Anton watched the Glimmering Lancers fall back in good order. He frowned. It looked like they weren’t leaving, just lining up for a charge while they were out of arrow range.

  “Should I send for extra men to man the wall, sir?” the guard next to him asked uneasily.

  Anton thought about it. He knew Aris could hit them at that range, but he wasn’t sure how far his troops could shoot accurately. Even if they could, though…

  “No,” he said. “Send them to reinforce the watch on those Marines. If they hear shots and figure out what’s going on, we’ll have real problems.”

  “But the charge, sir…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Anton told him. “Go.”

  “Am I missing something?” Kelsey asked. “We’ve got a high wall, and they have sticks. What are they going to do?”

  Anton nodded understandingly. “The legends of the Glimmering Lancers,” he said, “include stories of their irresistible charge.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I don’t know exactly how it works,” Anton admitted, “But it’s speculated that when they charge, the lance of the head of the formation gets all the momentum of the entire force.”

  “All of them?”

  “All the ones that have the Trait,” Anton confirmed.

  Kelsey went even whiter than normal. “But that’s… average weight of a horse and rider, average speed…. carry the five…”

  She pulled a piece of paper out of the air.

  “That’s over nine thousand, Anton!”

  “Nine thousand what?” Anton asked, pulling the paper out of her hand and looking at it. It was covered in spidery skeleton handwriting, none of which he could read. He gave it back.

  “Does it matter? The gates can’t stop that! Let me get a row of skeleton musketeers up here, and we’ll stop them in their tracks.”

  “We can’t,” Anton said. He started to do some stretches. “If they hear the shots, the Marines will figure out what’s going on, and then we’ll have fighting inside the walls.”

  “Slaughter them before they figure it out,” Kelsey said.

  The Lancers had lined up and were starting the charge.

  “We might not trust them, but they are our guests, Kelsey. That means no wholesale murder. And Suliel really wants that gold they’re bringing.”

  “Then take the boat, and plunder the gold!” Kelsey declared.

  “We’re not pirates, Kelsey.”

  “It’s as if you’re telling me that everything I want to do is wrong and evil!” Kelsey complained. “All right, what are you going to do?”

  “I just have to stop the charge,” Anton said simply.

  “Are you crazy? Even your strength isn’t enough to stop all that. Not if it’s like you said.”

  “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing,” Anton said. He climbed onto the top of the wall above the gate and started judging distances. The trait made up for a lot, but you had to work within its limits.

  “Listen,” Kelsey said urgently. “It would cost, but I could summon up some wizard revenants and have them do something to take them out silently.”

  “No time,” Anton said. “I’ll be right back.”

  It was possible that he could use Chainbreaker for this. There was a link between each man and Oldaw, the lead rider. Chainbreaker could probably sever it, he thought, but it wasn’t what it was meant for. These links were voluntary, helpful. And now was not the time to experiment, not when he had another, simpler, way.

  The riders were coming closer, now, in a wedge formation. Their hooves rumbled like thunder. Anton realised that he may have overestimated his chances of keeping this fight quiet. In fairness, he’d never faced a cavalry charge before.

  When he thought the moment was right, he jumped.

  Leaping Attack.

  He’d never jumped down from this height before, and he was as strong now as he’d ever been. This was, by far, the strongest Leaping Attack he’d ever done. It wasn’t enough to stand against this charge of course. Not even close.

  It didn’t need to be. Because Anton wasn’t facing it head on. He was coming down from above.

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  Anton’s sword plunged into the neck of Oldaw’s horse. Anton felt a little bad about targeting the animal, but there wasn’t a better way to stop the charge. His weight fell on the lance, even as the horse stumbled and fell.

  Anton didn’t stop the charge. He diverted it, into the ground beneath.

  The impact was incredible. The ground in front of the gates was earth, hard-packed by a thousand riders and carts and covered with a thin layer of stone. It might as well have been butter for all the resistance it put up.

  A whump louder than even Kelsey’s guns in closed spaces filled Anton’s ears, and he went tumbling. There was an explosion of earth and rock all around him, far exceeding his expectations. For a moment he was helpless, unable to process what was happening.

  Then he fell to the earth. More earth kept falling on him, confusing the matter, but he had stopped falling, so he must be on the ground. He thought about groaning, but decided to wait until the rest of the ground had figured out where it belonged.

  The air started to clear and Anton looked around. He could see fallen horses, and some that weren’t, some that still had riders. They were mostly moving around aimlessly, but not all. One of them seemed to have his wits about them. He was gathering them up, pulling them together and helping them to their feet.

  He kept glaring at Anton, but Anton wasn’t ready to respond yet. He was still pretty dizzy. He started examining the surrounding closer to him.

  Oldaw’s horse was nearby, looking mangled in a way that Anton wasn’t ready to process. He hoped that his sword had killed it before… that happened.

  He was still holding his sword. Anton looked at it in surprise, and then carefully eased it into his scabbard.

  Captain Oldaw was here as well, his figure lying on the ground, unmoving. He looked pretty badly off. Anton staggered over and pulled out a healing potion. He was rich now, it only made sense to carry a few around. He was lucky they weren’t broken, but they made the small bottles tough.

  Healing potions were something you’d give to your worst enemy. Anton supposed it depended on how badly you wanted your enemy dead. Anton didn’t want Oldaw dead, but he sure didn’t mind having the bastard wake up and feel every moment of pain caused by the healing.

  “Get away from him!” someone called. Anton looked up to see the industrious Lancer with his hand on his sword, glaring at Anton.

  “I’m taking him captive,” Anton said. “Or hostage, if you like. Go back and tell the King that his daughter is safe in Kirido, from whatever plots he and the Tiatians are scheming.”

  The man stared angrily at Anton, but didn’t approach closer.

  “Can you hear me?” Anton asked. He thought that the only reason his hearing was working was thanks to his helmet.

  The man nodded reluctantly. Anton picked up Captain Oldaw. The potion was wearing off, letting him slip back into unconsciousness.

  “Tell him,” Anton repeated. “We might speak again after the war.”

  It was more difficult to get back into Kirido than he thought it should be. There was a massive crater right in front of the gate, and he was at the bottom of it.

  “Open up!” he called. He used his strength to jump up out of the hole. It was difficult carrying Oldaw, but he managed it by the time the guards got the gate open. They looked in awe at the devastation outside.

  “This is all going to need to be fixed,” Anton said, waving his free hand. “But it can wait until they’ve gone.”

  He walked through the gate and let them shut it behind him. Kelsey jumped down from above.

  “You’ve done it now,” she said. “What part of that was quiet?”

  Anton winced. “I didn’t expect it to be that loud,” he admitted. “How bad was it?”

  “Bad enough,” Kesley said, pointing. Commander Rami Dazhar was jogging towards them with a half-dozen of his men.

  “What in the hells is going on?” he shouted. “Is that Captain Oldaw!”

  Anton tried for diplomatic aplomb, but his etiquette lessons hadn’t covered how to speak when you had a body over your shoulder. He thought about handing it over to Kelsey, but that would look worse.

  “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with,” he tried. “My men have it all in hand.”

  Rami stared at him. “You must be joking,” he said. “What happened out there?”

  “Captain Oldaw had a little accident,” Kelsey said with a grin. “We’re taking him to the castle to recover.”

  Oldaw chose this moment to make a little groan. It might have helped assure Rami that the captain was still alive. He still seemed suspicious, though. For some reason.

  “I’m going to take a look for myself,” he said.

  “The gates are closed,” Anton told him.

  “Then I’ll get on the wall!” Rami yelled.

  “As you wish,” Anton said sourly. There were too many ways onto the wall for Anton to block them all off. And Anton had too many things to take care of right now. He started walking again, leaving the Marine Commander behind.

  “Time for a slaughter?” Kelsey asked brightly, once they were out of earshot.

  “No,” Anton said sharply. “He might not find anything other than a hole. The Lancers might have left before he gets there, and even if they are there, they’re not going to approach close enough to shout information.”

  “You’re just going to let them fester?”

  “I’m going to keep a lid on things for as long as I can,” Anton said. “Unless you can get those guns ready faster?”

  “Two more days,” Kelsey promised. “We’re going as fast as we can.”

  “We might be able to keep them under control for that long. Princess Elara might even be able to help with them.”

  “You think?”

  “I have no idea,” Anton said. “I don’t know what she’s doing here or what her plans are, and I don’t know how the King is going to react to her coming here.”

  “Or the Tiatians,” Kelsey pointed out.

  “It was complicated enough already without them,” Anton agreed. “So, the first order of business is finding out what the princess knows.”

  “Maybe this guy knows something,” Kelsey suggested, slapping the soldier’s rump.

  “Maybe,” Anton agreed. “But I get the feeling that he doesn’t need to know anything, he just does what he’s told.”

  It was ironic, Anton thought, that he was putting Captain Oldaw right back in the same cell he’d occupied when Suliel had suspected him of killing her father. He left a pair of guards at the door, with instructions to send for him when the man awoke.

  Then he headed to where Suliel was entertaining Princess Elara.

  “…And I swear, if your cook teaches mine that pastry trick, I might well weep with gratitude,” Elara was saying.

  “It might be a while before that can happen,” Anton said. Both ladies rose to meet him. Suliel just bowed her head, but Elara dipped deeply into a curtsey.

  “Is that really appropriate?” Anton asked. “You’re a princess, I should be bowing to you.”

  “These are your lands,” Elara said, “And I come to you, not as your leige, or as his daughter, but as a petitioner, as lowly as any commoner.”

  “I don’t know if that’s really true,” Anton said, “And I’m uncomfortable with bowing and scraping in any case. So please, be at ease, princess.”

  “As you wish, my lord,” Elara said, rising and taking her seat again.

  “Please, call me Anton. So, how much has Suliel told you, and how much have you told her?”

  “Nothing at all m-Anton,” Elara replied. “We both thought it best to save the news for when you were present.”

  “I see. Well, I’m here now, so why don’t we catch ourselves up?”