Page 93

T he steppe lay silent and expectant, as if the very winds held their breath, waiting for the impending clash. The setting sun gilded the grasslands, turning the pikes of the legion into a forest of gleaming silver, catching the light as they swayed in nervous hands.

Their half-moon formation spread across the horizon, a steel barrier that promised slaughter to any who dared approach.

Jai’s forces were arrayed opposite, the calls of his generals stirring the air as they cajoled their knights into position. The khiroi, their hides gleaming with anticipatory sweat, snorted and stamped impatiently, while the mammoths grumbled, shaking their heavy heads. Ahead of this front line, Jai’s archers notched their arrows, their gazes fixed on the target ahead.

Jai, elevated upon Winter’s back, addressed his troops, his voice carrying over the steppe, filled with all the authority and conviction he could muster.

‘Sithians! Warriors born! This day, we stand for the hope and future of our people. The legion before us trample our land, breathe our air!’

He paused, letting his words sink in, eyes scanning his audience.

‘We are not here just to win a battle. We are here to show their pissant emperor his armies will never darken the Great Steppe again.’

The warriors cheered, but still more stared at him, grim in their silence. Nearby, a boy barely older than Sum threw up over the side of his beast.

Taking a deep breath, Jai continued.

‘When I fly, know that I am with you, not above you. And together, we will see the dawn of a new day for our homeland. Archers, let the skies darken with our promise! To war, my friends. For the Mother!’

Now more warriors cheered, their blades held high, khiroi rearing, generals shouting to loose their deadly hail.

With his words still hanging in the air, the archers released their first volley. The sky was blotted dark, hundreds of whispers cutting the wind.

Then the staccato sound of arrows thudding into the ground, shields and flesh, punctuated by screams from beyond.

‘Now, Winter,’ Jai breathed. ‘We fly!’

The world lurched as Winter hurled herself into the sky, even as the khiroi split beneath them, thundering the ground. Harleen leading half, Sindri the rest, curving east and west. No sooner had he climbed, a second volley followed the first, whistling under Winter’s dangling feet as she beat higher and higher.

The legion, as Jai predicted, formed the testudo, their shields lifting into an interlocking shell, but even now the formation was warping, struggling to form up even as centurions cried for them to fold their wings as their enemy encircled them on either side.

Jai soared, watching the mess of reforming men, teetering on calling the charge now, while the legion struggled. But doubt snatched at him like the wind, and the moment was lost.

He circled above, watching the warped circle of the legion below, the fettered Huddites running free, leaping and shouting through the tall grass, heading for the Kashmere Road.

Another volley, buzzing like angry hornets. He could hear the screams in earnest now, see the shields darkening, thickening with arrow shafts. His five hundred archers looked so small, so motley compared with the scarlet block of fighting men beyond.

He could hear Gurveer’s cries.

‘Loose!’

The clunk of strings, the hum and patter as they made their marks.

‘Nock!’

Silence.

‘Loose!’

Jai banked Winter in a tight curve, feeling the tension ratchet higher. The misshapen testudo ring shuddered with every volley, and he could see Harleen and Sindri’s khiroi formed in twin masses, readying for the call to charge.

‘Not yet,’ Jai breathed. ‘Not yet.’

The hail of arrows was faltering, as one by one, the archers ceased, their ammunition spent. Still, Jai waited. Let them cower, a moment longer. Let them hear the silence, before the ground shakes.

‘Now!’ Jai bellowed.

His voice was lost to the high winds, but the glintlights that burst from his fingers were not. His flag bearer raised Jai’s banner, and Jai kissed Winter’s neck, his hand extended, mana roiling within.

Jai could see Tenzin rallying his forces. The mammoths began their charge, their massive feet thudding on the steppe, echoing the heartbeat of the land itself. Their trumpets were as shrill screams, drowning the ululations of Jai’s riders, curving back to merge behind Tenzin in a single mass of shrieking knights.

Jai angled Winter down in a steep dive. He felt the wind whistle past, every detail of the battlefield sharpening. Mana roiled in his veins as he drew upon the deep well within, twin spots of light appearing on Winter’s plunging neck as his eyes were set aglow.

The legion’s lines rushed closer, and Jai leaned out, seeing eyes turning up to meet him, their shadow blotting the sun.

Fire burst from his fingers, a cascading inferno channelling a path straight through the heart of the mass of scarlet-clad men. The silver shields blazed, fire branching and flattening, the front ranks became a writhing mass of flame. The very air crackled with heat, buffeting Winter high, the green steppe scorched brown in an instant.

A shock wave rocked Jai’s senses, Winter knocked back, her wings spasming. Jai’s nerveless hand twisted the fire’s path, spiralling upwards, an ascending vortex that painted the sky orange.

Winter had but a moment to right herself before a gryphon erupted from the centre of the burning legion. Its armoured rider, falchion raised high, drove the beast straight at Jai.

The impact was violent, the two beasts roaring as their talons met, the world spinning out of control. Jai saw but flashes – feathered wings, the blast of spells rippling through the legion, mammoth heads sweeping tusks low through screaming men and metal. The expanse of the sky, the chaos of the battle below, the green of grass, rushing to meet them.

Tangled with Winter, they hit the ground in a tumble of scales and limbs. The gryphon landed nearby, its armoured rider vaulting from its saddle before impact, his blade in one hand, the other raised, twisting.

Through a blur of confusion, instinct took over. Jai rolled aside, narrowly avoiding a ball of golden light, the explosion behind raining soil.

Jai drew his blade just in time to parry a second strike, before a kick bowled him over Winter’s tail.

The gryphon knight’s face was hidden behind a cold steel helm, eyes narrow slits of merciless intent as he raised his hand, the fingers glowing. Winter’s teeth clamped about the man’s wrist, pulling the spell into the ground. The explosion hurled Jai back, and he could smell his hair, burning as he rolled over and over.

Jai staggered to his feet, blade raised, eyes searching.

‘Winter,’ he croaked.

He was in the crush of battle, mammoths swinging their great barbed tusks, reaping a heavy toll. Beyond, the khiroi crushed forward, their riders’ blades rising and falling, even as those at the bogged-down edges were pulled from their mounts, the legionaries chopping at them where they fell.

A legionary ran towards Jai, screaming, and Jai lunged, punching through the armour and skewering the boy’s chest. Jai sidestepped, letting the weight slide from his blade as he searched for Winter in the morass.

A mammoth reared, a pike shaft trailing from its belly, trunk misting the air red as the beast let out a shrill screech. It fell, clearing Jai’s view. Winter lay just beyond, her long tail lashing, teeth clamped about a legionary’s neck. And nearby, the gryphon knight, kneeling at his totem’s side, the white of the healing spell flashing bright.

Jai locked eyes with the golden knight, who stared back. Frozen, as if in shock. The knight tugged their helm, letting it fall from their fingers before stepping over the rising gryphon, gripping the falchion in two hands.

And Jai saw a face he had seen so long ago in the savannah, hunting alongside his brothers. The face that had sold him to a life of fettering, abandoning him to the bowels of Porticus.

It was Silas.