Lavanyia gasped. “You speak heresy! There is no power greater than Zyung. Best mind your tongue, Panther.”
Ianthe laughed. “You have forgotten too much, Lavanyia. There are beings in this universe that even your High Lord Celestial respects and fears.”
“Will Iardu be able to harness such power?” Sungui asked. His tone did not display the hope that lurked in his breast. The more resistance Iardu provided to Zyung, the better for Ianthe’s plan. Lavanyia’s gaze was sharp as a dagger. She did not like Sungui’s question, despite the reality behind the Panther’s words.
A fresh sea wind tossed Ianthe’s white locks about her shoulders. Sungui ached to taste her red lips again, as he ached now every night and day. Gammir avoided Sungui’s male form, as Mahaavar had done. Sungui expected this with men. His male body was not attracted to other males, so why should they be attracted to him? Yet he had never met the male equivalent of Ianthe. Zyung was perhaps the closest he had found to her, and he had never considered the Almighty as a sexual being. Zyung kept no wife, harem, courtesan, or lover. His only love was his Living Empire.
“Iardu is bold and clever,” Ianthe admitted. “Yet his weakness is his affection for living things. It has ever been his undoing, and will be again.”
“Look!” Gammir raised his hand, pointing a bony finger at the legions in the valley. “They retreat!” He grinned, lupine incisors gleaming white as ivory in the sunlight.
The legion of Manslayers upon the Daystar’s deck raised spears and shields, cheering the victory of Zyung. On the surrounding dreadnoughts men did likewise, and the sounds of triumph spread across the bay to the outer ranks of ships. The defenders of the valley were broken, their Kings defeated, their sorcerers missing or captured, and their numbers decimated. Among the cheers floated the notes of distant war horns signaling retreat along the western ridge. Great bands of soldiery ran toward the river, abandoning heavy armor and weapons to swim or wade across it, while others bounded across on piles of waterlogged corpses.
A cadre of blue-skinned Giants ignored the retreat order. They were caught deep in the red madness and would not abandon its berserk pleasures. Or perhaps they sought to distract the sor cerers and Manslayers, giving their allies a better chance at escape. It made little difference. The flying Seraphim blasted them to bits, two and three at a time, while the eyes of the Almighty watched from on high. Zyung stood smaller now, but still he towered above the ruins and its multitude of dead.
Again the horns blew their desperate warning, a chorus of pleading voices.
Flee! Run! All is lost!
Men obeyed the call in droves, yet once more the blue Giants were more reluctant to abandon the valley. They charged entire companies of Manslayers, who withdrew and left them to the cruel mercy of the Seraphim. A dozen more Giants were burned to ash as Sungui watched.
The Almighty waved a great hand over the battleground. His voice rang deep and clear above the screams of dying men and the clamor of escaping legions.
“Let them go.”
The Seraphim in their bright globes fluttered about Zyung’s person once again. Now even the last of the Giants were fleeing the valley, wading across the river and pouring up the western slope. Zyung could have ordered his sorcerers to pursue and burn every last one of them to ashes. He chose instead to let thousands live when tens of thousands had died.
The battle was won. There was no need for further carnage this day.
These survivors would carry the tale of Zyung’s victory to Uurz and Udurum, and even to the rest of the Five Cities. Every village and town would know that the Conqueror had come to claim this half of the world. They would know his power, and they would fear it.
Sungui saw the brilliance of his strategy.
Gammir cursed and Ianthe chuckled.
Lavanyia sighed. “His Holiness is ever merciful.”
Sungui sensed Gammir holding his tongue. The Wolf’s appetite for blood was exceeded only by Ianthe’s. When he ruled these lands there would be no mercy at all. No enemies left alive to whisper of his power. Gammir could not see the wisdom of Zyung’s mercy because he understood only cruelty. This lack of understanding was his weakness. Sungui saw this now and realized why the Panther had so wholly dominated the Wolf.
Sungui observed the red valley and its blackened river. So much rotting flesh and mangled metal. The reek of decay already filled the evening air. Flocks of gulls and crows came to pick at the bloody remains. The valley and its ruins now belonged to Zyung. The Lesser Seraphim would spend the entire night burning away mounds of corpses to prepare for the building of a new Holy Mountain.
The sun was a swollen red eye spilling its blood in the west. The world itself had been bloodied by the day’s battle. Purple darkness rose in the east and crept forward.