darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,51
that, but I would not let it put my people in more danger. I will have to.
“Siri,” I said aloud, “you’re on mage duty. You go in first with Kelos and do what needs to be done on that front. If you don’t find any mages, move on to chain of command. Kelos will do the same. As for the rest of us, it’s a big camp and that means multiple parties. Four, I think—pairs, or trios if we have enough volunteers for it. I’ll lead one, Jax another, with Maryam and Roric taking the other two. Faran, you’re in charge of dealing with those sentries that Siri and Kelos don’t clear out on their way in.”
Faran nodded and loosened the swords in her sheath.
“What if the camp wakes?” asked Jax.
“Then somebody fucked up,” I growled. “Don’t let it happen. If any of the raiders get away, they’re going to run straight back to the main army and report what happened here. Even if the enemy can’t take horses over the high pass, they’ll send hundreds of soldiers after us, to say nothing of whatever risen they have with them. I don’t think that will end well for us.”
“Point,” said Jax. “Since it’s come up, what do you think the odds are of us getting all the way to the temple without running into another major force after this one?”
“Zero,” I replied, “though hopefully we won’t have to take them so directly. We never mentioned our plans to go to the temple anywhere that Chomarr could hear, but I don’t doubt that he figured it out from things said in passing. I’m confident that the Son of Heaven won’t have sent another Kvani army into Varya, but there’s no doubt that he already controls some portion of the local nobility.
“There will certainly be troops guarding the temple, and likely more between us and it, but one battle at a time. Right now, we need to fight this one. Kelos, Siri, Faran, give us five minutes to put together our teams and then go in. We’ll be right behind you.”
10
No matter how necessary, there is no honor to be had from killing a man in his sleep. There is no challenge to it. No effort. No art. It lessens you.
I slipped over the crest of the hill above the camp with Kumi and Gryss following in my wake. Or, at least, I assumed that they did, for I could neither see nor hear them. Gryss was a relatively talkative Shade who took the form of an enormous, winged rat, but for now he and his mistress were absolutely silent, ghosts in the night behind me.
There was a slain sentry tucked in under the edge of a bush a few yards below the ridgetop. His throat looked as though someone had torn it out with claws—unmistakably Faran’s work and a reminder that at least some of my companions were less reluctant to take a life than I. There was a savage joy expressed in Faran’s kills for those with the skill to read it. I paused beside the body to look down over the camp and plan my descent.
While the commanding khan and some of his officers had retired to felt tents, most of the raiders slept on blankets in the open. The Kvani in war mode traveled exceedingly light, carrying more gear for their horses than for themselves. The open nature of the camp would make the coming slaughter both easier and harder. Easier, in that we would have no need to slip in and out of tents. Harder, because there would be no way to conceal the dead from the living should they begin to wake.
We were approaching the camp from four points—a quarter turn off the cardinal directions. Kumi and I had the greatest distance to cover and the hardest approach. So the signal was mine to give. As soon as we reached the darkness at the edge of our hunting ground, I let out the low hoot of a cloud owl and moved in.
There is no skill involved in this, I sent to Triss as I slid the edge of my knife along the throat of my first sleeper.
Not in killing one alone, perhaps. But a dozen, without waking the others? Each death must come in total silence yet quickly. Strike, move, strike again. It’s a dance, cold and cruel and hard, but as intricate a series of steps as any duel.