Two miles to the north they passed a wagon on its side, one of the wheels had snapped.

‘What is that?’ Benji asked.

‘That is a wagon carrying wine from Turtha.’ Iguchi said with a smile, ‘Scouts from the enemy will see this as a prize, they will bring it back to camp, this will help with our plans.’

‘What do we do now?’ Benji asked.

‘We travel north-west where we hide and rest, tonight we will hit them and run, it is the beginning of our harassment as they move toward Sanctuary.’

Iguchi led the fallen angels two miles north-west until they reached fields of waist high grass, half slept while the other half practiced breathing exercises. Every two hours the guard changed until midnight, Iguchi wore a grim smile, he knew this would be their first test away from home, the fate of Sanctuary rested on how they acted tonight.

. . .

Iguchi sat as still as a rock in the middle of sea of grass, three miles away the combined army of the enemy had gathered by the lake. Through the sea of bodies, he saw tents erected as dusk fell. The fallen angels were going to wait until the dead of night before making their move, the tools needed for tonight lay at his feet.

He heard several angels creeping behind him and Michael said, ‘Master, we are coming to look.’

‘Is that my angels stomping through the grass? I thought a herd of wild animals were crashing through the trees.’

Six fallen angels sat with Iguchi watching the enemy and Iguchi spoke, ‘We are safe here, they have scouts to the west and the south. The wine is in the camp, we will let them know of the angels tonight.’

. . .

The moon shone high in the clear sky as the fires burned low in the enemy camp, the fallen angels had moved into position. Iguchi was thankful mist had rolled in from the lake, it was thin and waist high and helped conceal them.

Michael, Miles, and Benji crept towards a sentry who quietly whistled to himself, it was a legion soldier, a twig snapped and the whistling stopped peering to his left into the darkness.

Benji rose out of the mist behind the soldier, clamping a hand over his mouth, Miles and Michael rushed in and within seconds he was tied and gagged.

. . .

A few minutes later the legion soldier was tied in position, and the fallen angels were ready, Iguchi nodded to Benji, who took out a flint and removed the sentry’s gag. Michael brought a horn to his lips and blew a long single note, calls of alarm came from the camp.

. . .

A horn sounded in the middle of the night and Remus was instantly awake, coming out of his tent as the sound faded, soldiers and Symiaks were looking around in confusion. Then a fire lit the night two hundred yards east of the camp.

The sentry’s scream cut through the night as he was burned at the stake he was tied to, and at his feet was a small bonfire. Orders were called out, both man and Symiak raced to the burning man, while others were still scrambling from their tents. The legion soldiers were ready, but the Symiaks and kingdom soldiers were slow to react.

Legion soldiers reached the man throwing water over him when another horn sounded from the north, its sound hung in the air silencing the camp. A second later a man screamed desperately for mercy before another fire lit the night to the north of the camp.

This time it was a kingdom soldier whose legs were coated in lamp oil before being tied to the stake, this helped the flames climb his body, licking at his groin and stomach.

New orders were called out, both Symiaks and soldiers raced to the men on the stakes, within a minute both fires were out and the men cut from the stakes.

Both men were alive but badly burned, Remus had them brought into his tent, his head still swam with the effect from the wine found on the wagon. All of the top-ranking officers from the three armies drank from it and were equally affected. Remus cursed himself, this combined army was now without leaders.

Zachary stumbled through the flap of the tent following the injured men, Then the horn sounded once more. Rage flowed through Remus as he stormed out of the tent knocking Zachary to the ground in the process.

Remus cast a spell to amplify his voice, ‘Find them, I want search parties to the north, south and west, sentry patrols are to be tripled.’

The men and Symiaks who ran around without purpose or direction were now finding order, and he watched as different groups marched away from the camp.

Remus walked back into the camp as the red wizards and warlords stood over the two injured men who still screamed casting spells of healing, it was only then that he saw how serious the injuries were. Their legs and lower bodies had been cooked and blistered; no number of spells would help.

‘Remove their pain.” Remus said.

The red wizards cast more spells and both men became calm.

‘Tell me what happened.’ Remus said.

Both men told similar stories of camouflaged men rising from the mist to take them, they were gagged and tied to stakes, after the fires were lit, they did not see where the men went.

By the time they had finished Remus was furious, ‘How dare they attack our camp.’ He turned to Zachary, ‘Were you attacked this far from Sanctuary?’

Zachary shook his head, ‘They did not attack until we were in the forest.’

‘They will not catch us unprepared again.’ Remus snarled.

Remus looked down at the legion soldier, ‘You cannot recover from your burns, there can be no weakness in the legion.’

The soldier nodded with a blank expression and folded his hands across his chest, Remus’s hand shot out, and a thin beam of red light punched through his chest, he shuddered once before dying.

Zachary instantly became sober, ‘What did you do?’

‘I put him out of his misery.’ Remus said, staring at the king, ‘He would have died a long painful death, his screams would have lowered moral.’

Zachary shook his head, there must be some other way.’

‘There is no other way, now what of this one?’ Rems asked, turning to the kingdom soldier who shook with fear.

Zachary waved to the soldier, ‘Leave him, we will take care of him.’

Remus snapped his fingers, removing the pain-numbing spell, the soldier’s eyes widened before letting out screams that were louder than before. Zachary looked at Remus in shock as the warlord walked out of the tent. The screams cut through Zachary like a knife, he looked to a nearby legion soldier holding a dagger and nodded, the legion soldier walked over, and the screams stopped.

. . .

A patrol returned with a red bladed dagger with mud on the handle, the six legion soldiers stood to attention, while one held the dagger.

Remus came forward to inspect it, ‘Where did you find this?’

‘A few hundred yards east of the river.’

Remus looked at Redemption, ‘Take a hundred men in this direction for a few miles and then return.’ Then he turned to the other captains of the legion, ‘I want defensive lines at every other section of the camp.’

Once they had left Zachary walked up to Remus, ‘What are you doing?’

‘The men of Sanctuary have fooled us once, but it will not happen again, when they blew their horns and burned our men, we acted like scared animals running back and forth, this was how they wanted us to act.’

Zachary pointed to the dagger, ‘But they have left a clue.’

Remus shook head, ‘How do we know that if we look where they left the dagger, we will not be attacked from a different direction by a larger force?’

Zachary’s jaw dropped at hearing this, then he looked out into the darkness, searching for the possible army waiting in the shadows.

‘Everyone come with me.’ Remus said away from his tent.

Remus quickly spoke with the red wizards and the warlords for a moment before they broke away, ‘Let’s light up the sky.’

Remus shot his hand out sending a tiny ball of light toward the stars, this was followed by the red wizards and warlords, the balls reached their height and exploded, turning night into day.

The red wizards had gathered in a circle, holding out their hands as if they held a large bowl, then they chanted as small lights danced around them before shooting into the sky. As the balls of light exploded, they transformed into smaller ones that seemed to hang in the air before fading.

Zachary was transfixed as the balls of light exploded all around the camp, bathing the entire area in light, as the kingdom soldiers and Symiaks gasped in wonder.

‘They will not come here again tonight, in fear of being exposed to our light.’ Remus said.

. . .

Half an hour later Redemption returned with a half-eaten loaf of bread and a water skin, ‘These were found a mile and a half away to the east.’

Remus looked at Zachary, ‘What is to the east of this lake?’

Zachary thought for a moment before going pale and stepping back, ‘The Darkwood, they are headed that way.’

‘What is this Darkwood?’ Remus asked.

Zachary explained that this was where the druids had come from, where they live with monsters, then told of his encounter with the trolls in the woods.

Remus looked around, ‘We have many more men, we will follow them to this Darkwood, we will send the Symiaks to deal with any problems.’

Zachary nodded but he was not so sure, he understood the history of the kingdom, and knew that there was a lot more than just trolls in the Darkwood. He knew that Remus felt confident with the numbers, but he had not faced the creatures there.

They needed to sleep before morning came, but Zachary knew that after the events sleep would be hard to come by.