CHAPTER FOUR
A m******e of GumirenThere was a time when Parfyon Krivoshey of Nebesta would have been exhilarated at seeing an enemy army march straight at him. But no more. All he could think of now was the inevitable outcome: the bodies of pale-faced boys strewn around the field of battle. A sowing that would never reap a harvest.
That enemy army from the city-state of Negoda must have known the outcome as soon as it saw Nebesta’s warriors blocking their way across the valley. The fools. They had come in force down the nearly sheer walls of a natural amphitheater, never stopping for a moment. Down and down they came, an ever-increasing mass of men, until there was a roiling cauldron of spear-tips in the glen. Behind them—a wall of rock. Ahead of them, hidden among the trees—all of Nebes
