Page 374 of Of Empires and Dust

“It’s best if you see for yourself, Commander,” one of the riders said.

“I’ll have the meat of it now.”

The man shook his head. “Bodies, my lord. It’s… I would not speak of it. Please.”

Elves in the black of Vaelen, crimson and gold of Luntihír, and green of Ardurän approached, all with curious faces.

Ilvalis, one of the Vaelen captains Dann recognised, raised a hand. “Need we prepare for battle, Narvír?”

Tarmon waved him away and focused on the scout. “Look at me, and breathe. Are we in danger?”

The man shook his head. “Not… not immediately, my lord. Please, it’s best you come.”

Tarmon gestured to Dann and Lyrei, then cracked his reins and galloped up the column with the scouts, calling out to halt the march.

Queen Tessara and the Ephorí joined them about halfway, on the backs of Dvalin Angan, along with Erik and Vaeril.

“What’ve they found?” Erik asked as he pulled his mount beside Dann.

Dann just shook his head and gave a slight shrug. But as they cleared the front of the marching column and Dann saw over the crest of the hill, he pulled on Drunir’s reins and spun the horse around. “Nala, close your eyes.”

“But I?—”

“Close them,now. And don’t let Maria take another step.”

He understood that even children could not be spared from the horrors of war. Not in a world where they would have to facethose horrors every day. But there were some things no child should ever have to witness, no matter what. Some things no soul at all should have to witness.

“What in all the gods…” Tarmon sat stunned on his mount, his jaw agape, his shoulders slumped.

Someone retched.

Once he was sure Nala’s eyes were firmly closed and she wasn’t going to move, Dann turned back and tapped Drunir’s side. The horse continued to where Erik, Vaeril, Tarmon, and the others all waited, staring out.

Dread crept through Dann’s veins and crawled over his skin.

Before him the hill levelled out into an open plain, split by the long dirt road to Salme. The Oak Road, it had always been called on account of the old oak trees that framed the path for miles, planted centuries ago. Some stood as high as seventy or eighty feet, their massive trunks almost six feet across, their branches gnarled and twisting. He’d walked the road before, a number of times, accompanying his dad as Tharn went to trade leather at Salme’s port. He’d been in awe every time.

But that night, in the dark, the pale red light of the moon spilling through twisted branches, dismembered bodies were nailed to the ancient oaks, each in various stages of rot and decay. Arms and legs hacked free, massive bolts of iron holding them in place. The trees looked like voidspawn come alive.

Dann could only make out the first few trees on either side of the road, but something in the air told him those bodies went on for miles. He knew now why the bodies in The Glade had been dug up.

“Why?” one of the captains – Surin – asked.

“Fear.” Tarmon held his reins slack in his lap, his stare unmoving from the corpse-covered trees.

“We can’t march through that…” Ingvat said, sat astride a piebald gelding.

“Every moment we ponder here is a moment wasted.” Thurivîr stood with his hand resting on his pommel. “These people are dead, and there is nothing we can do for them except enact vengeance.”

Dann hated to even contemplate agreeing with the elf – especially considering Thurivîr was more motivated about returning to Aravell than he was saving Salme. And yet, he did agree. “The road is the quickest way.” Dann looked back at Nala, who still sat in Maria’s saddle with her eyes closed. “The land grows rough on both sides. The rocks are near impassable along the coast with a number this large, and if we try and take the hills near Talin, it will add a day at least. We don’t have a day… Salme doesn’t have a day.”

Queen Tessara moved closer to the trees, staring up at the twisted bodies nailed to the gnarled limbs. She turned back to Tarmon. “You speak with the Draleid’s voice, Narvír Hoard. This is his army. What say you?”

Tarmon shifted his gaze from the trees to Dann, then back down the hill to the massive column of souls that waited behind them. Shouts and murmurs echoed up the hill in the cold night. “I would rather not force this sight upon even a single pair of eyes. That is what the Uraks want. They want us to fear them, to fear what they will do to us. But no, we will march along this road. We will face the darkness they have set before us, and we will use it. We will show our people the kind of monsters we are fighting. We will show them the courage that is needed. And when we have slaughtered the dark beasts that did this, when we have ripped out their hearts and set their bones on fire, we will come back here and we will remove each and every body. And we will see them into Achyron’s halls.” Tarmon sat still astride his massive mount, nodding gently to himself, his breath rising in the cold air. “For now, there are others who need our blades, ourcourage, and our strength,” he said, turning his horse. Tarmon roared, “Dracurïn, forward to Salme!”

Chapter 87

Salme

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