The Shield Anvil squeezed it slightly.

The Destriant’s face, as he lifted it into view, was skeletal, the skin mottled with deep bruises originating from the joints of his jaw; his red-webbed eyes sunken within charcoal-black pits.

‘Ah,’ the old man rasped, ‘I have failed you, sir ...’

‘You have not.’

‘Your wounds—’

‘The flesh is sealed – I can feel as much. My neck, my back, my knee. There is naught but a tenderness, sir. Easily managed.’ He slowly sat up, keeping his expression calm despite the agony that ripped through him. Flexing his knee left him bathed in sweat, suddenly chilled and lightheaded. He did not alter his firm grip on the Destriant’s hand. ‘Your gift ever humbles me, sir.’

Karnadas settled his head on Itkovian’s thigh. ‘I am done, my friend,’ he whispered.

‘I know,’ the Shield Anvil replied. ‘But I am not.’

The Destriant’s head moved in a nod but he did not look up.

Itkovian glanced around. Four other cots, each bearing a soldier. Rough blankets had been drawn up over their faces. Two of the priest’s cutters sat on the blood-gummed floor, their backs to a wall, their eyes closed in the sleep of the exhausted. Near the small room’s door stood a Grey Sword messenger, Capan by her features beneath the rim of her helmet. He had seen a younger version of her, among the recruits ... perhaps a sister. ‘How long have I been unconscious? Do I hear rain?’

Karnadas made no answer. Neither surgeon stirred awake. After a moment, the messenger cleared her throat. ‘Sir, it is less than a bell before midnight. The rain came with the dusk.’

With the dusk, and with a man’s death. The hand holding his slackened in increments. ‘How many soldiers here, sir? How many do I still command?’

She flinched. ‘There are one hundred and thirty-seven in all, sir. Of these, ninety-six recruits. Of the Manes who stood with you at the cemetery, eleven soldiers survive.’

‘Our barracks?’

‘Fallen, sir. The structure burns.’

‘Jelarkan’s Palace?’

She shook her head. ‘No word, sir.’

Itkovian slowly disengaged his hand from Karnadas’s limp grip and looked down upon the motionless figure. He stroked the wisps of the man’s hair. Moments passed, then the Shield Anvil broke the silence. ‘Find us an orderly, sir. The Destriant is dead.’

Her eyes widened on him.

‘He joins our Mortal Sword, Brukhalian. It is done.’

Following these words, Itkovian settled his boots onto the floor, almost blacking out at the pain in his ruined knee. He drew a deep, shaky breath, slowly straightened. ‘Do any armourers remain?’

‘An apprentice, sir,’ she replied after a moment, her tone brittle as burned leather.

‘I shall need a brace for my knee, sir. Anything he or she can fashion.’

‘Yes, sir,’ she whispered. ‘Shield Anvil—’

He paused in his search for his surcoat, glanced over. The woman had gone deathly white.