Peter Brett - The Daylight War

‘And what does that make me, waiting here in the centre?’ Thamos demanded. All eyes turned to the count, and Leesha could see the tension in his face. Leesha remembered how he had been abed that first night, and the tales Darsy had told of the count’s fear of demons, and how his need to conquer that fear led to erratic acts of bravery. He was terrified of being labelled a coward and losing the respect of his people. ‘A leader must be free to direct his forces.’

Amanvah snorted, sparing him a dismissive glance. ‘My holy father does not sit on his throne after the sun sets, and he is the greatest leader the world has ever seen. You are chin , and your cowardice is expected, but the Par’chin was said to be different.’

Thamos looked enraged, what little temper was left to him quickly evaporating. In a moment, he would begin shouting, and it would go poorly for everyone.

Leesha stepped between them, locking stares with Amanvah. ‘With respect, Amanvah, I have seen your honoured father send men, even his own sons, far into the night to do his scouting. I know you worry for your husband, but Rojer has gone into the night hundreds of times. He’ll be all right.’

‘How can you claim to know what even the dice will not say?’ Amanvah asked.

‘I can’t,’ Leesha admitted. ‘But I have faith.’

Amanvah blinked, then nodded. ‘It is inevera .’ She breathed to calm herself, moving back to her corner of the tent and kneeling once again in meditation as she listened.

Rojer held his fiddle and bow in his good left hand as they stepped out into the naked night, trusting in the cloaks to protect them. His right hand he kept free. Even with just three fingers, he could flick a warded knife into it and throw in seconds.

‘I’ll lead,’ Renna said. ‘Used to seeing in the dark.’ Neither Rojer nor Gared cared to argue. He was still adjusting to the mask Amanvah had given him. He could see well enough that he wasn’t apt to run into anything or miss a passing demon, but the swirls of coloured magic clinging to everything were distracting and confusing, making him feel as unsure as if in a thick morning fog.

As Renna moved ahead, right at the edge of their wardsight, Rojer turned to Gared. ‘You’re right I took you for granted. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Sometimes I get so caught up in my own drama I forget I’m not the only one in the play.’

Gared grunted. ‘It’s a fallen tree. No point climbing it.’

Rojer turned to face him. ‘I know, I just-’

‘We’re out in the naked night, Rojer,’ Gared cut in, ‘and I feel like I’m caught inside a ripping rainbow cloud. Ent mad at you any more. Now eyes in front.’

Rojer nodded, turning his gaze this way and that, but as he did, something unclenched inside him. One less thing to fret over. Now all I need to worry about is being eaten by demons.

The walk was agonizingly slow. Leesha’s Cloaks of Unsight had never failed, but needed to be wrapped close around the wearer, and they could not move too quickly. Rojer and Renna were more practised, setting the pace for Gared.

Just beyond the tree line they began to see signs of the flame demons’ play: blackened trunks and scorched ground that had once been the fertile forest bed. Their boots and the hems of their cloaks became black with ash.

Ahead, the sounds of ongoing destruction were like nothing Rojer had ever heard. Instinct screamed at him to turn and run in the other direction, but he steeled himself and kept putting one foot in front of the other as they picked their way through the trees.

They did not have to go far. The woods ended abruptly, violently, in a place of utter devastation. All the thundersticks Leesha had ever made could not have done a fraction of the damage. The ground was blackened and blasted, with great piles of loose soil next to huge gaping holes where whole trees and heavy stones had been torn free.

There was something repellent about the place. A wrongness Rojer could sense in every fibre of his body. They did not belong here.

Field demons, sleek and low to the ground, prowled the area, climbing atop the piles and sniffing the air. Above, wind demons circled.

Renna drifted back to them. ‘Too many places for demons to hide. We stay close from here on.’

Rojer and Gared nodded, the three of them moving deeper into the destruction. Huge piles of stones stood twenty feet high, as did stacks of trees. Rojer looked at one of the stone piles, then back the way they had come. ‘How far do you think a rock demon could throw one of those?’

Gared considered the pile, then he, too, glanced back. ‘A big one? Too far for my liking.’

‘They’re stockpiling,’ Rojer said. ‘We should go back and-’

‘Not yet,’ Renna interrupted. ‘If that’s all they’re doing, where are all the rock and wood demons?’

Rojer swallowed the lump in his throat, knowing she was right. They kept on, skirting around the piles of wood and rock that might soon be hurtling at Newhaven. At last, they peeked around a giant mound of dirt and saw the demons at work.

The land had been cleared, and huge trenches were being dug by wood and rock demons, as well as some other breeds Rojer could not recognize. The trenches were twenty feet wide and over ten deep, but the demons swept the dirt away with their great claws as if it were nothing more than dry leaves. When they came to a large stone, it was torn free of the ground and carried to one of the many piles.

‘What are they doing?’ Gared asked, looking at the seemingly random series of trenches. ‘Building a defensive perimeter? That don’t sound like demons.’

‘These are smart demons,’ Renna reminded him. ‘There’s a mind, or more than one, nearby directing them.’

‘Still don’t make sense,’ Gared said. ‘Demons flee with the sun. What’s the point of taking and holding ground?’

Rojer looked, his eyes running over the precise shapes forming in the ground, and felt his face go cold, suddenly putting a name to the feeling of repulsion he had been feeling steadily increase as they approached.

‘They’re building a greatward.’

Gared and Renna both snapped their gazes at him, and Rojer felt a sudden pressure in his bladder. Creator, I’m about to piss myself.

Wordlessly, he ran back around the great pile of dirt, throwing open his cloak and yanking the drawstrings of his motley trousers. He barely had his member in hand before the stream came pouring out.

‘Ahhh,’ he gasped, but his relief was short-lived as a low growl sounded a few feet away. Rojer looked up and saw a field demon tamping its feet to spring.

He fell back with a cry as it launched itself at him, getting tangled in his still-undone trousers and landing heavily on his back. He fumbled, trying to free a knife, but could not flick his arm properly from the prone position.

But then Gared was there, roaring as he swung his heavy axe with two hands. Warded by Arlen himself, the blade split the demon’s head from the tip of its snout to the base of its neck, covering Rojer in a spray of ichor.

The demon still kicked as Gared bore it to the ground, tearing at his cloak in its death throes. Rojer was up in an instant, retying his trousers and readying his fiddle and bow just as a reap of field demons appeared, surrounding them. Renna had her long, sharp knife in hand and was growling like a demon herself. She looked hungry for the fight, though they had little hope against so many.

This one’s nuttier than Arlen , Rojer thought, and that’s saying something.

‘No one move,’ he said, putting bow to string. He played a few sharp notes to surprise the demons and drive them back, then wove in a melody to mesmerize them before he caused the distraction that would allow them to disappear.