Even from half a mile away on the hillside, Tobias felt the look in the boy’s eyes as the god thing fell. His voice rang across the battlefield calling his men to fight for him. The battle cry raised by a thousand eager voices. ‘Death! Death! Death!’
Battle redoubled. The dragon swept back, fire blazing from its mouth. More shadows dragged themselves in its wake through the rents it made in the sky. The Illyians died by the thousands. Turned even on each other. The world a blazing mass of white light.
‘Why we march and why we die,
And what life means … it’s all a lie.
Death! Death! Death!’
So loud it blocked out Tobias’s breathing. Put his hands to his eyes and screamed. White light and golden rainbows. Trumpets sounding victory. The currents of slaughter calmed. The dragon lumbered forward, came down resting at Marith’s feet. Men’s voices cheered to the heavens. The sun burst through the rain wet sky.
Never go up against a drink- and drug-addled death-obsessed invulnerable demon with a pet dragon. Old secret sellsword’s wisdom, that.