"I'm going to let you out now. I trust we won't have a repeat of yesterday?" I glared at my friends, whom I'd left entombed in stone overnight. It was petty and mean, but I couldn't help but feel somewhat bitter at them.

"We did what we had to do," Jandak said stoically.

"You didn't curse my nephew," Kos added happily. "I really need to scratch my arse, brother. Care to let us out now?"

I moved between them and cast Shape Earth again. The foot-thick stone that had turned them into blobby statues dissolved back into the dirt I'd formed it from, and the three of them stretched and grumbled.

"Dick move, leaving us out here all night, Mond," Mune complained. "But we need to know: what happened to Kril?"

"He ran to the army after he drugged me. I'll speak to him soon," I laughed. "I have a son!"

The three of them, my closest friends in this new world, came forward and slapped me on the back and shoulders, offering their congratulations and a certain amount of teasing that would make most sailors on Earth blush.

"A new prince of the steppe–" Mune muttered, but I cut him off.

"A prince of the empire! The nomads aren't going to be the same as they were before, brothers. We've taken control of Settall, Holtak, Garan, and half a dozen other cities! Where Mortimer has left a weak garrison, they revolt and throw the heads of his captains over the walls when a dozen riders approach! We don't even need to fight half the time!" I exclaimed.

"True enough, Mond, but whatever we can take easily can also be easily lost. They fear us more than him now, but that will only last until they hate us more than they fear us." I looked at Jandak in surprise, then nodded.

"You're right. The primary issue we face is the amalgams and the bandaged men. Those bastards are scary as hell. That's the level of fear we have to beat, without becoming monsters ourselves," I replied.

"So we burn the shit-sitters out! Kill enough of them, and the rest will bend the knee!" snapped Kos.

"Brother, that's a war crime."

"What the fuck does the law have to do with war?" he snapped in response. "There is only one law of war: win or die."

"There are better ways," I countered, but all three snorted in disgust.

"This is your old world poisoning you. I've listened to your stories of your weird world, and I am not impressed," said Mune.

"When the hell–" I began.

"When you're fourteen jars of yalk in, Mond. You have a strange affection for a place that follows such an unnatural order," Jandak interrupted. He laughed and slapped me on the back, earning a glare.

"'Land rights' was the funniest! The steppe will still be here a thousand generations from now! How can we claim to own it? If another tribe drove us out, what claim could we have?" laughed Kos.

"That could never happen. They'd have to kill us first," snarled Jandak fiercely. I could believe him; the tribes would never appeal to any authority beyond themselves. They would take matters into their own hands and die trying.

"I'm not fucking arguing about this with you. When we take a settlement, we ship the best crafters, scholars, and artisans to Riverwheel to serve for a few years and benefit the tribes. We leave a tribal governor to hold the town and take a cut of their taxes."

"Taxes are another fucked up thing," muttered Mune. As someone whose income was, of necessity, off the books, I didn't have a dog in this fight.

"Sure. Look, let's get our shit together. Kos, I want you to stay back with Fay."

"You want me to miss out on the fun to keep an eye on your wife?" He glowered at me.

"I want you with your sister and your nephew, my son, to ensure I have someone who can kill any fucking thing that might come after them before anything bad happens. Jandak, what about you? Are you willing to arrive a few days late at the front to ensure the future of our tribe?"

"Aresk's bollocks, Mond! I didn't say I wouldn't! Just leave some of the fuckers for me to kill when we catch up, ok?" Kos cut off Jandak before he had half opened his mouth.

"Good. This won't be an easy siege. We're going to be here for weeks at least. Ashrot looks like a baby compared to whatever the fuck they call the thing infesting Urkash's walls."

"It's that much bigger?" asked Mune in a worried voice. When I released them, he raked a hand back through his hair to shake out the last bits of dirt and stone that hadn't fallen away.

"And meaner looking." I hadn't described the appearance of the bloody thing to anyone other than Fay. It was greyer, more rancid. The previous amalgams had oozed across the ground when they attacked; this thing looked slimy. I was confident this was the first of Mortimer's monsters. Based on the size and the importance of guarding his capital, I felt it was a reasonable assumption that this monster would be the worst we would face. Famous last words, but I wasn't too worried about jinxing myself at the moment.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"We're going to take the thing apart piece by piece until the golems can run in and liquidise the fucker from the inside," I continued. "If it comes off the walls like Ashrot did, we'll fall back. The Legion and Nomad forces are aware of the plans. The next few weeks will be more like a normal war: long stretches of boredom interspersed with short bouts of terror." I laughed as they all grinned.

"You don't understand war at all, Mond! The quiet parts are the best bits!" chuckled Mune. Veterans. Got to love them.

We had reached the edge of the camp. We threaded through the tents until we reached my tent, which was being guarded by half a dozen mage-Huskar and two-thirds of the coven. They glared at everyone who approached, so I didn't take it personally.

"Are you well?" I asked Fay after I had negotiated my way past Haylin. She smiled radiantly and hitched the linen bundle that housed our son up her chest.

"Better than that. But you're going to spoil my mood, aren't you?" she asked.

"I need to ride on. If the amalgam at Urkash attacks while so much of our magical strength is here, it could destroy the army."

"I know. I'm going to keep Haylin and Grabel nearby, leave me a couple of the magic-ur-viles and a few squadrons of cavalry. That's all we'll need." She nuzzled her face into the opening at the top of the swaddling.

"Kos is staying as well." I expected an outburst, but she just nodded at me.

"That's a good idea. My brother is going to be training the boy, anyway." This was news to me. I made a mental note to up my own training of Kos. I had plenty of nasty tricks I hadn't passed on to the others yet.

We kissed, and then I kissed my son's brow. He had fierce blue eyes. He looked like every other baby I'd ever seen: part bulldog, part Churchill, part pug. His oversized eyes looked around, almost glazed, but as I brushed a finger down his cheek, his right hand moved and latched onto my digit.

"He'll be strong!" I laughed as he clamped down on my index finger with his tiny hand.

"Like his mother!" She laughed at the face. I made "Go on, love. We won't be far behind."

"The boy doesn't come near the front. The nomads will camp well back if the amalgam attacks; he will stay with the camp. As do you." She scowled at me. I didn't care. Keeping that little bundle of helplessness and his mother safe was more important than anything else. I could hunt Mortimer down solo if I had to. Whether it was the mark affecting my feelings or simply the natural human impulse of a new father, I wouldn't be able to carry on if anything happened to this pair.

Perhaps Fay read some of my feelings from my face, maybe she knew me better than I'd care to admit, but she nodded with pursed lips.

"Go on then, Ray. Go take the greatest city in the north for our son."

Another kiss, and I was out of the tent, glaring at all those nearby.

"Let's move! We've got an army to catch and a city to take! Haylin, Grabel. Kos will be staying with you to watch out for Fay. You there!" I pointed at a mage-Huskar. "Name?"

"Bardik, Legate." He snapped to attention and slammed an armoured fist against an armoured chest. I felt around in my mind until I found his thread and gently flicked it. He winced.

"Pick another good man –Huskar– and join the guard. The rest of you will follow me!" I called. The Legionaries fell out in good order, Bardik dragging one of his colleagues over and standing on either side of the tent's entrance.

Wilson was busy running storage devices full of water back and forth from the river, a task he had made plain he didn't enjoy by peeing around my tent whenever he was in camp, so Jandak, Mune, and I fell into a loping run once I was happy the nomads and Legionaries would be on the road soon.

Running across this barren place was miserable in comparison to the steppe. The long grass and vast herds of large mammals were missing. It felt like running on the surface of the moon. The wind stirred the scrub and dessicated plants, but nothing living seemed to move. The animals probably hid from the sun, sleeping through the day's heat.

The three of us could easily maintain speeds the cavalry couldn't match, and that would test the stamina of most of the Huskars. As the sun set and night fell, I insisted we keep running.

"Why not take a break, Mond?" gasped Jandak in an annoyed voice. "We won't reach the army tonight!"

"I need to have a chat with someone before we get there," I growled. I was starting to tire a little, but not so much that it would be a problem.

A spot of fire appeared on the horizon. I knew where it would be. I wasn't following any physical trace; I was running down a thread that led from my soul to someone else's.

As we arrived, Kril looked up and pointed to the pot over the fire.

"Help yourselves," he said, spooning broth into his mouth. "Here, congratulations." He tossed me a stoppered skin. I opened the top and took a sniff. This was the strong stuff. And it wasn't made from blood or mare's milk.

"Where'd you get this?" I asked before taking a fake sip and passing it to Jandak. Jandak took a generous drink and threw the flask to Mune.

"Hah! Don't trust me anymore?" Kril cackled.

"Not that. But once bitten, twice shy. You drugged me and sent me to Aresk. I'm still a bit miffed about that." He sniffed and scooped up more stew.

"Had to. Couldn't let you fuck everything up. We're going to need the boy after you're gone."

"For all we know, this world gets destroyed and remade every time the fucking gods decide to play their games!" I snapped. "When the last of us exiles dies or goes home, that's probably it for you!" This had been bothering me, and I finally started venting about it. "There have been games with firearms in the past. Probably fucking cyberpunk augmented humans running around with lasers and shit. The gods are fucking with us all. I'll stay here until I die, even if I have to keep one of the others in a fucking cage for the rest of his life so we don't trigger the win condition!"

"It's not like that, Mond." Kril sounded remarkably sure of himself. "Some things change with a new game. Some don't. Aresk says it's about quantum wave modifications and the energy required to change how they fold, collapse, or something like that. He said you'd understand?" Beady eyes looked up at me.

"Not a fucking clue. I was a hitman, not a physicist."

"This place exists in its own right. We exist independently. The Gods change it and shift our history, but your lot being here didn't snap it into being. It will go on without you. Your son is part of my long-term plans for the tribes. For after all of us are dead in battle."

The wiry old man was fierce, his gaze passed over the two Fangs and locked on me. I didn't flinch, but I wanted to. His eyes burned with a passion I'd never seen before. A cackling loon, well educated for a nomad, was the character Kril played. He had the battle lust of all the nomads, coloured by a broader perspective. But he was more than that. The Dreamers were the spiritual guardians of their people, serving as intermediaries between the living and the ancestors in a culture that lacked a written language.

I fixed him with a stern look and accepted the bowl of stew that was offered to me. It smelled rich and well-seasoned. The quality of the tribes food had risen significantly since Kril had discovered Rapid Growth.

"You need to fill me in on your plans–"

Ray, I'm about to deploy the team. Urkash is crawling with soulbound. It's dangerous for me to be here. Glimpse sent to me through our bond.

"–but right now I need to eat and see what the kill teams are up to." I glared at Kril. "I still owe you for that blast of dream-spice, bloke. But we can let it slide for now."

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