Motion from the gatehouse drew her attention and she turned to see the first of Bahann’s advance squads arriving. Lieutenant Uskan was in the lead, sword in one hand and shield drawn round and set. Telra bit back a sneer. The man’s excessive caution hinted at cowardice, as far as she was concerned. Stepping forward, she said, ‘Sir. Lieutenant Esk is still in the main building. We got the company unawares – not a single man made it out of the barracks.’

‘How long?’ he demanded.

She frowned at his flushed face beneath the helm’s rim. ‘Sir?’

‘How long has she been in there, sergeant?’

‘Well, now that you mention it, some time’s passed.’

‘Stay here,’ he ordered, gesturing his squads to follow him. He brushed past Telra and entered the main building, his soldiers trooping after him.

Stepping back to join her three comrades, Telra watched for a moment, and then shrugged. ‘Well, leave ’em to it, I say. We did our bit.’

None of her soldiers replied.

She looked across at them. ‘Got a problem with any of this?’

The three men shook their heads.

It was then that the first screams erupted from the main house.

* * *

Dawn was paling the sky when Captain Hallyd Bahann at last stepped into the compound of Yannis monastery. He halted upon seeing Sergeant Telra directing her soldiers on the laying out of bodies. Legion bodies.

Scowling, he marched up to Telra. ‘Sergeant, where’s Lieutenant Esk?’

‘Dead, sir. Uskan’s inside. He’s badly wounded. He went in there with eighteen soldiers, sir, came out with three still standing. It was Sheccanto’s bodyguards, sir.’

‘Abyss take me, how many did she have?’

‘Two, sir.’

Hallyd Bahann found himself unable to muster a reply to that. He swung round to scan the corpses that had been lined up in three rows on the ground. The men and women looked chopped to pieces. Most bore multiple wounds. Smoke drifted over them like ethereal veils. The heat from the burned-down barracks had melted all the snow in the compound, leaving the bodies in puddles of sooty water now stained red.

He turned to Telra. ‘And you didn’t go in to help them?’

‘Sir? Lieutenant Esk ordered us to guard the gatehouse. That was the last order she gave us.’

‘Very well,’ Bahann said after a moment.

‘Oh, and sir?’

‘Yes?’

‘We got them both, sir. Sheccanto and Skelenal.’

‘Skelenal? Well, then some good’s come of this mess after all.’ He turned and strode into the main building.

Lieutenant Uskan was seated in a plush chair near the hearth in the main hall. The chair opposite him held a corpse, which Uskan seemed to be studying intently, as if they’d been sharing a conversation just now interrupted. From the waist down the lieutenant was soaked in blood.

Hallyd Bahann cursed under his breath. ‘Uskan,’ he said.

The veteran glanced over with glassy eyes. ‘Sir. Building secured.’