One of the light cavalry soldiers rounded a distant bend and galloped toward them. He wasn’t alone in the saddle. As he neared, it became clear someone was slumped behind him.

“Healer!” he shouted when he got close enough.

Those in the front line relayed the message, and by the time the cavalry soldier reached them, Katyoun was there.

“What happened?” she asked.

One of the heavy infantrymen from Unit Two leaned against the cavalryman.

“We got the bastard,” the cavalryman said. “But the damn thing was slippery. Ripped Cossus here open before Lieutenant Kashtiliash gutted it. They’re back there making sure there aren’t any more of the fuckers.”

Katayoun helped the wounded Cossus off the horse. He was unconscious.

Sergeant Stratos tapped Xerxes’ arm. Xerxes turned his attention away from Katayoun and the wounded soldier.

Voice so low it might as well have been a whisper, Stratos said, “With all due respect, High Seer, we should be keeping our eyes on the road ahead.”

“Right,” Xerxes said, and from that point, he kept his eyes locked on the path. However, he could still hear what was going on behind him.

A moment later, Katayoun said, “It’s pretty bad. He’s obviously lost a lot of blood. Minor Restoration will deal with the wound, but I can’t cast the spell to restore lost blood. He’ll need rest.”

After that was silence for a good minute or two.

Then, Katayoun said, “Take him back to the wagons.”

Not long after that, Kashtiliash and Sergeant Arda returned along with the rest of Unit Two. Not far behind was Ningsummunu. The latter went back down the line to confer with Gandash briefly before going back down the mountain to scout.

The line started moving only fifteen minutes later.

Once again, Xerxes found Kashtiliash.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“What kind was it?”

Kashtiliash shuddered. “Not some hogdown Abhorrent. I’ve never seen one like it before. Or heard of that kind.”

“You told Gandy about it, I assume?”

“Yeah. He said he’ll have a mage council later to talk about it.”

“Right.”

From that point on, Xerxes couldn’t stop eying the surrounding trees. This forest wasn’t like the Yellow Forest back on Mannemid. It was drier, and smelled more earthy. The vegetation wasn’t a vibrant green, but something more mottled. There was a lot more brown. And the dust hung heavily when kicked up by feet and hooves.

As the sun continued its arc across the sky, and afternoon slowly turned into evening, the shadows deepened. Providing plenty of places for Abhorrent to hide. But the invasion here was months passed. There couldn’t be many more in the area. Could there?

About halfway down the mountain was a camping area set up for travelers. Except, it wasn’t designed for nearly two hundred people plus vehicles and animals. So the camp ended up taking up much of the road as well.

After an evening meal, Gandash called the mages together in a large tent designed for conferences.

He hadn’t brought bulky tables and chairs, but there were rugs, so they sat cross-legged on the ground in a rough circle.

To Xerxes’ right was Kashtiliash, and to his left was short-haired Arwia. Just beyond Arwia were Kishar and Katayoun. The angle made it awkward to try to catch Katayoun’s eye, not that she would allow that.

“There are a few things I need to explain,” Gandash said. “First is about the fight earlier. The scouts noticed the Abhorrent lurking off the side of the road. Unit One and half of Unit Fourteen engaged it and killed it. One soldier was wounded because of… Lieutenant Kashtiliash, could you explain?”

Kashtiliash nodded. “The thing had lots of arms. Not arms like a bug or animal. But like this.” He held his right arm out and flexed his biceps. “A human-like arm. The hand had fingernails that were basically claws. The men were… frightened, I guess. Sort of stunned. The thing started flipping around, right past me and into the Unsighted. By the time I killed it, Cossus was hurt. That’s about it.”

It was the most words Xerxes had ever heard Kashtiliash string together at one time.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Gandash said. “We’re not supposed to be fighting a lot of Abhorrent on this mission. But we knew from the beginning it was possible there could be stragglers from the initial invasion. There have been reports of occasional out-of-season meteors, and even some full-on meteor showers. But never more than three or four at one time, so it’s not as though we’ll ever have to worry about an army of the things.

“One thing to keep in mind is that most of the Unsighted soldiers haven’t ever fought Abhorrent. Every single one of us has. I’m sure all of you remember the first time—” his jaw tightened momentarily “—the first time you actually fought one of the things. Be ready for two possibilities: one, Abhorrent you’ve never seen before. Two: the troops to potentially freeze up. Their conditioning doesn’t make them immune to common human emotions and reactions, after all.

“Moving on, I want to talk about that village near the Gateway complex, Urmia. Lieutenants Jad and Enusat suggested we scout the place out. At first, I didn’t think it was necessary. But later I had second thoughts, so I sent Tizqar to snoop around, with spellcasting authorization since he’s a Hasasu mage. Tizqar, do you mind giving us a brief summary of what you found?”

Tizqar was the overweight mage with droopy jowls. He was a High Seer, and he had already mastered the second spell in the main line of Hasasu spells, which was an upgraded version of Base Empathics. The spell was called Greater Empathics, and it allowed the caster to sense emotions at a much greater range, and with more accuracy than the lesser version. With magic like that, Hasasu mages were the perfect choices for reconnaissance missions.

Tizqar cleared his throat. “Nobody I talked to seemed to know why the Gateway complex was abandoned. They said soldiers rushed through the village about a week ago. Since then, no one has come from the region of the capital. There was some sort of disturbance last night. Someone got killed. It was hard to get much detail about it, as there’s only a single constable in the place, and he wasn’t being very cooperative.”

Xerxes couldn’t help but look over at Jad and Enusat. To their credit, they were doing a great job of keeping straight faces.

“Thank you, Tizqar. As I suspected, seeking information in that village was a dead end. Although, I do thank Jad and Enusat for the suggestion. Now… there’s something far more important to discuss. Something that could affect the whole group.”