“That he was. Let’s get them carved up. We’ve wasted too much time already.”

Shih-ka’i had seen any number of corpses dismembered, but there was a difference between observing and doing. His gorge threatened to rise. He wondered if that happened to the men. The world saw them as battalions of heartless torturers… They were men. Mere men, superbly trained and superbly in command of themselves. They had pride….

I have to be as strong as that centurion Mo-Jo, he told himself. I am the leader. I have to be the toughest and best.

“Finished, Lord,” Pan ku said.

“Let’s go.”

“Grim work, eh?”

“Indeed. I had less stomach for it than I expected.”

“This will be a grisly campaign, won’t it, Lord?”

“We’ve never seen its like, Pan ku.”

As they entered the map room from one end, a doorway at the other exploded. The planks of it flew about like autumn leaves in a gale. A dozen dead warriors burst through, spearheaded by three skullfaces.

Tasi-feng met them with a burst of power which flung the smaller warriors round like ragdolls in the jaws of mastiffs. The skullfaces were unaffected. The other Tervola hit them with as many killing spells as there were spellcasters. Noxious clouds boiled off the collapsing bodies. For a time it was difficult to breathe.

Shih-ka’i joined Chang Sheng over a map of the fortress and its environs. Sheng said, “They’re attacking here and here, into the joints between the encampments and the fortress.”

The palisades and trenches surrounding the camps were puny compared to the defenses of the fortress itself. Sheng continued, “Their assault hasn’t developed sufficiently to betray their intent. Their logical course would be to encircle and reduce the encampments. But they’re concentrating their dragons and wizardry on us.”

“Trying to keep us pinned down.”

A Tervola approached. Shih-ka’i remembered him from the deep probe into the desert. “Yes, Ou-yan?”

“Message from Lord Shih-mihn, Lord. They’ve launched human wave assaults.

They’ve broken through in three places. He thinks they want to force a melee.”

“There’s your main thrust, Lord Chang. North camp. Melee. We can’t permit that.”

The price would be defeat. Should the enemy break Shih-ka’i’s formations and force his men to fight individually, few would have time to salvage legion dead or destroy enemy fallen. Those would keep coming back into the fray. They would grow more numerous, rather than fewer.

“Lord Chang?”

“Doesn’t sound good, Lord. But I suggest we wait before we jump. The men won’t fold.”

Sheng was right. The defense stiffened under pressure, Shih-ka’i mounted an observation tower to study the north camp.

Huge, stinking fires burned there. His soldiers flung ever more bodies upon them.

The dragons continued to drop warriors into the fortress. The garrison was dealing with them now. Many flyers never left. Their riders were cut down as their feet touched the ground.

Shih-ka’i was pleased.

“Lord.” Pan ku pointed. Squinting, Shih-ka’i found the two dragons circling high overhead.