both Obvar and myself. The exact details of his journey and negotiations remain unknown to me, but I have little doubt his newly acquired gift was the principal reason why he returned three months later with thirty thousand Tuhla warriors at his back.
Their chief was a wiry man of middling years named Heralka, which he insisted meant Grey Falcon in the Tuhla tongue, although I heard his warriors use it as an insult on numerous occasions. He rode with four part-rotted heads tied to his saddle and a permanent smirk of triumph on his lean features. The heads had belonged to his rivals for dominance over the Tuhla confederation, slain as a result of some convoluted scheme of subterfuge and betrayal I never fully understood, except to note that Kehlbrand was key in orchestrating it. Despite his evident triumph, as the subsequent campaigns unfolded, I often witnessed Heralka sitting alone at a campfire, the four heads arranged around it in a circle as he engaged them in animated, sometimes jocular conversation. As the night wore on, and his consumption of ale grew, his humour would eventually subside into tears and shouted accusations before he finally passed out.
At Kehlbrand’s behest, and with Heralka’s permission, I sought out others with the Divine Blood amongst the ranks of the Tuhla, finding two. One was a foul-tempered old man with a facility for summoning rain, the other a sturdy woman of forty summers who could bend and mould metal with her bare hands as easily as if it were clay. Both agreed to join my coterie only at Heralka’s insistence and accepted my authority with a stern resentment that never faded. Consequently, I didn’t name them, nor any of the others discovered in the aftermath of our first victories. I had my family now, and it would grow no larger.
With the Tuhla alliance firmly secured, Kehlbrand launched the first of his campaigns into the border country, breaking with tradition by choosing to fight in the wet season. This was a deliberately restricted series of raids against trading caravans and small-scale harassment of Merchant Realm soldiery, designed to gauge the strength of the enemy whilst confusing them as to our intentions.
Having destroyed our foe’s most northerly stronghold years before, the Stahlhast now enjoyed unfettered reign over the southern reaches of the Iron Steppe, enabling us to raid almost at will. The varied garrisons of the Merchant Kings responded with increased patrols and some punitive expeditions consisting of a few thousand mounted soldiers. These were left alone at Kehlbrand’s command and would spend days or weeks riding across an empty Steppe before lack of supplies forced them to return to their strongholds, whereupon the raids would resume at a yet greater tempo.
When the last rains faded and the Steppe grew dry and hot, Kehlbrand, having gained as complete a picture of the enemy’s disposition as he could hope for, chose the fortress town of Leshun-Kho as the target for his first full-scale assault. The assembled host was ordered to encamp beyond range of the garrison’s spyglasses whilst Varij, in company with Obvar, stole forth under cover of darkness to approach the town’s high walls.
Varij had made careful study of various captured architectural texts and knew just the right places to employ his gift so as not to cause an immediate collapse. Instead, he weakened the foundations in three different places, ensuring they would crumble under their own weight within hours. Consequently, when the town garrison saw the approaching host come the dawn, they rushed to man the battlements in time to watch the breaches appear in their walls. Attempts to improvise barricades met with little success as the Stahlhast and Tuhla streamed through the gaps, cutting down the desperate defenders and galloping on into the streets beyond. The town fell within two hours, despite some suicidally courageous stands by the Merchant King’s soldiers.
It was the fall of Leshun-Kho that brought the next step on my traitor’s journey. Troubled though I was by the changes in my brother, I did not yet fully understand just how profound his transformation had been. Thinking back on my tour of the conquered town, I wonder now at my own indifference to the destruction and suffering all around. Kehlbrand had forbidden the customary rapine and wanton murder that accompanied the fall of a settlement, but still the slaughter of both soldiers and townsfolk had been considerable. The Tuhla had been particularly savage, this being their first opportunity for many years to