Page 37 of Shadow Throne King

The military outpost had been built into the foothills of the Krustavian Mountains. It was surrounded by a worn wooden wall, with a gate large enough to let in supplies and troops. The gates swung wide, as though left open in invitation for us.

A few yards away, blood trailed down one of the wooden posts. The dried brown spread over several posts, as though someone had been dragged across them.

“Where is the body?” I asked, pointing.

Tallu followed the length of my arm, eyes narrowing as he followed the blood trail that simply ended.

“We cannot find them,” Coyome said. “There is more evidence of fighting inside.”

We passed through the open gates, all of us silent. Not that it was necessary. The only thing left was blood and perhaps ghosts, although, thankfully, not the sort that Tallu and I could see.

Lerolian and the rest of the blood monks made no comment as they took in the evidence of carnage. I had noticed over the past week that Lerolian’s number had grown fewer and fewer, as though some of the blood monks were taking the trip as an excuse to simply disappear.

I counted two large puddles of blood just inside the gates, droplets of blood trailing behind, as though they’d been stabbed and stumbled away before falling. The further in we got, the more dried blood there was, evidence of not just a battle but a complete massacre.

Shattered windows in one of the buildings was evidence of someone having been thrown through it, although the droplets spattered everywhere made it look as though their throat had already been slit when they went through. Topi gasped, and then she was gone, sprinting through the outpost, screaming, “Pito!”

The Kennelmaster gestured sharply, and Coyome and another Dog peeled off, following behind her like slivers of shadow darting across the battlefield.

“The Krustavians,” I said. “It has to be. We would have heard if Bemishu or Maki was this close to Krustau.”

Tallu frowned, stepping closer to the nearest building. Sagam and one of the other Dogs followed him, and I turned to Asahi, practically feeling the tension radiating off him.

“What do you see?” I asked him.

“This was not a battle,” he observed.

I looked over the evidence of carnage, seeing it through his gaze. The men had not fought. There were no weapons or armor strewn on the ground, all of the bloodshed looked in one direction—quick, immediate blows that someone had tried to stumble away from but ended up dying from.

“Who could have done this?” The question wasn’t quite rhetorical. The Dogs were well-versed in all of Tallu’s enemies, meaning they would have a good idea of who was capable of inflicting such damage. I began walking the perimeter of the scene, crouching near bloodstains and checking for anything that might give hints about the perpetrators. Chipped metal from Krustavian weapons, massive footprints from elephants: at this point, I would take serpentine scales as though the ancient legends of sea serpents in the animalia who could walk on land were true.

Asahi followed behind me, still considering my words. Finally, he said, “Any number of assassins. With no evidence, I cannot judge.”

That made two of us. Tallu came out of the broken building, frowning as he considered the field again.

He picked his way through, trying not to step on the dried blood. “There is more inside. Much the same.”

Topi returned, shoulders slumped. She said nothing, striding out the gate, past where Naî stood and stared with wide eyes.

The Kennelmaster turned to Coyome. “Is there any evidence of where they’ve gone?”

Coyome shook his head but pointed. “Topi went straight there. It appears to have been General Maki’s quarters.”

Tallu and I both turned to walk in the same direction, and Coyome bowed briefly before leading us deeper into the compound. It was smaller than I expected, the two buildings we saw from the gate mirrored in the back. If the first two were for training and supply storage, the back two buildings must be bunks and offices.

There was less blood outside the offices. A single puddle had spread across the entryway, and it looked large enough for two or three bodies.

Staring down it, I said, “If it was not the Krustavians, who else could it possibly have been?”

Tallu considered it, his grimace turning into a frown as he considered my words. I could not step over the puddle but tried to keep my footsteps light as I followed Coyome inside. He led me down a narrow hall to the largest office in the building.

“She didn’t try to destroy or hide anything,” Coyome said. “She just appeared worried for her sister.”

As Tallu strode into the room, I let my eyes move over Coyome. “You are too professional to let her touch anything, Coyome. I know that. As does the emperor.”

He nodded, gesturing me into the room.

The area was covered in papers, and I only had to glance at them to recognize Maki’s handwriting and his peculiar phrasing. Only the general tasked with scientific development would consider being stranded near the Krustavian border, missing a hand and without any of the Imperium’s support, to be “a minor setback.”