bring an unlit torch with them, and they held the thick, rag-tipped sticks awkwardly, clearly unsure of their purpose. There was a moment when Sebastian felt the squirm of embarrassed discomfort, but he was able to push it away by fixing Galina’s patient smile in his mind.
“Gentlemen,” he said in a firm voice. “I welcome you to the new Four Hundred and Fourth Cavalry. I value candor above all else, and I will prove that to you now by telling you about myself. That way there will be no doubts regarding the man who leads you.”
Galina’s suggestion that he write out the speech and memorize it ahead of time had also been wise. He didn’t mumble, stammer, or trip over his words as he was sometimes wont to do in high-pressure situations, and instead spoke clearly and effortlessly.
“My full name is Sebastian Turgenev Portinari. While it is true that my father was the renowned Aureumian Commander Giovanni Portinari, my mother is a descendant of one of the oldest families in Izmoroz. Like you, I have grown up here and consider myself an Izmorozian. You are no doubt aware that a great evil is looming on the western horizon. The foul and unholy Uaine Empire, along with their legion of undead, seek to claim our people and our land for themselves. I have been recruited, and this unit has been formed, for the express purpose of combating that dire threat.”
He gazed out at them and for once they were not looking sidelong at each other, but instead looking with increasing worry at him. As he’d hoped, this sounded like a far more daunting task than they’d anticipated.
“We all want to protect our homeland, of course,” he continued. “But in the dark times ahead, as we face horrors beyond imagining, it will be difficult to sustain our resolve merely with high ideals.” He took out the gold locket that hung around his neck and opened it to show the tiny portrait of Galina that had been her engagement present to him. “This is my betrothed, Galina Odoyevtseva Prozorova. No matter what else might happen, or how terrible things might get, I will protect her and keep her safe to my dying breath. Any who threatens her will know my wrath.”
He held out his torch and Rykov lit it, as he had been instructed beforehand. Sebastian watched the flames grow for a moment, then took out his diamond.
“This is what my wrath looks like.”
He focused his will on the diamond, then hurled the torch across the river. As it sailed in a high arc, he made it burst into a giant blaze that momentarily lit up the overcast sky.
As Sebastian had hoped, the men’s eyes went wide at the fiery display and their worry was now mixed with awe. They probably hadn’t seen much magic, if any, in their lives, and even this small demonstration was impressive to them. It had to be small, because he planned to do it twenty more times.
“You, step forward.” He pointed to one of the soldiers.
The soldier flinched, but then gathered his nerve and stepped in front of Sebastian. He was half a foot taller and nearly twice as broad in the shoulders, but now Sebastian didn’t feel intimidated.
“What is your name?”
“Bogdan Vishneva, sir!”
“And who is it you wish to protect more than anyone else in the world?”
“I… suppose my niece, sir. Sh-she’s only four, bless her, and as sweet as an angel. I couldn’t stand it if anything bad happened to her.”
“What is her name?”
“Tamara Vishneva, sir.”
“Light your torch.”
Bogdan obediently lit his torch from Rykov’s.
“This will be our wrath to anyone who dares threaten Tamara Vishneva. Throw the torch.”
Bogdan threw the torch, and Sebastian made it explode just as he had the first one.
“Well done. You may step back in line.”
Sebastian brought them up one at a time and asked them who they most wished to protect. A wife, a sister, a younger brother, a mother, an elderly father, the range was wide. He committed the person’s name to memory, then demonstrated that they were also under his protection. He had to improvise a little bit when one soldier, Leonid Lopokova, confessed he had no one. But Sebastian had done over half of them by then and was so swept up in his enthusiasm and the warming looks of his men that he handled it rather well.
“I might have said the same thing before I met my betrothed a few months ago,” he told Leonid. This