Ashbringer crashed heavily to the ground, kig up a torrent of dirt and rolling toward the trenches, losing ks of her armor and struggling weakly to stand before slipping limply out of sight. Drozna’s boisterous ughter followed her, and he dove into the ranks of the soldiers, oblivious to the bullets pounding against his muscles. A single flick of his arm spread crimson across the length of the tunnel as the hordeman simply swept aside a dozen soldiers. His hungry eyes caught sight of the warlord’s crumpled helmet ahead, aepped toward it.

  At that instant, Ashbringer rose from behind him, ed an arm around his neck, and threw the bastard face down to the ground. Wolfkins were famous for perf impossible feats, but Janine khat this was a carefully cultivated image, both to inspire allies and to scare the opposition into surrendering. Nothing done by her named sister was mindless or pointless.

  Drozna saw her ehe trenches with her head to the north, so he unsciously turo that side, expeg her to escape as the warlord scurried south on all fours, his helmet thrown ahead. He was far strohan Ashbringer, but she jerked him back as the massive man took the first step and lifted a foot off the ground. Simple practicality, and Drozna roared in pain, filing wildly and ruining the fortification as the paw stabbed him in the softer armpit.

  An omnidireal wave of anger whipped around the front lines, driving both hordemen and Recimers into a crazed bloodthirst, and here and there the ranks broke as soldiers charged at the enemy and were gunned down. Thoughts of every unpaid grievaurenfold; every slight demanded immediate vengeance, and Ashbringer rode this wave, letting it elevate her abilities beyond normal limits.

  Several Horde aircraft closed in on the e zone, preparing to unleash their ons. Calmly, the officer in charge rose atop his and vehicle, ign his operators, who were trying to cw each other’s eyes out. He held up his hand, trusting the Recimers, and from afar, the missiles took to the sky, downing two of the fliers, popping the bubbles of their shields in a shower of sparks. The cealed SAM vehicles joihe fight, and the rest of the 5th switched their ons to fmers, boiling the advang bondsmen in the wall of pure hell that hid the invaders from the defenders.

  Watg the battle, Janine imagined hope spreading through the ranks, thoughts of possible victory ing to the desperate people. It didn’t st. Ultra-hot balls of psma and heavy slugs pierced the fmes, tearing at the defenders, and rger figures, gigantic shadows of darkness against the fmes, stomped into bat.

  Purebloods and Dirtybloods stepped into the fray, advang safely through the cleared minefields after bondsmen soaked up the ining barrage for them. Loud ts rang out as the Horde priesthood appeared, led by the tall, bird-like humanoid freak. Bullets deflected or stopped dead before toug his bare skin; a simple gesture aged individual defenders backward, and a note from Martyshkina appeared on the s. She insisted she had killed the bastard properly.

  Yet he lived. And New Breeds rained from the skies, howling prayers to their god, flying over Recimers and unleashing their owic hell. Reality ed and opened gateways to unknown realms, sug in whole people or parts of them; lightning arcs coalesg iy wiped out entire squads, and fire and water wreaked havo equal measure. New Breeds of the State stepped into the sky, ag in synized union, where those capable of mass manipution supported their rades, giving them the ability to face the bsted invaders, and the massacre began in full, exotic powers versus unnatural abilities, body-shifting age where cw-faced steel and corpses of the dead fell, while on the ground Orais and rare Ice Fangs held their positions against Purebloods.

  Tears iy opened behind the anding officer, and the curved sword impaled the man. Brood Lord stepped out of the portal, crumpling the vehicle and its crew with the weight of his immense bulk, brandishing the dying soldier like a trophy, and opened fire on the defenders. His assassin duo raced to the rear, murdering the Recimers’ leadership, and Brood Lord jumped, gracefully evading from the line of fire. He nded on the ank, kicked through the hatch, dropped a grenade, a away with ioid grace, his pincers snapping and biting heads as he nded among the troops. From other portals stepped his private guard, cheering the iy of their leader.

  Scorched by fmes and bathed in noxious fumes, the Purebloods who broke through the front had the appearance of horrors straight out of a nightmare, but it had little effe their killing efficy. Veterans of tless flicts, they began to push toward the ter, and Ashbringer broke from her fight with Drozna and snatched a unication device from the soldier.

  Her ands halted the panid the troops began an anized retreat, shielded by the remaining turrets destroyed by the invaders. Brood Lord beed to the warlord; Drozna shouted the challenge, but she ighe obvious bait and tihe retreat, the rearguard, a thousand soldiers, to hold their ground against impossible odds. The 5th and the artillery tried to help them when an arc of propelled air swatted the shells aside and fttehe tanks. The apocalyptic blow nded oillery, opening a new yon in the ground into which many had fallen. Mad Hatter arrived at st; her ughter drowned out every sound, and no one could stand up to her.

  Six hours. That’s how long the Provincial Army held out, biting and fighting, but the arrival of the khatun put ao aance, and the few survivors, led by Ashbriold tales of Mad Hatter’s invulnerability, of how she breathed poison and walked through the energy discharges, ign the bullets that ricocheted off her skin. The road to Houstad en, but surprisingly, the Horde had stopped.

  This was important. Janine reviewed the woman’s previous campaigns. Based oories of Caikhatu, the defectors, and the Brood; Mad Hatter never let enemy leaders escape. Her own experience proved it, so why was Ashbringer allowed to retreat? A trick, of sorts? She repyed the ughter segment, listening for anything out of the ordinary. The khatun sounded… pensive, as if feigning amusement while her mind was on other matters. A trap?

  Iron Lord’s absence also ed Jahat khan was a thhly ventional person, and if he had been in charge of the Gilded Horde’s advahen her own trap and the mistakes itted by Brood Lord would’ve aken pce. His artillery would have reduced the defenders’ positions to poison-filled rubble without risking a single soldier, and that would’ve been the end of it. So where was he? Murdered? Doubtful. His rival never asserted his authority over the invasion.

  She sed the rest of the reports. The refugees who had failed to cross the bridge had arrived safely at Hunter’s Lait, the pce of debauchery ruled by the offspring of that accursed S-Css Malformed killed by Devourer decades ago. Soon after, the Horde’s pursuit party arrived, and joyous howls filled the hills. The invaders expected to face the usual skittish Malformed, but the things poputing this rocky region were of a different kind.

  Hunting was everything to them, superseding even their own survival, as the missiorying to civilize the local tribe expihe only reason the people of the Great Natio at peace there was because of the Promise, and now the locals rejoiced and sang praises to their ‘beors’ for sending a worthy game to their irs. The two sides cshed and locked in a fierce stalemate until the arrival of a wyrm broke the Horde’s morale and turhe tide in the Malformed’s favor. ion of Iron Lord.

  The scattered remnants of Skull Lrouped and pluhe nds, seemingly leaderless. Dokholkhu, and ter Jaliqai, visited the captured brain and firmed it to be Mehmed. The doctors assured and that they could keep their prisoner alive, and the Iigation Bureau agents detected no attempts by the Brood to tact their father. Good. She wished the cubs a healthy future, unburdened by the past. Till Ingo reported he had recruited his otive... Why was that in the reports? Probably a mistake.

  Janine leaned on the back of the armchair, looking at the ceiling. To think that just a month ago she had wondered about such stupidity as an ice e and Bogdan was alive then, helping to calm the cubs. A few days ago, she believed the shamans were wrong about the Order. The truth smacked her with full ferocity for such stupidity, stealing a part of her soul. Her paws ched. A mistake—her mistake—had brought so mahs. Never again. They shared no kinship with the Order.

  She picked up the Taleteller and began swinging mindlessly, keeping reading the information from the portable terminal. Camelia was still in a a, but nothing threatened her survival, and her House staged an orderly retreat, listening to scout… Wolf Hag Zolushka at long st. Alpha vanished, but reports poured in about iines hanging from the branches and about sporadic eruptions of fear in the region, driving eveubbor of farmers to abandohing and join their families in Houstad. Their sister was doing a wonderful job, just as the Blessed Mother had taught them. Even the vilest talent could be used food.

  Knight-captain Osiris took on the mantle of the Sword Saint after Leonidas’ passing and already offered to pehe Wolf Tribe in any way they could. Macarius had opened his eyes ho and begged to see her. Janine ighe request of both traitors, unwilling to be trapped by their honeyed words.

  Twenty-five hours. Maybe less if Mad Hatter stopped her brooding sooner. In a day or so, the battle for Houstad will begin, and the ander was yet to appear.

  A kno the door distracted her.

  “Open!” Janine shouted, turning off the terminal.

  Martyshkina pushed through the door, still bedecked in the full bat suit. The helmet slid from the head, revealing her unusually calm face.

  “Shouldn’t you be supervising the retreat?” Janine asked.

  “It’s taken care of.” The warlord stepped closer to Janine, looming over her because of the power armor. “Everyone is in pce, and the packs are out on foot, pig off any raider foolish enough to try to get a jump on us. I have a sin to fess.” Marty bowed her head. “I po shoot myself ohe war was over.” Her paw stroked the handle of the revolver. “The shame of leaving you, Eled, and Predaig behind burned me every sed. I could , drink, or rest. All I wao do was throw myself at…”

  Letting go of the Taleteller, Janine sshed with enough force to shake eveatues. She didn’t hold back, and Marty’s scarless cheek opeo the bone, also exposing her fangs.

  “How dare you?” Janine shoved Marty into her chest, f her to step back. Fear and anger mixed inside her in a searing cocktail of emotions. “Soulmates carry on even after their partner dies. Are we worse than them? Are you weaker than them?”

  “Maybe.” Marty ighe blood dripping onto her armor. “I am tired. Exhausted. All we do is fight and kill. I know it’s selfish, but I hardly go on. Waking up every m, pretending to be happy, looking into the eyes of your pad w who yoing to lose today. Fear gripped me after I lost my spiritual sisters, the one pilr of my existehat I believed could never be shattered or removed. You and I grew, wept, and cheered together. Predaig and Eled became our family. They accepted us, and now they are gone, and you expect me to take it as if nothing happened?” Her voice broke. “What awaits us but endless war and the pain of loss?”

  “We have to live on, Marty.” Janine hugged her, banishing aggression aing herself bee a simple young cub who wao fort her friend again. “We have a duty to protect civilians.”

  “Numents here. I will never give up and will never surrender until the Gilded Horde is crushed beh my boot. But Jani.” The other woman swallowed. “I uand Predaig now.”

  “What?” Janine asked calmly, remembering the first time she, Eled, Martyshkina, and Predaig had e to their first party to bond as named sisters.

  Spirits, they were so stupid! Without armor or clothing, the four bought enough booze to drown a small vilge a out into the wilderness, drinking themselves into oblivion while shouting obsities and trading rumors about other females. They awoke to the sight of a skinwalker sniffing at them, with spies and parasites busy sug the blood out of them. And then that inhuman bitch tore off some is from their hides and ate them, ging into a horrible, mismatched mess formed of their bined parts that kheir every fear and worry and gleefully using it to send them screaming back to the vilge. Alpha tauhem mercilessly afterwards.

  Was it fun? Damn, yes, it was! Jani another wave of sadness, knowing she’d never see Eled or Predaig again. Even their remains were lost or eaten.

  “I fet her face,” Martyshkina whispered. “The first of my cubs to survive, my pride and joy, and I am fetting what she looked like! Biologically, my body is barely thirty years old, and my brain is still funing perfectly. But the doctors said that it is natural tet some events after living for so long. They reend making photos and videos to… to… I ’t… This shit, I just ’t. Why must we keep ongoing when our cubs die again and again? When is it our turn already? When we rest?”

  “I don’t know,” Janine whispered, letting go of her friend. “All I know is that it all has to mean something in the end. But... you are right. We are humans too. Do you remember our first oath?”

  “About beating up Freya?” Marty ughed, wiping the tears. “Yep, I sure do. We went overboard, and the poor ss still suffers from back pain. And her sister limped until the day she died.”

  “Those bitches deserved it. They nearly blinded us for fun,” Janine grumbled, closing her eyes. “We were cubs back then. Cruel, stupid, merciless fools. I will apologize to Freya after the war. But how about a new oath?” She smiled at Marty’s fusion. “A good ohis time. Let us leave the army as soon as a stronger warlord is ready to repce us.”

  “But the Tribe…”

  “Will live on! And so will we, for the first time! We’ll steal some males, open a bar… We even drag some of our cubs with us!” Janine squeezed Marty’s paws. “Think about it! It’s not like we’re betraying the Blessed Mother or the Dynasty. If they call, we will e immediately.”

  “What is there to think about?” Marty smiled brightly, shrugging off the weariness. “I like it. Abyss, why not?”

  “Alone ether,” they said in unison, trusting their instincts to guess the words of each other, “we promise to leave the Tribe one day, find a new soulmate, and start a new life. A normal, happy life.”

  The two women embraced, grieving in silen memory of those they had lost and, at the same time, findirength to hold on. O going thanks to the fresh dream. And another because of her duties and family.

  And the war still raged on. A screaming siren broke the silence, announg an emergency across the mobile fortress.