9/1/2023 0 Comments Tangle tower evidence list![]() Out of firing range, narrowly, but should Abreha retreat under their cover the ensuing fight would not go well for him. She came out to meet him near the gatehouse with two hundred soldiers of her own, but she had twice that waiting with bows up in the heights. Praesi respected force even when it was in the hands of those they considered savages, and the once-Sepulchral was nothing if not pragmatic. His force was large enough, the Warlord knew, that Abreha would come to greet him personally. The three of them and two hundred shields set out towards the gate even as the Clans followed, columns of warriors sweeping the highborn camps and approaching the capital. Sigvin returned to his side and Hakram sent for Dag Clawtoe, the warrior he’d overtaken as leader of the Howling Wolves and who now led his personal guard. High Lady Abreha Mirembe was said to have been raised as undead by Catherine at the Battle of Kala and she knew better than to cross her mistress. Not that Ater’s defenders were the ones keeping the third one open: the banner hung on the gatehouses was a vulture holding a skull, Askum’s colours. Three had been open this morning, he’d been told, but now two were closed. Waiting for Sigvin to finish, the Warlord watched the eastern gates in the distance. It never made a clan popular for its warriors to be the ones telling other orcs they couldn’t drag away the riches they’d just won in battle. Overseeing the loot was a position of great trust – the old hordes had given it a formal title, one held in great respect – but Hakram meant it as a check as well as a mark of favour. We distribute only when the blades rest.” “I want the Split Tree to oversee the loot. “Send word to your grandmother,” he said. Hakram nodded back, then turned his eye to Sigvin. ![]() “Warlord,” the old orc replied, hand over heart. Capture all the highborn you can, I want bargaining chips.” “Oghuz, take ten thousand shields and secure the camps. The army shattered, entire companies fleeing the monsters and the massive horde they could see approaching in the distance. Maybe eight thousand Praesi had mustered on the field and less than a tenth of that died under the charge, but their morale broke instantly. Most of the enemy soldiers had never faced great wolves up close and it showed: the great mount shattered the shield wall in moments and trampled dozens, terror spreading at the violent howls. Some of the mages with the troops got spells up in time, turning back the attack, but not enough. Only the vanguard had slowed, not stopped, and the highborn realized it only moments before Troke Snaketooth’s warband smashed into their envoys and the packs of wolf riders howled a charge. Led by a Niri, by the look of their banners. Troke rode forward with a few picked men, champions, and the nobles sent a party of their own. They were still wary, as the Clans should have gone to sack Nok instead of marched on Ater, but the tension went out of their battle line. It was, after all, an open secret among the highest rung of the nobility that Troke was an ally of Malicia’s. What troops were not already fighting in the city had been mustered and ordered out, but that effort had ceased as soon as the highborn had glimpsed the banners claiming that Troke Snaketooth was the warlord of the Clans. When he’d sent out his vanguard of five thousand wolf rider towards the camps to the east of Ater, the nobles in them had understandably reacted to the threat. ![]() “Look at them, girl,” the chief of the Red Shields said. At his left, Oghuz suddenly let out a loud bark of laughter. The boast had limited the damage to reputation, and what he’d paid was well worth what he was to get for it now. The order had seen warriors grumble at the lack of pride, enough that he’d spread among the horde that he would only raise his own banner after Ater was made to kneel. “For the same reason I’ve ordered my banner not be raised,” Hakram replied.Īll the way south, the place of honour – the Warlord’s place – among the banners had remained empty. Sigvin was frowning, learning forward so the noonday sun would not fall into her eyes. Betrayal is where the bile is: you have to love someone before they can betray you.” ![]() “Treason is a distant thing, a matter for the histories.
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