“They won’t go to waste. Let’s get started. Guard me.” He dropped the ties to his body, drifted into the city. Lioantung was a maze of twisty streets and alien architecture. Whole quarters were empty. He would recruit among abandoned animals….

The enemy were busily preparing for his assault. They seemed unconcerned. The battle in the forest had restored their confidence. Only the Tervola themselves were uncertain.

They were debating what to do about the animals….

He flung himself into the darkness-haunted streets, found a stable. He seized a horse’s dim mind. It reared, broke down its stall, hammered a stableboy to the earth.

Ethrian seized the body, found a hayhook, slipped into the night. He stole up behind a legionnaire….

So it went, hour after hour. The enemy responded. By dawn no soldier went anywhere alone. Next day Lord Ssu-ma ordered all animals destroyed. Ethrian returned to his body.

“You look exhausted,” Sahmanan told him.

“A little. Did they try very hard?”

She gestured at their surroundings. The earth was scorched. His chair had been reduced to toothpicks. “I thought they had us once. I barely hung on.”

“They’re going to kill the animals. It’s time to send in the dead.”

“Don’t you want to rest?”

“I don’t have time.”

“Ethrian…”

“Be still.” He reached out, gathered the threads. Corpses shambled toward the city. Dragons took the air. Some carried multiple riders, some supported the storming of the walls. The legions left off slaughtering livestock and rushed to the battlements.

Ethrian continued the attack till almost nothing remained of his army. He and Sahmanan were the only survivors outside the city. Inside, in the abandoned quarters, he squirreled away a thousand bodies.

He roamed the city in his out-of-body state, occasionally slipping into an animal to listen. His enemies were as tired as he.

Wearily, they resumed the slaughter. Some commenced a house-to-house search for the dead.

Ethrian returned to Sahmanan. “Rest, Ethrian,” she insisted. “You’re killing yourself.”

“One more thing, just to keep them busy. Then I will.”

He went back into Lioantung, seeking rats. And rats he found, of course, for Lioantung was an old city, well stocked with vermin.

He began in Lord Ssu-ma’s citadel headquarters. In a hundred places rats suddenly streaked across rooms, overturning lamps. Most of the fires were extinguished immediately, yet a few started where there were no witnesses.

Ethrian returned to his body. “That should keep them occupied. Wake me if anything important happens.”

He slept fourteen hours and wakened still only partially refreshed. “What’s happened?” he demanded.

“Nothing. They’ve been too busy fighting fires.”

He went into the city again. The last conflagrations were under control. Weary legionnaires were staggering to their barracks, cursing him, praying for rest. He gave them no respite.