In a few minutes, the tents and cloth houses had burned away, leaving only scattered campfires and a few smoldering tatters of cloth. I dragged myself forward, feeling, as usual, helpless. The mass of my soldiers followed behind me. Even Vimr looked grim.
“Wait!” Dakar’s voice came loud and sharp from the fluttering darkness of the ruined camp.
I stopped, but fifty of my soldiers either didn’t hear or didn’t care over their insurmountable thirst, and charged past me towards the water.
The huge, white form of Gre’pa, red and violet under the Eye, surged from the darkness beyond the dying fires and lunged over the smoking tatters of a collapsed tent. I could make out the silhouette of Dakar standing on the creature’s shoulders, pulling on the chains. His face in the flickering light of th
