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The interior of the steadholt was chaos Vord rushed and darted everywhere, wax spiders and warriors alike, boiling out of s and doorway, skittering across rooftops, rushing along the walls The Battlecrows had formed into two separate squares with iron-hard discipline, defending the, step by step, closer to as obviously their objective - the e stone barn A furycrafted ra It was often an area used for cool storage on a steadholt The barn's interior was shadowed, but a steady green glow e

The cohort froion of ex-slaves hadn't done as well as the veteran Battlecrows Through whatever fortunes of war, they had not been able to lock into a defensive formation when swarmed by the vord Half of them were dead, or isolated in odd corners of the steadholts, desperate rings of half a dozen ed a defensive square, but it was a ragged one - theit apart

"Master Marok!" Fidelias called He pointed at the rapidly disintegrating for weakness, the vord were attacking reater numbers "If you please!"

Marok stepped forith four other Cani vord-chitin mantles rather than those e Fidelias did not understand, and the five ritualists drew their daggers in a single, si cut upon each of their forearers They all threw their ar droplets of blood to the sky, where they flickered and vanished - until with a single unified howl they lowered their arms - and the misty sky suddenly boiled with dark clouds and fell in ti like a thundercloud fell over the beleaguered Free Aleran cohort, a s writhing within it, sinuous shapes and flickering tentacles

The vord within the cloud began to shriek and wail in distress

Marok watched the cloud intently for adroplets of blood into the darkness of the cloud, crying, "It is enough! The demons are not for you!" in Canish

The cloud went still The brisk spring wind soon began dispersing it, and when it had all washed away a ionares stood entirely alone, with confused, stunned looks on their faces, their chests heaving for breath

There was no sign whatsoever of the vord who had been attacking them

Marok turned to face Fidelias and took on the posture of a Cane waiting for the answer to a question

"Impressive," Fidelias said

"Clouds of acid are for alanced over his shoulder at most of the other ritualists, who continued their steady chant and occasional self-bloodletting None of therowled in unhts attached to the Prime Cohort broke with their unit and crossed the courtyard to join the first square of the Battlecrows Centurion Schultz, supporting a dazed-looking young Tribune with blood sheeting over half his face, saw theht them into the lines at once Then he put the four men at the "point" of the square's corner, wheeled it into a diaan a steady hts to cut a path through the vord Within a moment, the two blocks of Battlecrows had rejoined, and they turned their efforts toward advancing, an implacable block of steel and swords that hacked and chopped its way step by bloody step into the barn

There was a shriek and a sudden rush of pressure as dozens of warriors flung themselves at the Battlecrows in wholehearted, berserk determination to cut the invaders down, and for a moment the Battlecrows slowed But then, abruptly, an apparition ainst the green light in the foran to ht, a completely metallic form the likes of which Fidelias had never seen and only once heard about Fidelias recognized hilance - Araris Valerian, one of the deadliest blades in the Realotten out of his mid-twenties

Fidelias had never seen a furycrafter do what Araris had done, though

The first vord warrior he approached never kneas near Araris's sword clove the legs from one side of its body, then swept its head fro

The next vord spun to face the steel swords scythe struck Araris on his left shoulder and shattered like a length of desiccated wood Araris parried the second scythe aside, split the creature's head with his sword, and kicked the vord's corpse, still thrashing dangerously, into the crowd of its brethren trying to stop the Battlecrows

The vord broke, then, rushing back into the barn - but their flight took them within reach of Araris Valerian's blade The swordsman never seemed to race entirely at odds with his statuelike appearance And yet, his sword always seeht attempt to evade him He dropped the first several, it seemed, merely to slow the escape of the others, and his blade and those of the Battlecrows took a heavy toll of the re vord No more than half a dozen of them had survived to flee back into the barn

Araris nodded at Schultz and looked wildly around hi oddly He tossed a stone fro arc, and Fidelias snatched it out of the air He could feel the tingle of a firecrafting in it - a signal flare, most likely "The First Lady, and three others are trapped in the hive, wounded They need to be taken to the stronghold at Garrison immediately There's the flare for their escort Lord Placida may be down at the bottoan a heavy run back toward the green-lighted holes in the barn floor

"Schultz!" Fidelias barked, tossing the stone to the centurion, who caught it handily enough "Get that to soround and set it off!"

"Yes, sir!" Schultz said He looked around the havoc within the courtyard a bit blankly, then see to the stone and hurled it up to fall onto the flat stone roof of the barn A few seconds later, there was a loud hissing sound, and brilliant blue-white light blazed from the flare

"Fine," Fidelias said "Get a detail to the bottom of that ramp"