At mid-morning the next day, they came upon another town. Evidently it had once been a waypoint for travellers stopping on their way north or south. Like Rengwin, it had been razed.
A terrible force had gone through the town like a storm, shattering the brick dwellings and setting fire to anything that would burn. In some places the coloured facades of the Veldrin houses still lined the streets in garish colours. Bodies were left to rot in the sun, a sure sign Sentar was in a hurry now that Emirald lay before him.
They left the shattered town behind, still hugging the road, keeping watch for the enemy that marched ahead of them.
"Is this what will happen to Altura?" Amber asked.
She looked at Miro when he didn't immediately respond. The marks on his face were still there, plain to see, but strength had returned to his voice. He now wore an expression of fierce determination Amber had seen before, during the darkest days of the war against the Primate.
"No, this won't happen to Altura. Not while we're alive to defend it," Miro said.
~
TWO days later, they came across the enemy encampment. It was early evening, and with the low light Miro and Amber almost stumbled across it, but suddenly Miro's arm shot out and he grabbed Amber's shoulder, silencing her with a glare.
They were travelling through the forest and couldn't see far into the distance, but they'd entered a clearing. Lazy trails of smoke rose from behind the trees ahead.
Revenants didn't need to rest, or eat. But the necromancers who controlled them did.
"I think it's them," Miro breathed in Amber's ear.
"Should we turn around? How can we be sure?"
Miro wore the sword he'd taken from the brigands. He rested his hand on the hilt while he gazed at the thick trees ahead.
"I'll be back," he muttered, and without another word he moved into the trees, leaving Amber behind.
Miro crept forward, stealing through the undergrowth. He manoeuvred from tree to tree, finally seeing light ahead. He heard cries and moans, the sounds of anguish unmistakeable. Again he remembered lying on his back on the iron table and felt the fear he'd felt then send a shiver up his spine. It was all the confirmation he needed.
A moment later Miro emerged from the trees, returning to Amber's side.
"Don't do that again," she said. "Well?"
"It's them. I could hear the screams."
"What should we do?"
"We need to get ahead of them," he said.
"How?"
"The road passes through a valley here, so the army's squeezed between the hills on both sides. Sneaking through will be impossible."
Amber scanned the cliffs on both sides of the valley. "The cliffs. There." She pointed. "I'll bet we can climb up there. If we follow the escarpment, we can get past the army."
Miro looked askance at the heights. "We'd be killed."
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Shh…" Miro held up his hand. "Do you hear something?"
"I can hear running water."
"Exactly."
Miro led Amber in the direction of the tinkling sound of water. They came to the edge of a gully, where a thin stream at the bottom of an old riverbed sent water in a vaguely southern direction.
"We can follow this as far as it takes us," Miro said. "The gully provides good cover, and it's heading in the right direction. Come on." He turned to descend the steep wall to the riverbed. "What are you doing?"
Amber held Miro's arm firmly in her hand. "You're not going anywhere. How do you know this isn't going to take you right into the middle of the enemy camp, where you'll find some necromancer washing his robe in the water?"
"It's better than your idea of scaling the cliffs!"
"You're right. But you said yourself the army will be occupying the entire valley. That includes this gully. Your plan needs one small change."
"What's that?"
Amber released Miro's arm and folded her arms across her breasts. "We're going to try this in the middle of the night."
~
PALE moonlight shone through the trees above as the two figures walked in single file along the narrow ravine. The walls rose to both sides, and if anything they had grown higher, so that rather than a gully it was becoming a small canyon. Miro was thankful as he looked up at the steep sides. Even the moonlight failed to reach these depths.
Something splashed in the water ahead; Miro and Amber both froze. They waited several long breaths before resuming.
The canyon turned slightly to the left and Miro prayed they were still heading in the right direction; down here it was impossible to tell. It would be terrible if the path turned them around, placing them back where they'd started.
They had been walking for at least an hour. Miro judged by now they should be nearing the enemy. Where were they?
He jumped when he felt Amber grab his arm, pinching the skin tightly between her fingers. There was something ahead, a great mound, nearly blocking the ravine. Miro wondered why Amber had grabbed him.
Then he realised what the mound was.
It was a pile of corpses, too many of them to count, with one body thrown on top of the other from above until they'd formed this huge mound. Miro heard voices, and both he and Amber shrank back against the wall.