"I recognise you," Moragon said. He grinned. "You've got a nerve, Lord Marshal, I'll give you that. Just so you know, when I'm done every Alturan woman will be shared among my men. They'll thank me for the opportunity to serve."

Shouts and cries could be heard. Miro looked to the left and right. "I'll see you on the battlefield," he said.

"You'll never get back to your men in time," Dain Barden said. "In fact, you'll never get out of here alive."

"We'll see," Miro said.

There was one last sequence Ella had built into Miro's armoursilk. He used it now, hoping it would be enough.

Miro chanted the runes quickly, one after the other.

A second bladesinger stood beside him, every movement a copy of Miro's own. As his lips moved a third appeared, then five more, and then ten more.

The illusions appeared all around him. As Miro used their confusion to escape from the very heart of the enemy camp, he again thanked his sister for saving his life.

~

IN THE end, though, Dain Barden was right, and Miro missed the battle. He saw it unfold from a distance as he returned to the west, watching in horror as the revenants of the Akari tore through the ranks of the soldiers in green and brown, eventually causing the allied army to break, fleeing back to the protection of the Ring Forts.

Miro hated himself for missing the battle, and now that he hadn't managed to find Amber he hated himself for trying. He knew he was being foolish, that if he had managed to find Amber he would feel differently.

But when he made it back to Sark, and saw the expression on Rogan's face, it didn't make him feel any better.

48

48

ELLA had never been so filled with rage. She thought about all she had seen, and all she now knew, and she wanted to hurt the ones who had done this. She wanted to hurt them badly.

She ate a cold meal of dried fruit and biscuit and tried to formulate a strategy, to use a clear head and intelligence when what she really wanted was to feel emotion. Through the trees ahead of her she could see three sets of twinkling lights. One set was the prison camp, the second was the camp of the soldiers, and the third set was the terrible place where they took the bodies.

It was located near the road from Seranthia to Sakurai, capital of Torakon, which meant Ella was in Tingara somewhere. Once she had made the decision to leave the Hazarans she had swiftly outdistanced the army, able to make her way through smaller paths and back routes, travelling night and day, burning with her desire to find a way to defeat these Akari and their revenants.