byIt was a good day to die.
Like all warriors Naaiko accepted her own death before going into battle. Accepting death was the key to victory, an escape from the chains of self-preservation that spawned cowards, weaklings, and victims. To embrace death meant that she no longer feared to die. A warrior with no fear of death was the most effective and dangerous killer of men.
Naaiko planned to kill many men today.
The warband sat in a ring of silence about the Holy Flame, dreaming of death. Ongi passed the bowl of pigments from hand to hand. Practiced fingers scrawled warpaint on placid faces. Naaiko painted a black stripe across her eyes and another across her lips. The singing began as the shaman came dancing from his hut. The feathers and scales of spirit animals hung about his chest an
