BY THE TIME they reached the borders of the Kamarg, Hawkmoon and Oladahn were covered from head to foot in clinging ash which stung their nostrils and was harsh in their throats. Their horses, too, were covered in the stuff and their eyes were as red as their riders’.

Now the sea of ash gave way to sparse, yellow grassland and still they had found no sign of the legions of the Dark Empire.

A little watery sunshine broke through the layers of cloud as Hawkmoon drew his horse to a halt and consulted his map. He pointed due East. “The village of Verlin lies yonder. Let’s ride cautiously and see if Granbretanian troops still occupy it.”

The village came in sight at last and when he saw it Hawkmoon began to gallop faster. Oladahn called from, behind him:

“What is it, Duke Dorian? What has happened?”

Hawkmoon did not reply for, as they neared the village, it could be seen that half the buildings lay in ruins, that corpses choked the streets. And still no sign of the Dark Empire troops.

Many of the buildings had been blackened by flame lance fire and some of the corpses had been slain by Same lances. Here and there lay the body of a Granbre

tanian, an armoured figure with its mask tilting skyward.

“They were all Wolves here, by the look of it,” Hawkmoon murmured. “Meliadus’s men. It seems they fell upon the villagers and the villagers attacked them back. Seethat Wolf was stabbed by a reaping hookthat one died from the blow of the spade still in his neck…”

“Maybe the villagers rose up against them,” Oladahn suggested, “and the Wolves retaliated.”

“Then why did they leave the village?” Hawkmoon pointed out. “They were garrisoned here.”

They guided their horses over the bodies of the fallen. The stink of death was still heavy in the air. It was plain that this carnage had been wreaked only recently. Hawkmoon pointed out gutted stores and the corpses of cattle, horses, even dogs.

“They left nothing alive. Nothing which could be used for food. It is as if they were in retreat from some more powerful enemy!”

“Who is more powerful than the Dark Empire?” Oladahn said with a shudder. “Have we some new enemy to face, friend Hawkmoon?”

“I hope not. Yet this sight is puzzling.”

“And disgusting,” Oladahn added. There were not only men dead in the streets, but children too and every woman, young or old, bore signs of having been raped before she had been slain, mostly by means of a cut throat, for the Granbretanian soldiery liked to slay their victims as they raped them.

Hawkmoon sighed. “It is the sign of the Dark Empire, everywhere you venture.”

He looked up, bending his head to catch a small sound carried on the chill wind. “A cry! Someone still lives, perhaps.”