Supported by Sync's Rankan 3rd Commando renegades and less quotidian allieswraiths of the netherworld lent to the Band by Ischade, the necromant who lovedthe band's commander, Straton; Randal, the Stepsons' own staff enchanter; andZip's gutterbred PFLS rebels-they stormed gates once theirs at sunrise, naphthafireballs and high-torque arrows whizzing from crossbows in their hands.
By midmorning the rout was over, the whitewashed walls once meant to keep inslaves now bright with blood of ersatz Stepsons who'd betrayed theirmercenaries' oaths and now would pay the customary, ancient price.
For nonperformance was the greatest sin, the only error unforgivable, among themeres. And Sacred Banders, the paired fighters who cored the Stepsons unit whichhad spent eighteen months warring on Wizardwall's high peaks and beyond, couldnot forgive incompetence, nor cowardice, nor graft nor greed. The affront hadbrought the ten core pairs to Strat, their line commander and half a Sacred Bandpair himself, with ultimata: either the barracks was reclaimed, and purified,the honor and the glory of their unit restored so that Stepsons could once againhold their heads high in the town, or they were leaving- going up to Tyse tofind Tempus and lay before him their grievances.
So it was that Strat walked now among the slaughter within the barracks' outerwalls, among corpses burned past recognition and others disemboweled, amongwomen and children gutted for being where they had no right to be and housepetsslit from jaws to tails, their entrails already out at Vashanka's field altar ofhandhewn stones, ready to be offered to the god.