He never had a chance to reunite with Gandash, though it was to his delight that, in the afternoon, Sergeant Tamharu was assigned to his squad.

“Xerk!” the sergeant said. “How you holding up?”

“Doing okay, Sarge. Any news? Say, what happened to Master Ligish’s machine? I forgot about it in all the commotion.”

“I think the mages forgot, too,” he said. “Captain Ishki got orders to lock it up for safe keeping. I guess they’ll wait until this invasion is dealt with before looking at it. You ready to go out there and skewer some bug monsters?”

Xerxes grinned. “Ready to slice’em and dice’em!”

Tamharu laughed.

As it turned out, they were assigned to patrol Harborview. To Xerxes’ surprise, he learned that Tamharu had also been born and raised there.

“How come you don’t talk like it?” Xerxes asked.

“How come you don’t?” the sergeant responded. “I heard some of the boys saying you were born and raised here, but you sound like an ‘ogdown fancypants mage to me.”

Xerxes laughed. “Okay, fair point.”

They didn’t encounter any Abhorrent. Or any cultists. They did stop a mugging, and arrested a pickpocket, although Ninsunu said they didn’t have time to cart them to jail, so they let the lawbreakers off with beatings.

Before long, it was time to part ways with Tamharu. Even though they’d only known each other for a short time, Xerxes felt closer with him than with virtually any of the other mages with whom he’d been associated for much longer.

“Take care of yourself, Xerk,” Tamharu said.

“You too, Sarge.”

“No need for the title.”

Xerxes’ heart suddenly felt heavy, though he wasn’t sure why. “Okay, Tamharu. Please, be careful. If things get bad… just… be careful.”

The sergeant gave him a casual salute, then left. Xerxes tried to ignore the premonition this might be the last time he saw him.

Just nerves, he told himself.

Night fell.

This time, Xerxes didn’t sleep well. He woke at least three times.

The next day’s routine was the same.

While he, Ninsunu, and a few soldiers were poking around the docks, something happened on the other side of the city. Shemesh and Alwin stumbled onto a group of five Abhorrent lurking in an abandoned tailor’s shop, along with three cultists.

One Abhorrent died in the resulting clash. Two cultists lost their lives.

Alwin didn’t make it. Another mage dead.

Aban Saddi flew into a rage upon hearing the news, pouring fiery curse words onto Shemesh. It was made even worse by the fact that Shemesh failed to prevent the surviving cultist from escaping. The way Shemesh wilted only went to reinforce how rarely Aban Saddi ever said anything negative to him.

One thing was certain: the Abhorrent and their cultist followers hadn’t fled the city. They were still out there, hiding and waiting. But for what?

The only upside to the event was that Nohem—the third Buhhu mage—and Gandash managed to track down the missing Abhorrent monsters before they went into hiding again. What was more, the four fleeing spawn led them to another nest of sorts. Neither Gandash nor Nohem was impulsive enough to barge into the place. Thus Abad Saddi sent a group of sixty soldiers, led by Captain Ishiki and Seer Fale, to deal with the beasts. Xerxes and his father, both Asgagu mages, were told to go along and provide extra offensive power. They wiped them out.

After that mixture of tragedy and success, two days passed in which nothing happened.

On the third day, things changed dramatically.

Xerxes was one of the first to notice. Waking early, he ate a quick breakfast and, flanked by his usual escort of soldiers, went out to the battlements to look over the city in the light of the rising sun.

Leaning his shoulder up against a crenellation and resting his sword against his chest, he was gazing toward the east when something in his peripheral vision caught his attention.

A falling star.

A meteor.

A chill ran up his spine as he saw the burning object steak down and land somewhere off in the distance. Although he couldn’t be sure, it had to be only a few leagues from the city.

“Did you see that?” he asked of the soldiers who stood closest to him

“See what?” the soldier asked.

“Never mind.”

Gazing back out into the sky briefly, he was about to turn and head back into the keep when he saw another meteor.

“Look!” he said.

The soldier stepped closer to get a better view through the crenelations. “Falling star?” the soldier said.

“Yeah,” Xerxes replied. “The Abhorrent are coming in those things. I wonder….”

The soldier gulped nervously. “I sure ‘ope it’s nothing but—”

He stopped talking as he realized that this meteor was a lot closer than the other, so much so that he had to crane his heads to see it. Furthermore, its angle of descent was much steeper.

Xerxes, having experienced a meteor flying directly overhead, didn’t duck as it passed over, but the soldier did. They heard a faint rumbling sound as the meteor crashed into the ground so close to the city walls that they saw a cloud of dust a moment later.

“‘Oly shit,” the soldier said.

Xerxes gritted his teeth. “Yeah, we need to report this. Come on, let’s—”

He stopped talking.

Up in the sky, he’d spotted another burning object. But somehow, he could tell that this one was much bigger than any of the others.

The smaller meteors had streaked down like diving falcons; this bigger one tumbled end over end without any sense of urgency. It almost seemed to be falling in slow motion. But as it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, Xerxes’ heart pounded.

How big was it?

And it seemed to be heading directly toward him. It wasn’t like the situation back on the road, where the meteor had looked like it was heading toward him, but actually wasn’t. As the meteor grew larger and larger in his field of vision, he didn’t get any sense that it was slowly drifting to the left, or the right. No, it was coming right toward him. What would happen when it hit? Fire? Explosions? Destruction? Probably all of those.

“It’s going to land in the city,” he said. “Maybe even hit the keep.”

“Fucking ‘ell,” the soldier muttered, standing there as motionless as a gravestone.

“Yeah.” Keeping his eyes on the meteor, he pushed past the petrified soldier and toward the door. “If that thing hits us, we’re dead!”