“We can use glamours to make them more vulnerable to our other weapons,” Han said. “We want to keep most of the action close to the walls. I don’t want to send flame boiling into these neighborhoods—the southerners are mingled with our own, and it will kill too many innocent people. We’ll need to use a targeted approach. Here’s how I think we should divvy up.”

Fifteen minutes later, Han, Bird, and Shilo slipped through the postern gate and into the streets beyond. Han was wrapped in glamours, Bird and Shilo in their Demonai shadowcloaks. They did for the Ardenine sentries and fanned onto the parade ground, threading their way among tents and sleeping soldiers.

As they passed through, Han attached charms to doorways and tent flaps—some of the dark magic Crow had taught him back at Oden’s Ford. He went about this business with grim purpose, reminding himself that these soldiers were here to kill Raisa and burn wizards and put Gerard Montaigne on the throne.

It drained Han more than he expected—emotionally and physically. He could have used help from Micah, but he had no intention of teaching these sorts of charms to a Bayar.

Shilo and Bird methodically cut the throats of soldiers who were sleeping in the open to escape the oppressive heat. They couldn’t kill everyone, but they did a half dozen at every campsite, including two collared mages who sat half asleep after weeks of sentry work.

Once they’d walked through nearly the entire encampment, they made their way toward the prisoner enclosure and gallows, leaving bodies in their wake.

Where are the rest of their mages? Han wondered. Were reports of Ardenine mages overblown? Or didn’t they have enough mage collars to go around?

“Where’s Karn?” he muttered to himself, after he’d made a couple of circuits of the encampment, searching. He didn’t like that the commander was missing. What was he up to?

At the prisoner enclosure, Shilo and Bird split off, making short work of the sentries set to guard them. Han used a charm to calm the lytlings and keep them quiet as Bird and Shilo awakened the prisoners, cutting them free and shepherding them out. They asked no questions and made no complaint about copperheads coming in the night, but melted away into the streets, finding hiding places on familiar ground.

Meanwhile, Han approached the base of the gallows. He took hold of his amulet and sent wizard flame jetting into the wooden structure. It went up with a satisfactory whoosh.

This was the signal for Mordra and Micah to launch flaming attacks from atop the walls of the castle, into the tent city surrounding it. The attack was partly real, partly glamour, exceedingly noisy and bright. That would be the signal for those at the edges of the city to come ahead.

The Ardenine soldiers came to life. Or, at least, some of them did.