Chapter 155

The first light of dawn spilled across the sky.

Crows wheeled overhead and dropped to feed.

The camp was littered with the bodies of mountain men. The large band had charged blindly into Domeric’s lines with their eyes covered, only to discover they faced not helpless sheep but fully armed elite soldiers. Lord Wendel had already directed massed ranks of pikemen to drive the survivors into a low hollow and ring them about. The mountain men had broken completely. Their chiefs had told them they were raiding a rich, undefended merchant train for coin, grain and women. Instead they had met soldiers armed to the teeth. Was this some jest of the gods?