Crown of Stars (Crown of Stars 7)

Folk walked abroad, calling and crying in the half light. Soldiers marched toward the walls, fastening on thick leather coats as they hurried. One dropped his spear and got kicked for his pains as he stumbled back to pick it up.

“Move! Move!”

Goats bawled from a courtyard. A horse neighed, and was answered by other nags. All over the town, dogs set up a wild clamor, howling and barking and yipping as though their ears hurt them.

Stairs set into the wall had to be climbed, and her feet ached and her back complained, but she mounted them step by step without uttering a word. Falco walked two steps behind. On the wall walk the queen leaned out, staring south. Her cloak billowed in the dawn breeze lifting out of the southeast. She was alone, but as Antonia reached the walk, she saw Lord Alexandros pacing back from the corner tower; he was too far away for her to see his face. The queen was drawn and anguished, and she clutched Antonia’s hand as soon as the skopos drew near.

“What are we to do? What are we to do?”

“Hush, Your Majesty. You are overwrought.”

“Look!”

Look!

In ancient days the Enemy whispered in the hearts of men, and men listened to these lies and found themselves so swollen with vile cravings that they bred with animals. This congress engendered monsters so grotesque in form and hideous in spirit that God flensed the Earth with a vast and terrible storm to drive the beasts forever out of the mortal world. So was it written in the Holy Verses.

How the world had fallen! What was once banished by God’s pure and righteous power walked abroad again at the behest of the Enemy. The gates of the Pit had opened and disgorged foul creatures. No doubt they had crawled north out of the stinking wasteland that had once been the lush and bountiful plain of Dar.

“There are so many,” said Adelheid.

The monsters waited in silence. They wore armor and carried spears and swords and shields. Like animals, they strayed side to side, unable to hold firm ranks, but they walked on two feet in a mockery of humankind.

Alexandros swept up beside them. “I have a count obtained from a circuit of the walls. Fifteen centuries, more or less. In the old days I would call that a small force, easily beaten. If we arm every man in Novomo, we will outnumber them. They have miscalculated. They are too few.”

“What are they?” Adelheid asked.

“Monsters,” said Antonia. “Creatures of the Enemy. Abominations.”

“They’re human, wearing animal masks,” said Alexandros, squinting his eye as he surveyed the besieging force. “They don’t have numbers enough to hold a siege, so we should be able to send for help.”

“Who will help us?” Adelheid asked.

“Folk must rally to support their skopos,” said Antonia.

The sight of so many warped faces—even if they were masks—nauseated her. Her throat burned.

In front of the walls sprawled the corpses of folk who had tried to flee the onslaught but had not reached the gates in time.

o;HOLY MOTHER! I pray you! Wake up!”

The twilight had barely begun its transition toward day, so the servant held a lamp to lighten the gloom. Antonia did not scold her. Over the months she had bided in Novomo after the fall of Darre, she had purged her retinue of any servants who displeased her. Felicita would never disturb her without cause. They feared her, as all people must fear God and, thus, God’s holy representative on Earth.

“What news?” She had the knack of coming instantly alert, without confusion.

Felicita was holding the lamp close to her own face, and her startled, wide eyes and parted lips betrayed her anxiety.

“An ill wind,” added Antonia.

Felicita began to weep while struggling to speak. “I pray you, Holy Mother. I am so frightened!”

Too frightened to speak sensibly, the woman babbled of creatures with human bodies and animal heads, of a flashing wheel of gold, and of folk falling into a writhing, spitting death from the merest prick of a dart. Other servants, newly woken, brought robes and a belt and slippers and helped Antonia dress.

“Hush! Take me to the queen and her consort!”

Captain Falco appeared at the door to her suite and escorted her to Novomo’s proud gate, a legacy of ancient days when the old Dariyans had founded the city as, so the story went, an outpost along the road that led north over the mountains into barbarian country. The captain said nothing, and she asked no questions, preferring to see for herself. Felicita trailed after, coughing out sobs and heaving great sighs as she fought to control her fear.

The weak always panicked. They were chaff, fated to be cast to the winds.