Cook, Glen - Dread Empire - 06 by Cook Glen

Author:Cook, Glen [Cook, Glen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Warlord of the Dead

THIS ONE IS coming right at us!” Ethrian shouted. “Let’s get out of here!” Sahmanan ran down

the stone beast’s neck. Ethrian pursued her.

A flash of silver plunged out of the blue. The beast shunted it slightly. It hit his side. He responded with a great bellow of rage.

“What are they?” Sahmanan asked, rising from the beast’s back.

“I don’t know.” Ethrian surveyed the destruction wrought among the beast’s soldiers. “But

they’re effective. Let’s get down from here before one of them gets us.” He gave her a gentle shove.

He looked out across the desert. The Tervola remained standing atop their dune. They did

not seem dismayed by the advance of the armies of the dead.

Ethrian and Sahmanan were almost to ground level when another shaft arrived. It plunged

almost straight down, in front of the beast’s nose. It released its energy in Sahmanan’s pond.

Huge gouts of steam flung skyward. Chunks of stone fell out of the beast’s forelegs. The

paving blocks between them churned and tossed. The exit from the caverns collapsed.

Sahmanan wept for her shattered project.

“Your Great One isn’t doing so hot,” Ethrian observed. “They’re cutting us to ribbons.

Maybe I made a mistake, giving him the power to defend us. He’s just wasting the armies.”

“He can get more.”

“Really? You think the Tervola will let us out of the desert? That’s just an exploration party.

What happens when they get mad? They know what’s going on now. They know what they have

to do. Your Great One keeps on, we’ll be dead by the end of the week. Him included.”

Sahmanan cocked her head. “The silver things. They’ve stopped.”

She was right. The bombardment had ended. Ethrian examined the damage the last shaft

had done. “Going to take a lot of work to clear this.” He walked on round to where he could see what was happening at the dune.

Nothing was happening. The stone beast’s soldiers were standing around. “What now?”

Ethrian demanded.

“They’re gone. He can’t figure it out. They walked down the back of the dune and

disappeared.”

Ethrian spat in disgust. “A transfer portal. I swear, I could do better than this so-called god if . . . ”

“Don’t talk like that!”

“I’ll talk any way I want. Incompetence is incompetence. I want out of this place. I won’t

make it if this keeps on.”

The stone beast growled something about not yet being in possession of his full might.

Ethrian snarled that he had misused what he had been given. The argument persisted

throughout the four days it took to clear the exit from the caverns. Ethrian insisted that the beast become his slave. The beast refused.

Sahmanan usually spoke for the godling. Now she remained quiet and thoughtful. She

pottered round her pool like a child trying to find all the pieces of a broken china doll.

“They’re waiting in the mountains,” Ethrian told the woman. “A full legion, ready for battle.

I suppose your Great One will waste the rest of his manpower there.”

“He doesn’t take defeat lightly, Ethrian.”

He glanced at her. That was the first time she had used his name. “Neither do they, friend.

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