Morale was mixed. None of the soldiers who had fallen in the night battle had been from Unit One. However, after weeks on the road, Xerxes was at least familiar with their names and faces. It made his heart heavy.

And then there was Arwia. At a certain point, he pushed thoughts of her into the same location as his memories of Bel.

Come morning, Gandash set a pace that bordered on grueling. There was a delicate balance to it. He wanted speed, there was only so much the animals and foot soldiers could take. The overcast conditions made it slightly easier, as they didn’t have to worry about baking in the sun.

The light infantry scouts earned their pay, as they went as far north, south, east, and west as they could.

All reports indicated that there was no Abhorrent activity. Thus, when they made camp that night next to a river, Gandash declined to entrench. Instead, he had a watchtower constructed and also posted double the normal sentries.

Xerxes ate his evening meal with Katayoun instead of the Swordmasters. Given the crowded nature of the camp, there wasn’t time for anything other than light chatting. But it was nice to have things smoothed out with her.

He fell asleep wondering if another meteor shower would hit.

It didn’t.

Until the following night.

They were five days out from Puabi when the first falling star appeared.

It happened in the early morning when the light of the sun had just begun to crawl up and replace the darkness. Xerxes didn’t see it, as he was asleep.

But as more meteors fell, the camp came alive. Fully an hour before the sleepers would normally waken, every single Sighted and Unsighted was out and looking up into the sky. It wasn’t a deluge. More like one meteor every minute or two. For the most part, they seemed to originate in the same general part of the sky. And while most flew over the company and toward the north, there were some that went in different directions.

Xerxes thought back to Mannemid. Ligish Castle. Asnu Gorge. The battle at the capital.

“Is this really happening?” Katayoun said.

He turned to find her standing next to him. He looked back up. “It is. The question is when it will stop. I’d guess there aren’t as many as the other night.”

“I’m thinking of a different question,” Katayoun replied.

“Oh?”

“Is it just here on Jehannemid? Or back home, too?”

Xerxes felt a chill. He hadn’t even considered the possibility. Other than the people around him, everyone he’d grown up with, and everyone he cared about, was back on Mannemid. His parents. Ahassy. Gandash’s family. And others who, though he wasn’t extremely close with, he would consider important. Captain Ishki. Sergeant Tamharu.

He gritted his teeth and forced them out of his mind. Worrying wouldn’t change a thing.

He found himself holding Katayoun’s hand for several more minutes until the call went out to break camp.

“We’d better not be continuing,” Enusat said. “If we do, we’ll get ambushed, I guarantee it. And if that ‘appens, I’m shapeshifting into a cheetah and running back ‘ome.”

“We should go back to the Tower Plateau,” Jad said, folding up his tent.

Kash snorted. “Why? We’d get stuck. Better get behind some city walls.”

“I have to agree,” Xerxes said. “Walls won’t stop meteors, or the big Abhorrent, but they’re better than piles of dirt.”

“We should go back because it’s closer to the plateau than the city,” Enusat said. “If Randy Gandy is as smart of a strategizer as ‘e wants everyone to think, then ‘e’ll head us back to where we can defend ourselves.”

It seemed Enusat and Jad weren’t the only ones who wanted to go back to the plateau. Xerxes heard whispers from some of the other mages to the same effect.

However, Gandash didn’t have them retrace their steps. Instead, he wanted to push to Puabi.

The meteor showers continued as they moved as quickly as possible toward the city.

The first Abhorrent attacked before the lunch hour. It was large, almost like a rhino, except covered with feathers and eye stalks.

It charged at them across an open expanse of flat land, and as such, the light cavalry managed to take it down before it became a threat.

A smaller group of cat-like creatures fell upon them as they stopped briefly to eat.

There were minor injuries.

Everyone was on edge. However, the meteor showers stopped, bringing at least a tiny sense of relief.

“We’re sitting ducks,” Jad said. “The Abhorrent can sense our melam. And we have High Seers now. Lots.”

“Might as well soak ourselves in chum and jump into a shark pool,” Enusat said.

It wasn’t likely. As they’d learned from Mystic Rabya, there was a limit the distances Abhorrent could sense melam. But Kashtiliash didn’t say anything, nor did Xerxes.

The next few hours went well. Then Abhorrent that looked like wolves bore down on them. Except, these wolves had neither fur nor skin, just muscles that glistened with blood, and they stank like rotting meat. They came seemingly out of nowhere as the company passed over a ridge.

The things fell as other Abhorrent spawn did, but the manner of their attack, and the configuration of the line of troops, lead to casualties.

Unit One lost their first soldier, Vadamerca, the woman with the complexion of oak. A wolf got to her throat, and there was never a chance for the Balatu mages to heal her.

There were other serious injuries, but after the wolves were put down, Katayoun and Kishar tended to them.

As the sky turned dark, they realized they had a serious problem. There was no defensible location in which to camp.

Scouts reported finding a nearby hill, and Gandash pushed them off the road to find it. There, they entrenched, taking a full two hours to dig a pit and erect a mound, then fortify the earth with wooden stakes. Gandash again ordered the watchtower built.

They settled in to eat dinner, and then began what was surely going to be the longest night any of them had experienced in a long time.