men already, maybe more.

They were twenty miles from Imperial City, and Imperial City had no walls. They needed a warning before this rampaging barbarian host set the capital of the Empire alight. They'd burst forth from beyond the Wall, torched farms and massacred villagers, and now... now, the legion could not stop them.

An arrow stuck Huric in the shoulder, but he made no sign of noticing. He heaved back his giant axe as his face reddened, and chopped a legionary clean in half. The torso hit the blood-soaked ground, and Masimo whimpered.

A spear pierced Huric's side and blood trickled down his bare white chest, but this only enraged him. He cried out and charged the legionary. Masimo called up the power of Wind, leapt, and let it carryas quickly as possible, and vanish into the night.

He peeked down the other end of the hallway. A guard with a similar pointed feather-plumed iron cap stood there. Perhaps they knew each other. They will meet soon in Hell.

Ducking against the wall, Marcellus soaked another swab with basilisk venom, then wiped it on the dagger. He charged, and within two seconds' time the dagger-blade was inside the guard's neck, and his other hand covered the mouth. He slumped to the ground and at last collapsed.

But chaos was breaking loose in the feasting hall. The family, dining on a first course of bread and grapes, had erupted into shouting. The head of the Lornodoris family—sitting on a raised dais with his much-too-young wife—was shouting obscenities, red-faced. As Marcellus sprang