With only hours remaining until dawn, the mood in the camp had changed. There had been a gentle optimism brewing since the arrival of the orcish and Coldharbour armies, but even with our dramatically increased numbers, we were all now presented with the task ahead. Good cheer had morphed into quiet contemplation; soon we would have to fight, and many of us would die.

  Some of us tried to sleep that night. Others, myself included, knew that it would have been a futile task. Arzak, Corminar and I sat around a campfire, not speaking a word, just preparing outowrselves for the fight to come. Part of me considered activating my Titan Husk ability and sticking my hand into the fire, for the sheer thrill of it. Anything to distract from the fear blossoming in my stomach.

  ‘Styk?’ someone said, tapping me gently on the shoulder. Turell.

  ‘The strategy meeting?’ I asked.

  The low-level lord nodded. ‘It’s time.’

  I rose from the damp ground, my arse damp from the melted snow, and Arzak and Corminar stood too. Turell made to lead us back to the command table.

  ‘I’ll be there in a moment,’ I told him. ‘There’s someone else I want to join us.’ Without waiting for a response, I turned away, and strolled through the milling crowds and sleeping soldiers. My eyes darted from face to face. Though I sought out a particular man, I did not want to draw attention to him; it might not help matters for the army to know that one of his kind was among us.

  I found Elfric playing cards in silence with another older member of our army. Standing over him, I said, ‘I need you.’

  The Player didn’t look up from his game, and placed two cards face-up in front of the other soldier. ‘I’m here.’

  ‘I need you to tell us how Tana will fight.’

  At this, Elfric looked up at me. So too did the other soldier, posing a question with a furrowed brow. I didn’t bother to answer it.

  ‘I may be a Player, but we do not all think the same,’ Elfric replied.

  I glanced at the other soldier. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t be announcing that.’

  ‘He won’t spread this information.’

  ‘How can you be sure?’

  Elfric sighed, unfanned his hand and placed the cards down in the space between him and the other man. ‘Because he’s mute.’ To the other soldier, he added, ‘Well played,’ then he rose to walk with me.

  When we arrived at the command table, all other relevant parties were already there. Most of them looked at Elfric with a blank or confused expression, but the Slayers knew full well who I’d brought to the table.

  I gestured to the Player. ‘Meet Elfric. He has some insight in to how Tana and the Council might defend Auricia.’

  ‘Some insight,’ the Player repeated. ‘It would not to do treat it as fact. I can project their strategy, but we will need to remain flexible, to respond to any changes as, and when, they come.’

  ‘May I ask: who is this man?’ Yua’s eyes hadn’t drifted from Elfric since he’d arrived. I suspected that the Governor of Lenktra already knew the answer; she rarely risked questions otherwise. The Player looked to me to answer.

  ‘An ally,’ I replied.

  Corminar stepped in to assist me. ‘Please, tell us, Elfric. How will the Council do battle?’

  ‘They will fight on the Meadows,’ he said. ‘Not within the city walls.’

  ‘This garbage strategy,’ Gelik, Arzak’s mother, said.

  Elfric smiled politely at the older orc. ‘Aye, in most cases, it would be. It will certainly cost them a great many lives, but then, they have a great many lives to throw away. I remind you all that the Council’s goal is not to win the battle. It is to complete the ritual. If they can prolong the battle, they will, even at the cost of military victory. Your own strategy must be to reach the ritual ground, in the centre of the city, as quickly as possible.’

  ‘The Golden Palace,’ Val said. ‘It’ll be there.’

  ‘Then I will open my portals,’ I said. ‘All ten pairs. We can have the best part of two dozen soldiers a second spilling into the palace.’

  ‘No,’ Elfric said. All faces turned to him. ‘They know of you, Styk. They know of all of the Slayers. Tana is no fool; she will have planned for this ability, something beyond a simple alerting spell.’

  ‘How?’

  The Player shook his head. ‘That, I do not know. If Niamh were still alive, I would expect an enchantment tripped by the opening of portals. Without her… I could not guess, but she will have a plan. Better that you do not find out what it is. I would suggest that instead you do the unexpected.’

  Elfric went silent. Did all Players share a love for dramatic flair?

  ‘And that is…?’ Turell prompted him.

  ‘Walk in through the front gate.’

  * * *

  I noticed that Corminar was quieter than usual during the rest of the hour-long discussion. When the commanders dispersed, he slipped off quickly, and it took me a while to find him amongst our army. In the end, I found him at the edge of the treeline, his back up against the trunk of a tree, and the looming, fierce silhouette of Reginald at his side.

  ‘How we doing over here, chaps?’ I asked. I’d never said “chaps” before; the stress of inevitable battle was a funny thing.

  ‘The lovely elf is depressed,’ Reginald answered on Corminar’s behalf.

  I looked into the trees; it was obvious why my elven friend was here, on the edge of the forest. ‘There’s time yet,’ I said. ‘They will come.’

  ‘You do not know that, Styk,’ Corminar replied. ‘You do not know.’

  ‘They made a promise to you.’

  ‘And in times gone by, that may have meant something. These days, however…?’ Corminar sighed. ‘The world is broken. Elven loyalty is not what it once was. Nor is elven bravery. If my kind arrive by dawn, I will purchase you a drink at the next possible opportunity.’

  Reginald held out a big furry paw in the elf’s direction. ‘I will get in on that action, if you don’t mind?’

  Corminar hesitated before shaking the paw.

  ‘The b—’ I caught myself before I finished the b-word. ‘The big man’s convinced. I’m convinced. You don’t have faith in your own people?’

  The elf looked up at the sky, and the nearly full moon. It was a strangely clear night, considering the snowstorms we’d been having of late. ‘In the Dawnwood, the sun represents the necessary actions of living, but the moon? It represents the break between things, which we think of as just as important. Right now, we rest; we are in a moon phase. The same moon faces us now as in my homeland, as in Coldharbour, as in Lenktra, as in Thistle Fort.

  ‘That is not to say that during the night, my kind rest. I am sure—half a world away—there is endless rebellion to the Goldmarch rule over the Wood, that there is action against the remnants of Niamh’s army even at this very moment. My kind will see the freeing of the Dawnwood as their most sacred duty, true, but I hope we have grown enough as a people to understand the world beyond nature. The trees, the moon, the sun will survive if the world does. The world will not survive if we do not rise to the occasion. This is not the break between things; this is the time to fight.’

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  ‘They will come, Corminar,’ I said. ‘You are Lieutenant Cladenor, Hero of Iranir. They will answer your call.’

  The elf raised a pretend flagon. ‘Then I will buy you a drink come our victory.’

  Silence fell between us, interrupted minutes later by Reginald mumbling, ‘I’m not actually such a huge fan of beer, when it comes to it,’ and Val emerging from the darkness at the same moment.

  ‘There you are,’ my wife said. ‘We’ve been looking for you.’

  ‘Me?’ Reginald asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Val replied, though there was a fraction of a moment of hesitation in there, so I knew it was a lie. ‘Ted wanted to see you.’

  ‘Then I will go see if my friend is in want of another poem. He so enjoyed the first twenty.’ The bear bowed his goodbye.

  ‘Has something happened?’ I asked Val. ‘Some news? Do we need to change our strategy?’

  My wife shook her head. ‘Nothing like that. I just wanted to spend some time with you, before…’ She didn’t need to finish that thought. Sparing herself from the damp ground, Val took a seat in my lap.

  ‘Corminar is buying us all drinks when the elves turn up,’ I told her.

  ‘Oh, good. You think you can hold mine back for maybe… five more months?’

  Corminar laughed to himself, which felt strange at a time like this. I hadn’t heard a laugh for a while. ‘If we survive this, I will buy you drinks for life, or until my pockets run empty.’

  Val stuck out her hand just as Reginald had a few minutes earlier. ‘It’s a deal.’

  ‘And what do you get out of this one, Cor?’ I asked.

  The elf shrugged. ‘With a promise like that, do you think this one would let me die? Do you think she would permit the world to die?’ He picked his head up as he spotted two other familiar faces approaching.

  I turned to see Lore and Arzak joining us in Slayers’ Corner. ‘Did you hear Corminar making promises? Is that why you came over?’

  Lore blinked back at me. ‘No? I just thought we’d sit together. Maybe one last time.’

  ‘Mm, not expect you to be pessimist, Lore,’ Arzak said. She took a seat at Corminar’s side, placing her good arm on his knee.

  ‘What, did you think I was an optimist?’ the barbarian asked.

  ‘Yes,’ the other four of us said at once.

  ‘Oh.’ He paused, quickly switching gears. ‘Anyone want any last-minute snacks? I have popped corn.’ As if to prove this statement, he pulled some from his coat.

  ‘Is the corn just like… loose in that pocket?’ Val asked.

  ‘How else would it come? You want some?’

  ‘I’m good for now, actually.’

  Lore nudged Corminar with the tip of his boot. ‘What about you?’

  ‘I do not understand how you can eat at a time such as this.’

  For a while, we fell back into a familiar rhythm. We were the team we had been two years prior, back towards the end of my journey. We’d had the time and the headspace for one another. We spoke. We joked. We insulted each other. It was an easy way of being.

  And we all knew that it couldn’t last, that this might be the last time we were ever together, just the five of us.

  ‘The sky is changing colour,’ Corminar said, looking up.

  ‘I know,’ I said. I’d spotted it a few minutes ago, as I was sure Corminar had too. The sky wasn’t black anymore. It was the darkest shade of blue.

  ‘Can we stay here just a few minutes longer?’ Val asked.

  I smiled. ‘What, and tell the apocalypse to hold off a while?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  The five of us grew silent. Val pressed her cheek into my neck. Lore held down a hand to help Corminar, then Arzak, to their feet. He offered his hand next to me, and I had to gently push Val away. ‘No,’ she mumbled. ‘Not yet.’

  ‘We have to, it’s time to save the world,’ I told her.

  ‘I don’t feel like saving the world.’

  I laughed. This time, when I pushed my wife away, she let me.

  Lore helped us to our feet, taking extra care with Val. ‘It’s been a long, long journey,’ the big man said. ‘But I’m glad to have shared it with you all.’

  Corminar nodded. ‘I echo that sentiment.’

  ‘Mm,’ Arzak grunted. I knew her well enough to know this grunt as a grunt of agreement.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ Val said. ‘We all love each other. Can we go die now?’

  ‘You love us?’ Lore asked, and then without waiting for a response, he grabbed Corminar, Val and I and squeezed us tight. Arzak, against all odds, joined the group hug of her own accord.

  ‘Cor?’ I asked, my voice slightly muffled as Lore pressed my face against his chest.

  ‘Yeah?’ the elf replied, his voice also muffled.

  ‘Put out the order. It’s time to take formation.’

  The battle was on.