‘Mother Dark has already yielded to our demands. If a battle awaits us, our enemy will fall, and there will be no one to oppose our march into Kharkanas. In that, woman, I care nothing for Light or Dark. I will win for the Legion the justice they have earned, and if this makes the highborn kneel, then I will attend their humiliation with pleasure.’

‘Build me a fire.’

Scowling, Hunn Raal said, ‘I will think on it.’

‘Build me a fire.’

‘Did you not hear me? I will think on it.’

‘Thyrllan itha setarallan.’ She seemed to reach into him then, grasping not his heart, nor his throat, but his cock. Sudden heat engorged it, and an instant later he spurted savagely, saw his seed devoured by flames. She laughed. ‘Build me a fire.’

She released him. He staggered back, blinking awake to the mundane surroundings of the camp, the abandoned hearth before him, the dozen or so soldiers gathered round to witness.

Hunn Raal looked down. He had been standing amidst the flames during his conversation with the demon. His boots had burned away, his leather riding trousers were blackened and curled, revealing his burnished white, now hairless, legs. His cock hung out from what remained of his breeches, still dripping.

Ah, Abyss take me…

Still. Her grip had been sure. He wanted to feel it again.

* * *

Infayen Menand sat up on her cot, pushing hair from her eyes, and squinted across at her lieutenant. ‘He did what?’

‘Masturbated, sir. As his clothes burned away.’

‘And the flames did not harm him?’

‘No sir.’

‘Hmm. I want some of that magic, I think.’ Glancing up, she noted a glint of hilarity in the soldier standing before her, and scowled. ‘Against the flames, fool, not the rest. Get out.’

When the man was gone, Infayen remained sitting for a time, and then she rose, collected her cloak, and left her tent.

She walked through the encampment, and then took the high track that skirted Neret Sorr’s main street, remaining on the back-slope of the ridge as she traversed the length of the village until the trail intersected the cobbled ascent to the keep, whereupon she began the climb to the inner gatehouse.

A short time later she reached the courtyard, crossed it and entered the estate itself. The emanation from the stones washed walls and floors, streamed down from vaulted ceilings, until every high window appeared, not as a portal of sunlight, but as a dulled stain marring the refulgence. The intensity of the ethereal aura deepened as she approached the now sanctified east wing of the keep, the newly named Temple of Light.