Princeps’ Fury

“One enemy or another.” Sunset shrugged. “It is of little matter to us.”

Doroga spoke for the first time. “It should be. Listen to her.”

“The foe that comes against us now is not a nation. It does not seek land or control. It is here only to destroy utterly anything that is not itself. It has attacked us without warning, hesitation, or mercy. It will not speak with us of peace. It slaughters innocents and warriors alike-and it will do so to any other than itself whom it meets.”

Sunset regarded her for a moment. Then he said, “Until today, I would have said that your people are little different. Many still would.”

“This enemy is called the Vord. And when it finishes us, it will come here for you and your people.”

Sunset looked at Doroga.

The Marat nodded. “And for mine. The Alerans caused your tribes to set aside your differences. They were a greater enemy. Now comes another enemy-one who will destroy us all if we do not lay our differences aside.” Doroga leaned on his cudgel and spoke intently. “You must permit them to withdraw in peace. To let the Wall-guardians travel south and battle our mutual foe. And to leave their people here in peace.”

Sunset stared at Doroga for a time. “What have your folk decided?”

“To let the Alerans fight,” Doroga said. “My people cannot defeat the Vord-not now. They are too many, too strong. You know that my people have no love for the Alerans. But we will not attack them while the Vord are abroad.”

Red Waters spat, “So we should let their warriors leave, but not drive their peoples from these lands? So that when the battle is done, their warriors return and take up their arms again?”

Sunset sighed. He looked from Red Waters to Isana. “He has a point.”

Isana frowned and looked at Red Waters, searching for the right words.

Araris stepped up beside her and bowed slightly to Sunset, then to Red Waters. “My people have a saying,” he said. “Better the enemy you know than the enemy you don’t.”

Red Waters stared hard at Araris for a moment. Then Big Shoulders let out a bark of laughter that was startling in how human it sounded. It spread around the circle of Icemen until even Red Waters shook his head, his rigid demeanor relaxing somewhat.

“Our warriors have that saying as well,” Red Waters admitted. He nodded at the blood, now freezing into scarlet crystals, on the tip of his harpoon. “But what peace-chiefs say is not always what war-chiefs do. Let us see your warriors depart. Then we will speak again of peace.”

“Antillus and Phrygia will never agree to that,” Lady Placida murmured. “Never.”

“You come to us asking us for peace,” Red Waters said. “But you offer us nothing.”

Isana met Red Waters’s eyes. “It seems to me that peace is not a gift one can give away. It can only be exchanged in kind.”

A sharp pulse of approval came from Sunset.

Red Waters answered him with a surge of sadness and caution.

Sunset sighed and nodded. He turned back to Isana, and murmured, “As I said. It will not be easy.”

“Too much anger,” Isana said. “Too much blood.”

“On both sides,” Sunset agreed.

He was right, Isana thought. Certainly, Lord Antillus had been less than willing to accept the possibility of peace. The most he’d been willing to believe possible was that he could shake the Icemen up, disrupt them enough to send a single Legion south-

The steady, buzzing hostility of the Shieldwall hummed against Isana’s senses.

She had a sudden, horrible suspicion and every Iceman in the circle around her suddenly became more alert.

“Lady Placida,” she said quietly. “Can you tell me if there are any Knights Aeris aloft?”

Aria arched a pale copper eyebrow. Then she nodded, closed her eyes, and lifted her face to the snowy skies. A moment later, she drew in a sharp breath. “Furies. More than a hundred. Every Knight Aeris under Antillus’s command. But why…” She opened her eyes wide, suddenly, staring around at the assembled chieftains of the Icemen.

“Sunset,” Isana said, “you must leave. You and your people are in danger.”

“Why?”

“Because what peace-chiefs say is not always what war-chiefs do.”

Thunder rumbled suddenly overhead.

Red Waters snarled and made a swift, sharp gesture. The chieftains gathered around him and Sunset. Big Shoulders wordlessly handed Sunset’s bone club back to him. Sunset glanced at Isana and sent out a surge of regret. Then he grasped the weapon in his hands and turned to begin shambling away through the snow, the other chieftains gathering around him as the wind began to rise again.

“Too late,” Aria hissed.

Thunder rolled louder and the clouds whirled in a wide circle and parted, revealing a wheel of Knights Aeris aloft, tiny black shapes against the grey clouds with a circle of blue sky far above. Lightning danced from cloud to cloud and gathered into a wide circle, dancing between the Knights like the spokes of an enormous wagon wheel. Isana could feel the power gathering as the lightning prepared to fall on the retreating chieftains.