Desiccate

“There’s no news from the stronghold!”

It was a piercing thought from the higher-ups as I closed my fingers around empty air. Vampires, clustered like a swarm of mosquitos, froze in a wide circle around me. Fingers like claws, faces jittering with shock, they stood as I magically grasped their hearts.

Beneath me, my beastly mount and brother, Bruno took a step back. Some vampires attempted a measured step with us. Most failed to. With cracking rips, their hearts wrenched from their chests. Each hung suspended in midair, each squished like a rotted fruit, and corpse fluid dripped like spoiled jam. Near-thirty vampire corpses hit the rocky slopes, flopping like ragdolls and I winced. Finally they stilled. Dead for good.

May Luna have mercy on whatever’s left of their souls.

I released my fingers and the hearts fell like a squelching hail.

“My century can investigate the breakdown in communication,” I informed my superior, my Tribune. “We can depart to the stronghold at once.”

“Go,” she impressed upon me as she directed a rock golem to crush the enemy.

“Century,” I thought, and Authority brought my voice to the forefront of my soldiers’ minds. All one-hundred sparked, alert. “Form up. Return to the stronghold.”

A few contubernium, subsquads of ten, paved our escape, their Decanus managing them in adherence with my strategy. Beasts heaved up the mountainside, sides heaving beneath their riders’ legs, their long forelegs reaching and grasping rocky outcroppings. The rest shored up the rear. Silver weaponry glinted triumphantly through the darkness, sizzling as Battlers sliced open enemy flesh as Mage’s spells, misty curtains of magic, held the enemy still. Before injured vampires could recover, the Beasts descended, decapitating with skull-crushing jaws.

“Bruno,” I prompted.

My mount turned, barreling after the front-runners.

“What’s going on?” he wondered.

“No news from the stronghold,” I repeated, “Roving enemy taking out scouts, if I had to guess.”

Bruno’s lips peeled back, “They can’t get through the boundary so they’re getting mad.”

Wordlessly, I agreed.

Yet as my soldiers barreled home, their lives each a flickering flame through the thicket of pitch night around us, apprehension sunk like a stone into my gut. In the week previous, we’d similarly lost contact with our satellite sites across the world. One by one, they’d gone radio-silent. Just as our communications were now. Yet here we should be able to close the distance. The stronghold wasn’t half a world away from the battle. It was mere kilometers. Runners should easily close the distance, making up for the limited range of telepathy.

“You think this fight is connected,” Bruno thought grimly.

The entire Century tensed.

“I’m certain,” I affirmed, feeling the awareness of the battlefield dim and disappear as we sprinted out of range, “Be prepared.”

Fear spiked across minds like porcupine quills.

Calm is the mind, calm is the Spirit, I instructed.

“Approaching the boundary!” Valentina called across telepathy.

I frowned. Below us, the valley sprawled like a wrinkle in a quilt with grassy slopes still plush from summer. It was still. Our passage cracked the deathly silence.

“Wasn’t that the frog pond?” Bruno asked, glancing at a pert glassy mirror of water nestled in the slopes below us. “We’re in the boundary now, right?”

The stone of dread in my gut drew cold with horror.

“We should’ve felt it,” I realized, staring wildly behind us at the range, tracing the invisible line of the boundary with my eyes. At least, where it should’ve been. “The boundary spell has fallen.”

The cold frost of terror spread out into my Century, particularly as lethal mint wafted toward us from the sprawling township. From our home.

“Be on guard,” I ordered, fingers gripping the coarse tufts at Bruno’s withers. As we approached the centuries-old drawbridge that marked the city’s entrance, the resounding silence continued. None of the city guard were linked. “The enemy has infiltrated the stronghold.”

It was wrong. All of it. It was required protocol to remove battle attire before entering civilian centers. And we were certainly required to detransform. A Beast prowling our cobblestone roads felt taboo. Yet the shifting darkness in glazed windows and the breathless, ghostly movement in the edge of my hearing that was most unnerving.

“We’re walking into a trap,” I scowled, standing just within the gates. Soldiers’ eyes roved the stone storefronts graced by curved, Juliette balconies. “The enemy is lying in wait.”

“We should flee,” one of my Decanus advised.

“Our partners, our children live here!” someone protested.

“They’re dead,” Momma seconded and the soldier’s mind spiraled with agony. “Our enemy has concealed kills by dragging victims into homes. They’re trying to lure us in.”

Sure enough, the low tang of iron was muted. Momma was right.

Renzo and Alberto, I thought grimly, my eyes prickling with grief at the thought of my non-combatant cousins.

“Centurion! Centurion! Reinforcements, please, the civilians, the vault is-!”

As quickly as the mental voice had entered the dynamic, it vanished.

“Hold,” I called aloud as beasts leaned toward the call.

“One of the city guard?” I wondered, head whipping toward the township’s center where I’d heard it originate. Why hadn’t we linked up with him sooner? We’d been well-within range. My eyes widened in horror: they’d left him alive, but damaged, until we’d returned. He’d been bait. I mentally made the call: “The city is overrun. We need our main forces if we’re to retake it. Retreat-“

Shocked yowls rose up from behind us and the rear guard surged forward. Staring into the night behind us, I saw the pressure. Vampires flanked by surging demon smoke, funneled down into the valley, flushing us into the city.

“No way out but through,” I gritted my teeth. “Cluster up; we’ll run past the vault to see who we can salvage. Mages and Witches watch for attacks from buildings above. Beasts and Battlers, clear our way.”

But I’d already made the gravest error: I’d allowed us to be herded like cattle through a chute. No matter which escape we chose now, my subordinates would be slaughtered.