VIRAN

  Dovin started barking orders when he reached the wagon, but none of them were about sending Viran away.

  "Dast, take the reins. You're taking this one up to the south tower with the supplies. Rest of you, on the running boards, eyes up. You too, Rattles, keep up alongside. We're bailing out the Venatrix first, and your men second."

  'Rattles' scowled under his beard. Viran was mostly sure that wasn't his real name. His armor did a lot of rattling while he walked though, so it was close enough.

  The Ranger next to Viran was apparently Dast.

  "My Wards are yours then." Dast said. "Everyone be good for Dovin when we split. I'm off to sit on my tail."

  Viran wasn't sure if that was the kind of joke he was supposed to chuckle along with. Dast laughed, but he couldn't see if anyone else was hiding their reactions, squished on the bench in the front of the cart.

  "Not the north tower?" Viran asked, handing over the reins and pulling his elbows tighter to help everyone fit on the bench. "Won't they be headed there?"

  Dovin ignored the second question. The wagon rocked a little as the armored Wards weighed it down, gripping the sides and perching up for travel.

  The aurochs didn't seem to care much about the added weight, or the slight uphill climb as they finished turning north. It seemed certain that it could canter off faster than the wagon could follow, just by trying a little harder.

  "You and Dast will be keeping watch from the south tower, and keeping the wagon intact to evacuate any wounded we accumulate." Dovin said. "Isha will arrive very soon, so if this fool is dragging wool across our eyes, things will go poorly for him and his men. You're to keep an excellent watch of what occurs, and tell her all of the important parts, very rapidly, so she knows who to put down when she arrives."

  The rustle and clank of weapons slowed in tempo, all at once, when Dovin said 'put down.' Dovin sounded like he was being scary on purpose about that last part, and it worked. A little too well.

  Viran winced as the human put mana in his voice. The slithering sensation of having the meaning forced into his brain felt like having his skull drummed on, and he could still hear the actual sounds from the man's voice too, making it almost more confusing.

  And anyone lurking nearby would have heard as well. Not that they were hiding, they were on the Roads, and this was Auntie's territory.

  "No wool. On my mother. Not a trick." The knight said loudly, dropping the mana out of his voice afterwards. "Squires were missing after we rallied from the monster attack, so Saah's men took your prisoners through the pass before it got light. We fanned out to look for the boys, and found... well, they weren't at the rally spot. And those irregulars up north we thought were yours."

  "So where are your men?"

  "S'posed to be at the rally by now. It's hard to tell when noon is, with the Warden doing that."

  Dovin sighed.

  "Rattles, where is the rally for your men? We need to go there if we're going to help them look for your boys before the thrice-damned Horde warband makes rations out of them."

  All of the Wards riding along stopped their muttering, all at once.

  The air was already cold, but it felt like a snap-freeze when Dovin said there were Horde fighters coming down from the Highlands.

  "Woods below the ridgeline. West of the road, I show you." Rattles huffed and puffed in the silence. "Sure they aren't some of Isha's old friends?"

  "Might be, but I wouldn't call them friends." Dovin replied, turning in his seat to address the Wards riding the wagon. "Listen up, we're fighting defensively while Isha gets the caravan to the gates of Eastwatch and comes up. There's no one to rescue in the north tower, because Saah's men took the garrison through the pass already. All alive, according to this one."

  There was a lot of angry muttering at that.

  "Cowards."

  "Right to be scared of the Firebrand."

  "Scared of Isha more's like. She doesn't make the sky like this very often. They know what's coming."

  "Think she'll go down to the arenas about the ransoms? Give them another reminder?"

  Viran kept the frown of confusion off his face about the last part, not that anyone was looking. Wards from Second Bend would know better than him. Mirri must be doing well, if people thought she was ready to go back to the arenas already.

  Dovin rode over the rest of the speculation, still giving orders.

  "She's not going to need to, because the Bessos men are going to voluntarily surrender after we save their lives from the Maw-worshipping people-eaters who crossed the Northern Gap to hunt the Venatrix. "

  With that, the last piece clicked in Viran's head. Dovin had been cursing about the Lords of the Teeth for letting the Horde past, and the Seraph and the Venatrix were the ones who had put Mirri in danger, with their enemies from halfway around the world.

  "We giving them a Tenashki welcome?" Someone asked.

  "No charges unless I call one." Dovin said over a brief rumble of excitement. "We're outnumbered, and they'll have an Immortal or two somewhere if they're trying to take on a Seraph. Anyone with a sling, get extra ammunition ready. We're all going to sleep with dry eyes and full bellies today."

  The cart rattled to a stop at the split in the path leading up to the southern watchtower. Viran reached for the sling at his waist, and realized he didn't have any rocks at all for it. That was fine though, there were rocks everywhere this far up the slopes. He could find some on the way.

  Rattles did a lot of mumbling that sounded like cursing when Dovin said 'Seraph'.

  "I will try to tell them." Rattles said when he was done. "They think it is your people coming from the north, only want to find the boys and go home before Isha arrives."

  Dovin gave Viran a strange look when he started to stand up, so he started to explain.

  "I can—"

  Dovin's hand came down on Viran's shoulder, and pushed him back into his seat.

  "Mirri will be fine, stop mentioning where she's going in front of the human. You have more important things to do than clean up Sanctum's latest mess." Dovin pointed his snout down and muttered right in Viran's ear before standing off the bench.

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  The push wasn't far, or very hard, less than a handspan until he was back on the bench, but it put an ache in Viran's chest that had nothing to do with the force.

  "They fight about it, they can be Horde rations." Dovin said to Rattles. "Dast, keep watch with him up at that tower 'til Isha arrives. Everyone else, no heroics."

  "We're chasing a Seraph, this is already heroics." A big, maroon-scaled Ward with an axe in hand muttered, a little too loud. His voice sounded familiar. Maybe he was one of Venni's uncles.

  "Fine, no extra heroics, and you can all sing about it later. One time a week at most, 'til winter." Dovin warned.

  A series of chuckles showed what the Wards thought of that limitation, and then they were off, following a bronze-clad human with a missing finger into the woods to the north. Maybe to an ambush.

  Maybe to a fight where they were outnumbered, even if the knights all did the smart thing and helped.

  Viran barely felt the cart start to move when Dast flicked the reins. He only really noticed they were moving when they kept turning, and he had to crane his neck to keep watching down the retreating hill.

  "Don't think about running off now. Dovin picked me to go with you for a reason." Dast said, startling Viran out of watching the foliage wave in the wind.

  Viran looked Dast up and down on the bench beside him. He didn't look extra fast, or strong enough to drag Viran back.

  Maybe he had magic that would help, though.

  "Why?" Viran asked.

  Catching up would only be half of stopping him, and someone would need to stay with the supplies, or the aurochs would run off.

  Dast chuckled, and gave an answer Viran hadn't thought of, bringing his plan crashing down.

  "I'm nearsighted." The Ranger explained. "Can't keep watch without you, and I'm useless scouting for missing human whelps. Wouldn't want Isha to get here and not know what's happening, would you?"

  Hearing it felt like realizing he had lost a game of Buul three turns ago.

  Viran couldn't help more than Auntie would, even if he had real armor on, and a weapon. Which he didn't.

  He would just be a big, lumbering target once people figured out he wasn't a mage either. And Dovin might send some fighters to make sure he went back, so Viran would only be making things worse by running off.

  Again.

  Viran's back slumped against the cart with a distinct clack.

  "I just want to help." Viran told the aurochs' rump.

  A black-tipped tail swatted a lost fly away. The little black speck spiraled off into the rain. The animal tossed its head, complaining about the bit in its mouth.

  "You are helping." Dast said. "You're getting that gate open so we can get a proper look at things. Wouldn't want to miss the show, would we?"

  The rain was starting to tap on Viran's helmet while he dragged the gate out of the way. There was no one in the empty yard to greet them. The south tower didn't have a garrison right now, too many people were busy.

  "Feed that thing while I make sure nothing nasty moved in and ate the spare rations over the winter. We'll sit on the wall so we don't have to move out of the Warden's way when she gets here." Dast said when the wagon was circled up to the steps.

  The aurochs thought about trying to skewer Viran under the ribs on his way by, until it saw the bag of oats. Then it was too busy pressing its face into the muzzle to worry about him at all.

  "That wouldn't work anyway." Viran told it, patting the animal on the head while it munched noisily. He left it to empty the bag however fast it liked.

  Even with his reserves mostly depleted, Viran's mana was full up. The pointed bone might have sunk his ability to cast anything for an hour or two, but likely wouldn't have gone much further than scale-deep, even if he were caught by surprise.

  The livestock had no chance of murdering him offhandedly if he was aware, and able to brace his mana against the blow efficiently.

  "No nasty surprises waiting inside for us. Come on up." Dast called, walking out on to the wall from the second floor.

  The defending wall stretching out from the watchtower barracks was only three lengths tall, a bit higher than the door, so Viran skipped the long walk. His claws just barely reached the top when he stretched his arms upwards, hoisting himself to clamber over the edge. Dast 'helped' pull him up once he had a knee over the edge.

  Viran thanked him anyways as he stood.

  "Any spare weapons inside?" He asked.

  Nobody had come out of the trees yet, so there was nothing to watch.

  "Nah. No food either, not that you'd want it. They cleaned up good. Just kept the north tower stocked over the winter, only garrisoned the one."

  Viran let his eyes drift over to the opposite cliff, where a near-identical construction, with its own wall below and caster's platform at the top watched over the north side of the mouth of the pass.

  Mirri was supposed to be there soon, depending on how long her hunt took.

  Unless they ran into the Horde warband lurking just across the hills. In Viran's home. The place he was supposed to keep safe, when he didn't even have a weapon right now. When he couldn't even make the rain running down his scales into a weapon either.

  His hands grasped nothing and opened a few times while he waited to see Dovin and the knights. Or Mirri.

  Anyone, really. There were barely any birds moving in the forest over the ridge. Just one lonely rhiwwee, a black speck circling high above the forest, even in the strengthening rain.

  "What are you used to? For a weapon." Dast asked.

  Viran shrugged.

  "My hands. I'm supposed to pick something when we get to Eastwatch. So I can finally help." Viran paused. "I kept breaking the training gear by accident in sparring."

  "Well that's close enough then. Sound like you'll be ready soon." Dast said.

  "No." Viran shook his head. "There might be a fight, and I would have to run for an hour to go get something from there. People would be dead already. Before I ever got to help."

  It had hurt Viran's chest to be sent to the tower because Dovin was right. There was nothing he could say that would put armor on his chest or a weapon in his hand.

  All that mana spent on growth, and he still wasn't ready.

  "Warden's on her way. Sanctum's sent a Seraph, and one of their finest all decked in silver. Probably fine without all the silver too, not that I'm that brave. Or durable."

  Dast glanced over like he was waiting for Viran to say something, but Viran already knew about Auntie, the Seraph, and the Venatrix. The problem was that Mirri didn't know about the horde, and that was how ambushes happened.

  Dast seemed to read his mind.

  "Dovin's got a group headed out to warn them too." The Ranger continued. "Those weird hairy things that keep wandering through the pass to steal cattle will know what's good for them, after a quick conversation."

  "Humans." Viran corrected him. "Mirri says they're still people. Even if they do bad things sometimes."

  Stealing wasn't worth letting someone get eaten over, they weren't starving anyone. Midlands ranchers built their fences too skinny to keep out monsters, in fields too big to patrol the whole border, anyway. They expected to lose some.

  "I'm dicing friends with a few of 'em, not that we've had the opportunity since the Firebrand's Proving got things tense." Dast grumbled. "Just making a joke. I know the Horde fighters are the real monsters here."

  Viran didn't want to argue about Mirri's Proving. He was supposed to be keeping watch.

  "Do they really all have silver eyes?" he asked instead.

  Dast snorted.

  "How would I know? I've never left the valley, and I hope we don't end up close enough to find out today."

  The gentle drizzle continued for almost half a minute before Dast spoke again.

  "It's supposed to be a little at a time, depending on how much... people they eat. How much mana the people they eat had in them, too." Dast shifted his weight nervously. "What kind of weapon you think you'll pick?"

  Viran shrugged again and pointed north.

  "Something that can make all those go away, if I can." He said. "It might take a while though."

  "The forest? I'll say." Dast joked. "You'd need centuries, and more than one axe for that."

  Viran shook his head.

  "Not the forest. Those. The Teeth." He said, pointing more up, at the white-capped peaks stretching into the sky in the distance. "So they can never get away with doing it again. To anyone. Even if it takes me centuries."

  Dast was quiet, until Viran looked over, and saw him pulling the cork from his waterskin.

  "Young Immortal." The Ranger said, taking a long swig and offering Viran the skin when he was done.

  It was raining, but refusing the water to drink rain would be rude, so Viran took the skin. Even though he wasn't any kind of real Immortal yet.

  Viran's throat burned, and he spluttered a bit at the taste of alcohol.

  "Sorry." Viran said, handing the skin back.

  Dast only laughed, not getting mad at the waste at all. His voice got a little sad while he corked the waterskin.

  "You know, I thought I was drunk enough to be seeing things when you all came rolling in during the festival last night." The Ranger said. "Like watching a ghost walk in for a visit. Now it feels like listening to one. You're more like him than—"

  Two sharp cracks came from the north, interrupting whatever Dast was trying to say.

  Viran scanned the treeline and the cliff, but saw nothing.

  No Dovin. No knights. No Horde scouts.

  No Mirri, or Seraph, or Venatrix.

  The sounds came again, three of them, first one, then two more slightly faster.

  They were muffled though, like they were happening inside.

  "That is... a lot of guns." Dast said. "No one loads that fast, so at least five of them. Organized, trained, shooting one at a time, at something that takes five shots."

  He was looking at the north tower.

  Kalthoff Repeater, was designed in 1630, and produced in a variety of calibers by 19 different gunsmiths. While the first patent for the system, issued in 1640, specified 'muskets and pistols capable of firing 8-10 shots with a single loading', some versions could hold up to 29 rounds, with others claiming 30.

  revolver spear. At a similar time, German gunsmiths had begun producing early examples of modern revolvers featuring single barrels and rotating cylinders, and the design principle spread rapidly.