Guilt stabbed Rain. He was the one who’d made the call not to send warriors to Dunelan. “Sha vel’mei. I should have sent troops to protect the Source before leaving for Elvia, but I thought we could dispatch warriors from Orest if there was trouble.”

Bel shook his head. “Don’t berate yourself, Rain. It was the right decision at the time. We thought the Army of Darkness would strike at Kreppes. Any of us would have done the same.”

“Speaking of the Army of Darkness, is anyone besides me still waiting to see it?” Gaelen looked up from the table, where he’d been scanning the three-dimensional Spirit weave with intensity. “I mean, clearly this isn’t it.” He gestured to the Spirit weave of Orest.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a ragged band,” Eimar replied with an arched brow. “There’s easily half a million blades in the city.”

“Aiyah,” Gaelen agreed, “but this Mage spent decades—possibly centuries—planning for this war, laying the groundwork, infiltrating the north, doing everything possible to drive a wedge between Celieria and the Fading Lands. Do you honestly believe half a million troops was the most he could come up with? We cobbled together close to a hundred thousand in just a few months.”

“Maybe there is no Army of Darkness,” Cann suggested. “Maybe it was just deliberate misinformation leaked to divide our forces and scatter our armies across the continent and make us easier to defeat. If this Mage truly does command such overwhelming numbers, why would he not have unleashed them at Kreppes or Great Bay? It would have ensured an Elden victory. With the King’s Army destroyed, they could have swept through the whole of Celieria in a matter of months.”

“I agree,” Gaelen said.

“One thing my centuries in the Brotherhood taught me was never to underestimate this Mage. He plays to win. He doesn’t bluff and he always has backups for his backups. It would be a mistake for us to believe his Army of Darkness doesn’t exist just because we haven’t seen it yet.”

“I think Kreppes and Great Bay were the diversions, and the Fading Lands has been the target all along,” Rain said. “Think about it. We were holding Orest and keeping the Eld at bay until we captured that Mage and learned about this supposed Army of Darkness. Once we were lured into leaving Orest and dividing our forces, King Dorian was murdered by Sebourne. Prince Dorian nearly drowned when his ship went down in Great Bay. Our forces were winnowed. The Eld took Orest. And Annoura was left surrounded by Mage-claimed courtiers, and would have been claimed herself by the Mage masquerading as her Favorite.” Rain spread his hands. “My guess is the Eld never intended to take Celieria by force. They’ve always intended to conquer it from within, then use it as a base to launch on the Fading Lands.”

“What about Mists?” Eimar interjected. “No invader who ever went into the Mists has ever come out again.”

Rain shrugged. “Maybe they’ve found a way through it using the Well. Maybe they’ve learned how to circumvent its magic. Maybe they have some weapon or magic we haven’t seen yet.” He’d already contacted Sybharukai and asked her to recall half a dozen of the tairen from Orest and have them scout the perimeters of the Faering Mists for any suspicious activity. “All I know is, if they want Orest this badly, we can’t let them keep it.”

“Which brings us back to where we started,” Bel said.

“Aiyah. And our first priority is to take out those bowcannon batteries. Both here on the wall”—Rain pointed to the image of Maiden’s Gate—“and here across the river in Eld.”

“The dahl’reisen will take the cannon across the river.” Farel grinned with dark humor. “We’re used to raiding beneath Mage noses.”

“Bas’ka. Then, Cann and Commander Bonn, I’ll need you and your best cannoneers and siege masters marching with the Fey here and here. The Fey will give you cover, while you give the Eld hell.”

“With pleasure,” Cann said.

“What about siege weapons?” Bonn asked. “We left everything behind.”

“Rijonn and the Earth masters will weave them for us like they did at Kreppes.”

“And if there really is an Army of Darkness?” Gaelen asked.

Rain fixed a grim look upon him. “Dai tabor, Fey, bas desrali lor bas tirei.” Then, Fey, we die where we stand.

Celieria ~ Orest

The Great Sun was just beginning to set, turning the Faering Mists into a sea of flame, as the armies of Light crested the last hill overlooking Orest and the Heras River valley. Steli, Xisanna, and Perahl, who had been running with the allies rather than flying above them to avoid giving away their position, drew to a halt behind Rain and Ellysetta and crouched there, growling low in their chests at the sight laid out before them. As Rain and his generals had seen earlier today in Bel’s weaves, the city was overrun. Instead of the bright colors of Celieria and House Teleon, the purple flags and pennants of Eld now snapped in the breeze from the battered ramparts of Lower and Upper Orest. Instead of the colored tabards and shining silver armor of Fey and Celierian defenders, black armored Eld swarmed the city like a colony of ants. Smoke billowed up from the charred remnants of buildings throughout the city. Fey and Celierian corpses, impaled on pikes, surrounded the walls of Lower Orest, serving both as a macabre victory boast and a grim warning to would-be patriots who might think to recapture the city for Celieria.