Heast and Oya were the first to return to the burned-out buildings where Anemone, Lehana and the First Queen’s Guard waited. Beyond them, in tired, blackened clumps, were two dozen members of Refuge who had reached safety. It was there that Heast found Qiyala.
His sergeant was exhausted. Her face was a mask of soot and sweat and she stared ahead with a numb expression, as if she did not see him. She had fallen into a crouch, a canteen in her hand and an axe at her feet. A little behind her lay Sergeant Bliq. She, Heast realized, had been the soldier he had helped out of the burning streets. Her leg was wrapped tightly in a dirty, bloodstained cloth and Anemone was beside her, examining the wound. Heast expected that the sergeant would be hobbling to her feet soon enough, and though he would prefer to send her away, to send her and the other members of Refuge out of the smoke, he knew that he would need her to ride into the centre of the town with him.
‘I have never seen anything like this, Captain,’ Qiyala said, drawing his attention back to her. She tightened the lid on her canteen and raised her dark, flat gaze to Heast. ‘I’ve seen a lot. I would have said that I had seen damn near anything that you could see, but that was before the Leerans began to set their own soldiers on fire. It was – they lit up the countryside like torches in the night. Not a single one of them screamed. They just ran towards Celp.’
From behind the sergeant, two of the First Queen’s Guard returned. A third rode double with one. Lehana approached them, but Heast knew that one of his soldiers had fallen.
‘We saw the Leerans arrive,’ Qiyala continued, her fingers flicking the canteen in a sharp but broken beat. ‘It happened two nights ago. We watched them circle us. They had about five hundred, I guess, and our first response was to tighten our defences. We had the better ground and the Hollow told us that there weren’t any ancestors. I don’t know. It was strange, sir. At first it was strange. The Leerans had no siege machines. They had little in supplies. There was no clear way out for us, but it didn’t seem to matter, because we had the better field placement, and they didn’t have what it took to starve us out, or to come over our walls. We had time to wait for you. We had time to plan. When it turned dark tonight, we started to think that they might not even know that we were here. We never thought that they would set themselves on fire.’
Anemone left Bliq’s side and went to one of the soldier who had ridden in. Jaela. That was her name, Heast remembered, now. ‘How many have we lost?’ he asked.
‘It’s hard to say. The burning, the . . . I don’t know what the Leerans want to call what they’ve done here, but it caught us off-guard.’ Qiyala rose, exchanging the canteen for the axe. ‘They didn’t set fire to everyone. They hammered barrels into trees and poured oil over men and women without mounts. They would stand there as if it was a shower and then step out be lit. The first died before they reached the city, but others . . . others got through. We had blocked the gate but that didn’t stop them. They died there. They broke the east first. Bliq had that side and she lost nearly everyone who was with her. About a hundred, I thought. I lost thirty. Maybe thirty-five.’
‘The Hollow is still alive.’ Bliq rose slowly and stiffly, her leg unable to take her full weight. ‘He had the centre of Celp, but he isn’t dead. I know that.’
‘The fire is worse there,’ Qiyala said. ‘You can’t be sure of that.’
The other sergeant spat to her left. ‘Ain’t nobody killing that boy with plain old fire,’ she said after she had cleared her throat.
Heast called Lehana over. ‘How many did not come back?’
‘Just the one, sir.’ She offered a brief nod to the two women, who nodded in return. ‘This is your new lieutenant,’ Heast said to his sergeants. ‘Anemone, is Taaira still alive?’
‘Grandmother said he was.’ Blood showed through the ash on the witch’s hands but she did not clean it away. ‘He is in the south with eighty soldiers. Many of them are wounded, but he is not.’
‘The rest?’
‘Spread throughout the area. Corporal Isaap is trying to gather them, but they are by and large pinned down.’
‘Have her help them.’ Heast grabbed the reins of his horse. It, like him, was surely longing to take a breath of cool air. ‘Everyone mount up. Double where you have to.’ He pulled himself up. ‘We’re going to break the back of this, get our soldiers, and get out of here.’
‘You’re going to charge the centre?’ Bliq was disbelieving. ‘Captain, that is where they have been trying to herd us.’
‘Would you prefer to leave?’
She spat again. ‘I’m not leaving anyone behind, sir.’
‘Then mount up.’
The charge began a short time later.
Oya led it. She had gathered a new shield and rode between Saelo and Zvae, swords drawn. Before the charge began, Heast saw Qiyala grab a black-armoured hand and pull herself on the back of Fenna’s mount. Bliq and the other soldiers without mounts followed her lead. In the charge, Heast could see them spread out around him, the horses charging as if they carried one rider, their strength and speed born from their desire to leave the burning town. The main street split into smaller streets towards the centre of Celp. Before them, men and women who had been set on fire emerged. Not one of them got close to the charge: arrows dropped them before the charge divided, breaking evenly behind Saelo, Zvae and Oya as each took a street.
Ahead, the fires grew in intensity, as if one of the broken shards of the sun had been dropped on the town hall.
The town square burned as if exactly that had happened. The tallest of the fires belonged to the town hall, and the flames that lifted high over the blackened roof had a shape that was not yet complete, but it suggested something monstrous. But it was not that undefined horror that drew Heast’s attention, no.
What drew the Captain of Refuge’s long experienced gaze was the sight of the Leeran soldiers who were entirely aflame.
It was not just those who stood at the front of the line waiting for them, but those behind, and the silent mounts they sat upon. For each of them, it was as if the fires were not real, as if their flesh was not burning, and their bodies not a horror of shifting, moving flesh. It was as if, Heast realized, they were sitting under the gaze of a beloved leader, as if they were wearing their finest, and on parade.
It was as if, he realized, they sat beneath the gaze of their god, Se’Saera. A gaze, Heast realized as Refuge charged forwards, that watched them intently.