between terror and glee. Then she inclined her head and swept out of the chamber.
The vord Queen said, to Isana, "This will only cause more pain." Then she lifted her face again, and the walls and ceiling of the chamber began to glow once more. "In the end it will change nothing. I will kill Octavian. I will kill you all."
In the silence that followed, Isana suppressed a surge of fury. How dare she? How dare this creature threaten her son?
No, Isana thought to herself, grimly. No, you won't.
Chapter 20
Riva burned, illuminating the moonless night.
"There's always a fire," Amara said, her tone dull. "Why is there always a fire?"
"Fire's a living thing," Sir Ehren replied. He stared at the city as Amara did, looking up at it from the plain on its northern side. Refugees streamed past them in a dazed, shambling river, directed by elements of the Rivan civic legion, and flanked by the legionares of Riva. "If you don't control it, it looks for food, eats, and grows. It's in every house in the city, and it just takes a moment's carelessness to set it loose." He shrugged. "Though I imagine all the feral furies had something to do with it, too."
A windmane swept out of the night, letting out a whistling shriek as it dived toward the pair of Cursors speaking at the side of the causeway. Amara idly lifted a hand and made an effort of will. Cirrus flung himself at the hostile fury in a rush of wind, and as the two met, Amara's fury was outlined in ghostly white light, a specter of a long-legged horse. Like a dozen others in the past hour, the clash was brief. Cirrus's lashing hooves rapidly drove the windmane away.
"Countess," Ehren said. "I understand that you were in the city."
Amara nodded. She felt oddly detached from the events of the night, smooth and unruffled. She wasn't calm, of course. After what she had seen, only a madwoman would be calm. She suspected it was more like going numb. The terrified, wounded flood of humanity in front of her would have been heart-wrenching if she hadn't seen so much worse within Riva's walls as the feral furies overran them. "For a while. I was bearing messages back and forth between Riva and Aquitaine."
Ehren studied her intently for a moment. Then he said, "That bad?"
"I saw an earth fury that looked like a gargant bull knock down a building being used to shelter orphaned children," she said in a level tone. "I saw a pregnant woman burned to black bones by a fire fury. I saw an old woman dragged down into a well by a water fury, her husband holding her wrists the whole way. He went with her." She paused, musing over the placid, inflectionless calm of her own voice, and added, "The second minute was worse."
Ehren folded his arms and shivered. "I hate to think what would have happened if the High Lords hadn't been able to return to the city to drive some of the ferals away."
"True," Amara said.
"Countess. Are you sure you're all right?"
"Perfectly."
The little Cursor nodded. "And... the Count?"
Amara felt herself grow more distant. She thought it was likely the only reason she wasn't weeping hysterically. "I don't know. He was part of Riva's command staff. He wasn't there."
Ehren nodded. "He... doesn't seem the sort of man to stay indoors when something like this is happening."
"No. He isn't."
"If I had to guess," Ehren said diffidently, "I'd say he was probably assisting in the evacuation. And that you'll see him as soon as he's gotten everyone he can out of the city."
"It wouldn't be out of character," Amara agreed. She took a deep drink from a flask of water she'd forgotten she was holding. Then she passed it back to Ehren. "Thank you."
"Of course," he said. "Where are you going now?"
"I'm to help provide an air patrol over the refugee column," Amara said. "Princeps Attis thinks that their aerial troops will be in position to attack us farther down the causeway." She paused, then asked, "And you?"
"I'm consolidating the food and supplies of the column," Ehren said with a grimace. "Which closely resembles bald theft - especially to everyone whose food I order taken away."
"There's no choice," Amara said. "Without rationing, most of these people won't have the strength to reach Calderon."
"I know," Ehren said, "but that doesn't make it any more palatable." They both fell quiet and watched the refugees shuffle past. "Crows." He