Chapter 1
The Capitol had been the magnificent home of the Law, the jewel of the desert, the grandest city in the world, and the ultimate monument to the glory and hubris of the first caste. It had existed in a place so harsh it should have been devoid of life, but fed by aqueducts that were incredible feats of engineering, the Law had made the desert bloom. Isolated and aloof, the first caste had ruled from their prestigious city, for it had been built in the center of the continent in order to be as far away from the corrupting influence of the ocean as possible.
That had not been enough to save it.
In a single morning, the Capitol had fallen. Using tunnels dug by the ancients, now flooded by the sea, the demons had swarmed from below. The dead had been too numerous to count. The vultures had feasted.
Now glorious palaces and gigantic government buildings lay empty as columns of refugees fled back to their native houses. Priceless treasures and family heirlooms had been carried out of the city, only to be abandoned along the road when they had grown too heavy. Between those treasures could be seen the occasional body, as escaping members of the First had collapsed from heat or thirst, or simply given into despair and lay down on the sand to die. Such a death did not take long in the central desert.
Two armies marched northward from the ruins of the Capitol. One was an army of Law, the other of rebellion.
Ashok Vadal had to remind himself that the Sons of the Black Sword were no longer considered criminals, thanks to the decree of one man, Maharaja Devedas. The destruction of the Capitol and the demonic invasion had turned old enemies into new allies. It was an uneasy agreement that could only exist because the threat of demons was so much worse than anything the Law could do against rebels, or rebels could do against the Law. What were the disagreements of men when compared against the unrelenting savagery of hell?
The trade roads near the Capitol were well maintained so the armies made excellent time. Normally this route catered to the endless merchant caravans that had kept the mighty Capitol nourished for centuries. Now that great city lay gutted and mostly abandoned, so the caravans were turning back, but luckily there remained a great many settlements where the armies could resupply along the way. Leaving nothing to chance, the Maharaja had sent messengers ahead to make sure that there would be resources sufficient to keep his soldiers fed the entire march to Vadal.
The prophecy of the god who lived inside Thera Vane’s head had declared that the Great City of Man would be the location of the final battle where the fate of all mankind would be decided. According to Archivist Radamantha, Capitol scholar and wife of Maharaja Devedas, Vadal City was what the ancients were referring to as the Great City of Man, for it had been the greatest city of the prior age. It was believed the demonic army that had attacked the Capitol would need time to clear debris and dig their way through the vast tunnel system that the ancients had built beneath Lok in order to reach their next target. How long this would take the demons was a mystery. It could be weeks or months, but the armies of man set a brutal pace because this was a race that mankind could not afford to lose.
They marched with tireless determination because they had seen the fate of the Capitol. Tens of thousands had been slaughtered in a single morning and the home of the Law had been left crippled.
The Law-abiding army was in the lead. The rebels brought up the rear. This was not meant as an insult, but rather practicality. The Maharaja’s forces were made up of Protectors, who were feared or respected in every land, and warriors obligated from all the great houses. Compared to them the rebel army—the Sons of the Black Sword—looked like a mob of mismatched mercenaries, casteless, and foreigners armed with illegal magic who would surely provoke violence at every checkpoint. Word had gone out about the sudden and drastic changes to the Law that granted status to the casteless and clemency to the religious, but it would take time for that new reality to take hold…if it ever did.
Despite that, Ashok still sent scouts to range far ahead, because it appeared that the mysterious Mother Dawn had once again predicted their path and sent more fanatics his way. They kept finding secret worshippers who had been warned by Mother Dawn months ago to present themselves in certain locations, on this specific date, so they could follow their prophet into battle. After the first batch of those fanatics—made up of warriors from as far away as distant Gujara—had nearly gotten into a battle with the Protectors, Ashok had made sure there was always an element of Ongud’s cavalry riding a mile or two ahead of the main body.
That poor young officer had a difficult job. If the men he spied waiting along the trade road appeared to be fellow fanatics, then he would hurry and greet them to explain the situation before the Law-abiding army arrived. If it was an official patrol, then his job was run away, and hope that they didn’t catch up to what surely looked like a gang of bandits before the Maharaja’s banners came into sight.
To make this task easier, Ongud had made a simple banner to fly, bearing symbols that all of the faithful would surely recognize. Painted upon it was a red meat hook and a black sword.
* * *
After several days on the trade road, the rebel leaders had been summoned to the Maharaja’s camp that night.
Ashok alone accompanied Thera, serving both as her general and bodyguard. He trusted Devedas to be a man of his word and keep the peace, but he had far less faith in the goodwill of the rest of the Law-abiding. There was a great friction between the two armies. Neither side trusted the other, for obvious reasons. There was so much history of bloodshed and betrayal that even the looming threat of demons couldn’t make the wronged entirely forget what had been inflicted upon them by the other side.
Now that they were walking through a camp surrounded by Protectors and warriors who had recently been hunting them as if they were vermin, Thera whispered to him, “It’s a good thing they need us more than we need them.”
“If your gods are to be trusted, we need each other. All will be essential.”
She eyed some of the scowling warriors. “I just hope they remember their king’s promise to us.”
“If any are so foolish, then I will give them a harsh reminder.” Bitter eyes were upon them, but Ashok doubted any of them would try anything. They respected Devedas, they feared Ashok, and they were united against the demons. Hopefully that would be enough to keep the peace.
Ashok was effortlessly intimidating. Even without his reputation as the finest combatant alive, he was a tall man, lean and broad shouldered, who confidently walked through the ranks of his recent enemies without showing the slightest bit of fear, because he had no fear to show. The ability to experience fear had been ripped from him as a boy, in a vain attempt to artificially shorten his life. The warriors did not know this about him, but they could see that the man who carried deadly Angruvadal was not to be trifled with.
Thera was not so confident, but she hid it well. She was an attractive woman, but she’d spent so much time hiding from the Law that trying to avoid notice was her first instinct. Normally she walked with her hood up and her head down, but not here, not tonight. For she commanded a mighty army and a thousand Fortress guns, so she held her head high, defiantly meeting every contemptuous gaze with a patronizing smile.
“We’re their only hope to survive the demons and they know it,” she told Ashok. “It’s sad it took the fall of the Capitol to gain their reluctant acceptance, but I’ll take what I can get.”
One of the Maharaja’s Garo bodyguards loudly announced them as they approached the center of the camp. “It is the Lady Vane.” The Law-abiding would tolerate their presence, but they certainly weren’t going to call her by the titles her people used, like Voice or prophet. “And Ashok Vadal.” Whatever titles they had for Ashok here, the bodyguard was smart enough to not say aloud.
Devedas was in council with his advisors and officers. He had forgone the lavish tent due a man of great status. He was a king now, the first in over eight centuries, holding the status of a hundred judges by himself, yet he sat upon the dirt before a humble campfire, eating regular rations of stale naan and dried meat and drinking the same watered-down wine as his men, which had been claimed from a caravan that day. Say what you would about prideful southerners, but they were always quick to forsake their own comfort when there were more important matters at hand.
“Let them through and fetch my guests some dinner. The rest of you, leave us.” The men who had been meeting with Devedas did as they were commanded, some grudgingly, and a few of the brave ones gave Ashok looks of sneering disdain as they walked past. They stopped a polite distance away, waiting and watching to make sure the criminals did nothing to harm their beloved Maharaja. Ashok took no offense, because when he had been them, he had been taught to hate and distrust criminals too.
“Have a seat. Should I have a servant get you a pillow, Thera?”
“You spoil me with your hospitality, Maharaja,” Thera said as she sat on a nearby rock. “This will do. I’m just glad to not be on a horse for a minute.”
Ashok remained standing as he studied his former brother. Devedas was obviously weary, and not just from the march. He had haunted eyes and a face haggard from stress, yet retained about him an aura of grim determination. Ashok understood now that the gods had conspired with black steel to make Devedas into what he was today. Perhaps it was a good thing the gods were so cruel, because a lesser man surely would have collapsed beneath the weight Devedas had to carry now.
“What’re you waiting for, Ashok? I know you don’t expect a cushion.”
Ashok sat on the ground. “You do not look well, Devedas.”
“And to think, I was always the pretty one of us. I suppose I look like a man who knows he holds the fate of the entire world in his hands.”
“You sought out that burden.”
“And lucky for you that I did. It appears my belief that the casteless can exist as whole men and religious fanatics should be spared is in the minority among men of status.”
Thera dipped her head in thanks. “Luckily for us, your opinion is the only one that matters.”
“Will you still feel that way when one of the decisions I make as Maharaja is different from what you and your so-called gods want?”
“I suppose we’ll find out when that day comes,” she answered coyly. “My people are honored to be given the chance to exist under the protection of the Law, but let’s deal with the demons first. Politics later.”
“Yes, why worry about things that won’t matter if we all get killed in the north and demons devour everyone else?” After his men delivered plates of food and cups of wine to Ashok and Thera, Devedas wasted no more time on social frivolities. “I need to update you on the situation in Vadal.”
“Have you come to a diplomatic solution to end your war with them?” Thera asked.
Ashok was curious as to what the answer to that would be, as Thera had already told the Maharaja that her rebels were happy to fight demons, but they wouldn’t shed a single drop of human blood on the Capitol’s behalf. From the annoyed look Devedas gave her, Ashok doubted his answer would be a satisfactory one.
“I sent messages via demon bone to my forces that have Vadal City surrounded, as well as the armies of Vokkan and Sarnobat. I’ve commanded all the invading forces to cease hostilities, end the blockade, pull back, and hold position at the border awaiting my further orders. The Army of Many Houses has done as they were told. But Vokkan and Sarnobat pretend not to hear me.”
“Of course they don’t obey,” Ashok said. “The Vokkan are bold liars, and it is Sarnobat’s character to crave conflict. Both have hated Vadal forever. Your invasion gave them opportunity.”
“It was a fine plan, until demons cut our head off. I’ve also been trying to reach the Vadal leaders, but we’ve burned pounds of demon bone trying to talk to those stubborn bastards…Oceans know the only resource we don’t lack for right now is demon bone, we killed so damned many of them in the Capitol. But despite my show of good intent, the Vadal have ignored my calls for peace.”
“It’s because Vadal’s winning, isn’t it?”
The Maharaja clearly didn’t care for Thera’s tone as she pronounced that uncomfortable truth, but Devedas was not a weak leader, and had no aversion to facing cold reality. “They’re no longer losing. They’re still outnumbered, but word spread quickly about the attack on the Capitol and its current, nearly abandoned, state. My Army of Many Houses reacted poorly to the news. Hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers abandoned their obligation to return to their own houses. The morale of the loyal remainder is awful.”
“Desertion’s not unexpected, considering that if sea demons could attack the Capitol sitting in the middle of the desert in the middle of the continent, then surely they know their own families might be in danger. I bet Vadal saw this collapse, and going from being outnumbered three to one, to only two to one, they rallied.”
“I’ve got to remember before you were a criminal, you were warrior caste, daughter of Vane.”
“I will take that as a compliment, Maharaja.”
“It is,” Devedas assured her. “So I’ll not hobble my words. I still have a great army in Vadal, but they’re paralyzed with fear and indecision. The Vadal proved to be tenacious foes but now that they’ve heard the Capitol is weakened, they fight like never before. They most assuredly believe that my warnings about the demon army coming for them next to be some kind of trick.”
“Can you blame them?”
Devedas nodded at that harsh, but fair question. “After the Capitol’s response to the Scourge? I wouldn’t believe me either. Sarnobat and Vokkan still press Vadal despite my call for peace, I assume because those ambitious houses see my words as nothing more than the barking of a toothless dog now. While these houses continue their fight, the demons dig.”
Fortress Collector Yajic was their expert on the ancients’ underground tunnel system the demons were using to travel beneath Lok, but his guild had been cut off from the northern section for a very long time and had no idea of the state of things here. Based on how long it had taken them to get from Kanok to the Capitol, Yajic’s best guess was that they only had a few months before the demons dug their way through.
“I’ve got three houses squandering lives and resources for gains which will become meaningless once the demons drown us all in blood. I’ve left my wife to run what’s left of the government while I try to gather an army sufficient to defend a city from the entire might of hell, except I can’t do that if I’m outside besieging their gates trying to starve them into submission. All I’ll do is deliver up an easier target for the demons to take. As of now it appears I’m powerless to stop the war I started, but I have an idea. The Vadal hate me, but they might listen to you.”
Thera laughed at that. “My words are saltwater to those people!”
“Not you.” Devedas nodded toward Ashok. “Him.”
Ashok looked up from his wine and scowled; for breaking their sword and dishonoring their name, surely Vadal despised him more than anyone else alive. “Has the desert sun driven you mad?”
There were very few men who could talk to the Maharaja like that and live. “Sadly, Ashok, this plea is being made by a rational man. The heirs of Harta blame me for their father’s death and refuse to believe me now, but the armies of Vadal are led—rather capably—by a phontho named Jagdish. I think you know him.”
“I know a Vadal warrior named Jagdish, but he was a mere risalder, much lower in rank and status than a supreme phontho.”
“They’re one and the same. He’s not too shabby a commander for a prison warden. I attended his wedding. Despite Jagdish trying to hide it from his first caste, the man clearly respects you as a mentor and loved you as a friend.”
The idea that poor, disgraced and dishonored Jagdish had not only successfully redeemed his name, but also risen to the mightiest of ranks in his caste actually made Ashok smile, which was a rare event.
“Good for Jagdish!” Thera exclaimed. “A phontho, you say?”
“A phontho, and a damned good one, from the reports I’ve gotten from my army, at least. He’s a master tactician, unbound by tradition, who inspires his men to greatness. He’s routed Sarnobat in the east and now that the Army of Many Houses has retreated to the south, he’s turned his attention toward Vokkan in the west.”
“He was our first risalder,” Thera said with pride. “You’re fortunate Jagdish no longer has the fearsome Sons of the Black Sword under his command, or he would have pushed that army of yours into the sea a long time ago!”
Devedas let that slight against his troops pass. “I must ask you, do you think Jagdish is a man of honor?”
The truth was so obvious, Ashok didn’t even need to think about his answer. “Jagdish would have made an excellent Protector.”
For the two of them, that was all that needed to be said. “Good. It will take a warrior of character willing to put aside glory and risk his name for the sake of his house’s future. I know I can’t command you to do anything, so all I can do is ask. Will you go to Jagdish and get him to listen to reason? If you can convince him the demons are on their way, then he might convince his Thakoor. The sooner we can bring an end to this war, the better off we’ll all be when the demons show themselves again.”
Ashok looked toward Thera. It seemed a logical request to him, but he had pledged to serve her and no one else. She was pondering the proposal, probably thinking of what boon she could ask for in return for this service, but Ashok already knew what she would decide, because to Thera, doing the right thing would be more important than squeezing one more concession from the Law.
“You can’t hardly defend a city you’re at war against, and I didn’t bring all my fanatics and foreigners this far just to watch you fight. I think it’s worth the attempt.”
Ashok nodded at their wisdom. “Very well. I will take Horse, and I request the fastest steeds from your Zarger cavalry. If I rotate between mounts and then use the Maharaja’s authority to claim fresh animals along the way, I should be able to get to Vadal City over a week before you do.”
Devedas inclined his head toward one of the many banners that flew over his camp. “I had in mind something much faster.”
Upon that flag was the symbol of the Capitol’s wizards.