn.

  ‘Yes, miss.’

  ‘Prove your loyalty to us,’ she said, taking a long drink.

  ‘How?’

  She pointed at the three younger Rahain. ‘Kill one of them. If ye do that, I might start to believe ye.’

  The squad around the fire paused and fell silent. The Rahain man swallowed.

  ‘There’s not enough food for four of ye,’ Keira said. ‘Might be enough for three.’

  ‘And if I refuse?’

  Keira shrugged. ‘Then we kill you all. Now.’

  Bedig opened his mouth to speak.

  ‘Not one fucking word,’ Keira said to him, her eyes narrow.

  Baoryn lowered his head. ‘If I do it,’ he whispered, ‘do you promise not to harm me or the other two?’

  Keira laughed. ‘Of course not. I’m making no promises to the bastards that turned Kell into a fucking wasteland. The bastards that killed my brother.’

  Baoryn lifted his eyes to Kylon, but he said nothing, his features grim and closed.

  ‘Have ye picked one yet?’ Keira said.

  The Rahain glanced at his companions, and nodded.

  ‘Good,’ Keira said. ‘Obviously, there’s no fucking way I’m giving ye a weapon, so you’ll have to do it with yer bare hands.’

  Baoryn clutched his chest and vomited down the front of his thin army leathers. Keira chuckled as the squad remained silent. The three younger Rahain stared at Baoryn, as he turned to face them. He lifted his hands, and sprang at the nearest, a short male. He cried out as his fingers reached the soldier’s throat, and began to squeeze. He pushed the soldier onto his back, throttling him as the other two Rahain watched in frozen horror.

  Keira put down the jug of ale and stood, laughing. She leant over and hauled Baoryn off the gasping soldier, and sat him back down. The younger Rahain remained prostrate on the grass, rubbing his throat, his breath coming in low gasps.

  ‘That was fucking hilarious,’ she said to Baoryn. ‘You should have seen your face.’

  The squad relaxed and breathed again, some shaking their heads. Even Lacey looked upset. Bedig glared at Keira. She took another swig of ale.

  ‘Congratulations, mage,’ Kylon said. ‘You’ve managed to succeed in making a bunch of clansfolk feel sorry for the Rahain, no easy feat.’

  She frowned. ‘How do you know that wasn’t what I was trying to do, eh?’ She glanced at the squad. ‘Did I not ask for food? Come on, move yer lazy arses and get dinner on. I’m starving.’

  Three warriors got to their feet, and began preparing their evening meal. There were no hunters in the squad, and they had to rely on the supplies doled out by command. It was never enough, and they were always hungry.

  The sun had disappeared behind the high ridges of the gorge to the west, and the shadows were deepening into night as the squad ate their rations together. The Rahain went hungry.

  Chapter 2

  Big Lynn

  The Crags, Brig Pass – 26th Day, Last Third Spring 504

  The squad knew better than to speak to Keira when the hour was early, or if she had a hangover. If both were true, they would do their best to avoid her glance, in case they inadvertently became the target of her ire.

  They stopped for a break halfway along the track from Netherfarm to the Crags, resting in the deep shadows of the high, narrow gorge. The Rahain prisoners were tied to a tree, and the squad shared some food and water, while Keira sat alone, her head pounding and her clothes sticky with sweat. She had stayed up half the night, drinking ale and grain spirits with Kalma and her squad, who at that moment would be enjoying a scheduled rest day, while she suffered.

  She overheard a laugh, and squinted over at Bedig, who was sitting on the turf with Baillie. They were gazing at each other as they shared breakfast.

  Keira scowled. ‘What the fuck ye got to laugh about, ya stupid Brig pricks? Keep that bullshit for yer tent. No one wants to see ye ogling each other like lovesick bairns.’

  Bedig shrugged. ‘We weren’t even holding hands, mage.’

  ‘Aye,’ said Baillie, ‘and you and Kylon get up to much worse.’

  Keira rose to her feet, her teeth bared. She staggered slightly, then righted herself.

  ‘Don’t you talk back to me,’ she cried, pointing at them. ‘I’m the fucking boss here.’

  ‘Aye,’ muttered Doreen, sitting cradling her crossbow, ‘boss of a burial detail.’

  ‘And whose fucking fault’s that?’ Keira said, glaring at her squad, daring them to blame her. ‘I’ll tell ye who,’ she went on, ‘the Brig and the Domm. Cowardly bastards, who didn’t raise a finger to help Kell when the lizards invaded us. Ye only acted when they attacked yer own lands, and now the fuckers have withdrawn, yer happy to sit on yer arses in the pass and watch them, while they rip Kell to shreds.’

  Her squad said nothing, but glared at her, their anger obvious. Aside from Kylon and Lacey, they were all made up of volunteers from Brig and Domm.

  ‘This is why you lost,’ said a low voice.

  They all turned. Baoryn was sitting by a boulder, as far from the three other captives as the ropes linking them would allow.

  ‘What the fuck did you say?’ frowned Keira.

  ‘The Rahain army knew the petty quarrels and rivalry between the four tribes of Kellach Brigdomin would hinder the defence of your lands,’ Baoryn said. ‘It was easy for them to pick you off one by one.’

  Keira nodded. ‘That’s exactly the point I was making, wee man. At least the Lach, turnip-munching arseholes that they are, tried to help. If the Brig and Domm had pitched in at the same time, we would have kicked the lizards’ arses back to Rahain.’

  ‘The Kell would have done the same,’ muttered Doreen, ‘if it’d been the other way around, and Domm had been attacked first. You Kell love playing the victims.’

  Keira clenched her fists. ‘Victims? Ya cheeky cow. Step up here right now, and I’ll be more than fucking happy to make you a victim.’

  Kylon strode forward. ‘Everyone calm down.’ He glanced at Baoryn. ‘You called us something, what was it?’

  The Rahain looked up. ‘Kellach Brigdomin.’

  Kylon turned, and gazed at the squad.

  ‘The invasion changed everything,’ he said. ‘There’s no point in carrying on the old hatreds, not when the Rahain see us all as the same. The Kell, the Lach, the Brig and the Domm, we all made mistakes, mistakes that let the Rahain walk all over us, kill thousands, and enslave thousands more. But it’s not too late to change.’

  ‘I’ll never trust the Domm,’ muttered Lacey.

  ‘Aye?’ cried Doreen. ‘Well, the feeling’s mutual, ya Lach donkey-shagger.’

  Keira chuckled as Kylon walked away, his head bowed. She stopped as she noticed Baoryn smirking at her.

  ‘On yer feet,’ she growled at the squad. ‘Break’s over.’

  After a further hour’s trek along the narrow path, the gorge opened up into a wide valley. The hillsides were almost as steep as those of the ravine, but there was a large open area, flat and pocked with large boulders. Soft grass covered the soil, and the flowing water of the burn glittered in the morning light as the sun peeked over the ridge.

  Keira’s hangover was starting to lift, but she was still angry. She frowned up at the Crags, a monstrous pile of rubble where the fortress had stood until the previous winter. At its base, she saw a dozen or so workers, dragging bodies and body-parts to a half-built mound. They halted as they noticed Keira’s squad approach, their hands raised to shield their eyes from the sunlight.

  ‘Kylon,’ she said, ‘go talk to these arseholes. Tell them we’re having a drink before we start. There’s no way I’m doing this sober.’

  He nodded, his dark eyes expressionless, and walked towards the mound.

  She turned to the squad.

  ‘Park yer arses. Bedig, unpack the booze. Make sure everyone gets a full mug.’

  She watched as they took up positions on the hillside, sitting on the warm grass in the sunshine. The four Rahain were brought to the front, where Keira stood.

  ‘Baoryn,’ she said, ‘have ye told yer friends what they’ll be doing?’

  ‘I have,’ he said.

  Keira smirked. ‘I’ve seen the way they look at ye now. They fucking hate ye, don’t they?’

  Baoryn eyed the three younger Rahain.

  ‘They do,’ he said. ‘Please give them something to eat and drink.’

  ‘Aye? And what about you?’

  ‘I don’t care what happens to me any more,’ he said, his eyes lowered, ‘not after what you made me do.’

  Keira laughed. ‘Yer a sly wee lizard, trying to guilt me into feeling bad. Ha! I’m actually starting to like ye.’ She glanced at Bedig. ‘Feed them.’

 

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