Janine faced her refle in the mirror and ran a finger over the burns c her muzzle, the newly grown skin twisting and spasming at the touch. Several strands of pitch-bck fur already appeared, and the whole thing itched like crazy. She swallowed, ign the work of red veins around the eye.

  “I am still here,” she said, washing her face.

  This deo belong to Bertruda, and the sheer opulence of it fused and irritated the warlord. Statues of the former Sword Saints lihe walls; above them hung paintings and photographs dedicated to the most important moments in the history of the Mountaintops. Rich carpets covered the floor, making it impossible for her not to spill blood on them. A soft, round bed, rge enough to aodate half a dozen Wolfkins, covered with a multitude of flowing silken bs and fluffy pillows, stood opposite the entrance, hidden by a redwood partition. The entrao the bathroom led to another room, bigger than most tents, with a floor of white tiles surrounding a private pool.

  It all seemed so wasteful, but Janine had bitteoher than chastise Marco when he gasped at the sight of the pce. Even the memorial stone, a tradition the Order had borrowed from the Tribe, had letters encrusted in gold that wound along its length, all together f soothing patterns. It wasn’t an artifact of remembrand solemn m, but rather a ponderous trophy rack boasting the legacies of the fallen. It was unusual and endable, even if it rubbed her the wrong way. The Tribe preferred to honor the fallen through songs aivities.

  Janine had spared ail, p out her soul onto her cubs as a mother, telling the story of Bodan’s sacrifice truthfully, trying to do justice to his noble sacrifice, and highlighting her own failures, which led to the deaths of her named sisters and so many soldiers. They should have retreated after rendezvousing with the Ice Fangs, but her arrogance led to her misreading the battlefield. She had expected shing, accusations, and renunciations. Anissa and Marco had simply embraced her, and they had spent a few minutes praising Bogdan and talking like a family before Impatient Ohem away.

  The shaman had kept her cool and forced the warlord to join her in a farewell prayer. Truth be told, it brought no fort to the raging inferno in Janine’s soul. She will rend Brood Lord asunder a his bone marrow. She will break the Horde’s spine ahem Houstad, e what may.

  She had woken up on the floor and found herself covered by a b, which cheered her up rather than s her mood because she had slipped so badly that an intruder had sneaked up on her. Even a warlord had limits, and after the rest, her body moved easily; not a single limb was strained, and with newfound energy, she reviewed reports and video feeds from the field.

  Soulless One. Another loss, and ohat stung painfully. Her friend, her guiding star, whom she wronged and wasn’t sure she had brought proper amends for that deelina, Bogdan, Soulless One, Maria, Adam… So many losses. Her pack tio dwindle, soul by soul.

  Both of her ideas worked, to a degree, buying them precious time o limit the losses. Their evacuation was forced to take a detour to the south as the Gilded Horde’s self-propelled artillery engaged in several le duels. The third pn was in motion, and Caikhatu sent a message with the words “Jay Khatun,” and information. The two infiltrators pyed their roles exemprily, with Caikhatu denoung Iron Lord for sacrifig him and the hordeublicly spitting on Brood Lord’s favor for setting her up to die in the arena and joining his rival. As Janine had predicted, the khan didn’t a the given information, not even sending a warning to the northern forces. A poisoned chalice to Brood Lord and a dagger to Iron Lord.

  That is, if the infiltrators remain loyal to the Recimers and alive. Too many ifs to pn anything based on their success.

  The Gilded Horde had resumed its iable advance, but its rapid maro longer surprised the state’s military. To give time to the refugees and the Wolfkins to evacuate, the remnants of the Border Provincial Guard had rejoihe Provincial Army and prepared their stand. The massive explosion had giveime to prepare minefields, and artillery crews fttened every curve on the horizon, training hourly and preparing for the showdown as the officer in charge calcuted the impossibility of retreating to Houstad. They knew about the near impossibility of victory and decided to deny the Gilded Horde the quickest route to Houstad.

  Tanks and armored vehicles evacuated from the border were refueled; logistics officers busily pnned and executed miracles anizing civilian transports to deliver the wouo the city; unications officers updated local vilges alements, alerting them to the Horde’s movements. The news of the norther sparked cheers that sooo thunderous roars as Warlord Ashbringer arrived to support the army in its doomed quest. Though she came alone, her mere presenspired hope and awe. With redoubled efforts, the soldiers dug lines of trenches and even structed several bunkers, with surprise finding the warlord toiling beside them in the dirt while shells flew overhead.

  The Provincial Army had stubbornly refused any further aid from the Wolf Tribe and the order, determio ehat their allies and fellow civilians would reach Houstad safely. Twenty thousas formed the defensive lio deny the Horde. Not because they believed they could win, but out of duty and for the people who relied upon them.

  And when the enemy came, they stood their ground. The artillery collected a grievous toll from the nimbly darting riders, exploding them by the dozens. The hoverbikes that mao circle around the fnks were greeted by the fire of well-pced automatic turrets. What normal human eyes could not track, the systems easily pinpointed, predig the line of movement and eic bursts of gunfire dowhe hordemen before they could approaough to fire their pulse rifles.

  Brood Lord didn’t bat an eye about his mistake and brought his own artillery to bear, soon overloading shield geors. The siege artillery tanks, so coveted and treasured by Iron Lord and whiyxia had failed to destroy, wreaked devastation irenches, filling them with molten napalm and white phosphorus. Not even shield bunkers protected the soldiers, for the shells fired by these a maes had drill heads that bored through the reinforced stone. Smoke filled the horizon, and from its height, chemical rockets streaked upon the defenders’ position, spewing fumes of green mist upon exploding.

  Though the army suffered some casualties, the gas masks and emergency air circution systems of the power armors prevehe worst catastrophe from ing to pass, and their own artillery chewed away at the Horde’s position, damaging the over-exposed siege-tanks and f them to retreat.

  Sweating with fear and adrenaline, gripping their rifles, fmes lig their sides, and looking ahead with bloodshot eyes, the Recimers saw the enemy ranks advance right into the firing zone of their tanks. The 5th Guards Tank Division was ever an undermanned beast. posed of a now-lost and vehicle that acted as brigade headquarters and three tank regiments, eaumbering a hundred battle units, it had a sii-aircraft regiment of SAMs. Formed shortly prior to the invasion, these soldiers cked drones and reaissance vehicles. The unit served as a ‘pung fist’ on the border, sallying beyond the Wall to level a found svers’ base without a o care about the colteral.

  But they were the sole division unmaimed of the Provincial Army, and on this day, these people gave it their all. New Breeds, capable of minnition, mahe heaviest tanks, protected by shield geors, and on their collective advice, the tanks fired from beyond the optimal distanding every shot perfectly on the approag ranks, throwing corpses into the air.

  The 5th Guards Tank Division had fired only four times before the Horde artillery responded, exploding tank after tank, using its sheer o overe any advahe precogs offered. But they achieved their primary objective, buying a brief respite for the state’s own tow and self-propelled artillery to leave the front lines areat to the rear. Their range surpassed that of their Horde terparts, and now safe from the chemical warfare, they resumed their duel, their targets pinpointed by several precogs.

  In response, a fury erupted from the smoke, reag the advang bondsmen in a stampede of unleashed sonis. Drozna, disgraced by his failure, was the first Pureblood to join the age, eager to win back the favor of his horrible khan. A single swing tore a k of a tank, hollowing its insides and liquidating the crew; his kick pawo war maes, gluing them together. An uppercut sent a tank flying, and the monster advanced, ready to elimihe 5th Guards Tank Division.

  A bright star raced to meet him from the trenches, a line of fire so intehat it partially vitrified the sand aonated ammunition aimed at her. Ashbriepped into the fray and crashed into Drozna like a onball. Despite his brutal appearand a nature driven by baser instincts, Drozna was a strong enough oppohat even Janine doubted her ability t him down. Iribe, only Alpha, Predaig, and maybe Lacerated One could reliably kill the bastard in a fair fight.

  Ashbringer didn’t care about a fair fight and had studied the footage of Predaig’s duel well enough to know that she was outmatched. The veil of fire enveloped both fighters, failing to scorch their resilient hides. It also obscured vision, and where the state’s lenses and her owened senses gave the warlord a full picture, her oppo filed blindly, paying for his refusal to use teology. Ashbringer dodged his clumsy blows and rained down her owimed strikes, and the two champions carved a small circle between the armies.

  Several squads of botempted to support their leader, while the state’s army did nothing of the sort, fog their fire coldly on the approag troops. It wasn’t for ck of trust or hiddey; the soldiers followed the prescribed protocols to the letter. When faced with an adversary whose movements they could not follow, they sought to elimihe lesser threats first, weakening the foe even if he prevailed.

  But the stalemate could not st, and Drozna had tricks up his sleeve. A touch e entered Ashbringer’s mind, shattering her tration, and her skyward thrust resulted in her own cws breaking against the impregnable jaws of the grinni. Drozna cpped his hands together, scattering the fmes with an ensuing soni, and nearly fttehe warlord’s head in the process. Leaning back, she dodged the palms and grabbed his wrists, delivering a headbutt to his forehead.

  Janine had to repy the event several times just to believe it. Ashbringer’s headbutt had a nasty reputation iribe. Strong enough to ht kill a challenger, it was rarely used after the warlord turned a wolf hag from a rival pato a vegetable, all but killing the woman. The state’s medics had taken away the wolf hag, and the Tribe mourned her passing, not believing that anyone could recover from such a blow. Never again did Ashbringer use the full force of her skull against anyone below the rank of warlord; she always held back.

  Today she went all out. And Drozna brushed it off. The headbutt nded with enough strength to create a sonic explosion of sutensity that it reached everenches, knog several men off their feet; the lenses of the warlord’s helmet cracked, and the metal of her helmet crumpled into a thin yer. Drozna himself was buried in the ground up to his waist, but he smiled ugly and unched a sweeping kick that sliced through the top of his earthen prison. Ashbringer lost her footing, and two hands ched together smmed into her chest with the force of a et, ung the warlord flying toward the Recimers’ positions.