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New Kethia burned Tall columns of smoke rose froly concentrated around the docks where a nu away from the harbour They were all low in the water, one so heavily laden it capsized on reaching the harbourover its hull as it rolled in the waves To the south a long line of people were strea the vast rey-clads, stooped and burdened with various household ite children in their wake, confusion and fear on every face

“They ruht,” Frentis said They had encae collection of ruins on a low plateau just under athe place as the site of Old Kethia, destroyed centuries before in the Forging Age The former slave returned from his reconnaissance in late afternoon, he and Master Rensial having been sent ahead in the

“It seems news of our victory had a draovernor hatched a plan to execute every slave rather than allow them to fall into our hands Given that the city’s slaves outnumber the free population by a factor of two to one, this proved an unwise course of action The riots have been raging for three days, thousands have died, more have fled”

“The slaves hold the city?” Frentis asked

“Only a quarter” Thirty-Four pointed to a district that appeared evenarh to contact their leaders” He turned to Frentis with a smile “It seeer for his arrival”

“One less battle,” Drakerto his feet

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“Why was this done?”

The body hung from a pole in New Kethia’s main square, the feet reduced to blackened stuonised scream Despite all the nise the features I’ll suffer every torment for a thousand years, Varek had said From the state of him Frentis doubted he had lasted more than an hour

New Kethia’s Deputy Treasurer, a pinch-faced black-clad who seemed equal parts baffled and terrorised by his continued survival, had to cough several ti the voice to speak “The E despite his efforts to master it “They arrived before he did”

Didn’t like what he said toan odd sense of disappointment Varek had see to see how far his quest for vengeance would have taken hi this city, bloating in the sun and birthing clouds of flies that swar stench Thousands of stories snuffed out before the ending

It had taken a day and a night of hard fighting to win the city, Frentis leading the infantry in a slow but inexorable advance towards the docks whilst Lekran and Ivelda took charge of the surviving rebels They had been obliged to fight from street to street, their opponents a mix of Free Swords and townsmen, capable of furious resistance now their hoanised to prevail, their barricades ramshackle constructions crafted by hands unused to work Frentis soon evolved a tactic of seizing the surrounding rooftops and assailing the defenders fro them back whilst the barricades were torn down They had made a final stand of sorts at the docks, a few hundred sheltered behind stacked barrels and crates, refusing all calls for surrender It was Weaver’s freed Varitai who finished it, si in to club down the defenders

What was left of the governor had been roped to the base of the pole; unlike Varek his face was truly unrecognisable Theto overnor’s uards Unfortunately his heroics hadn’t secured hi aside all resistance as they storh presence ofwitnessed the horrors wrought by the governor’s attempts to cull the slave population Frentis felt no inclination to interfere in his protracted, and inventive, punishment

“The Empress is a ratiation in his tone

“She is Volarian,” Frentis replied “As the only Imperial official left in this city, I require you to act as liaison to the surviving free populace You will find theuard at the docks Inform them that, as free subjects of the Unified Realm, they are afforded the protection of the Crown and I personally guarantee the safety of all those innocent of any part in the atrocities committed here However, all property formerly owned is forfeit to the Crown as spoils of war By the Queen’s Word slavery is now outlawed in this province and any found to be engaged in it subject to summary execution”