Meta Gods War 3 by B. Miles (the ebook reader txt) 📕

this is the perfect opportunity to get you all experience. There’s a fight coming, and there won’t be a single one of you that’ll avoid it, not if you stay close to me. I won’t promise you’ll survive, but I will promise that you’ll die for the right reasons, which is better than most can ask for.”

“Our lives for the shaman,” Arter barked, his eyes burning with passion.

Cam nodded to him. “Good,” he said and turned his back to the men, his personal guard, the men that he’d trust with his very life.

He didn’t know half of them. But Arter’s fanaticism convinced him.

“Fall in,” Theus said. “Let’s move out.”

Cam marched to the Mansion’s entrance. The plateau spread out before them. Dust blew in through the opening in waves. Boots echoed off hard stone and the wagon began to roll in slow groans.

“Stop right there!” A voice broke across the space and the lockstep march faltered.

Cam watched as ranks of armored men spilled from a side door. They wore the bronze plate of the heavy infantry. Cam tried to find Captain Brice in their midst but couldn’t see her distinctive plumed helmet or her long flowing hair.

He didn’t recognize these men.

“Stop right there,” the voice said again. There were fifty of them and only twenty in Cam’s ragtag group. Even if their numbers were even, Cam’s men wore old stinking light leathers and wouldn’t have a chance against a heavily armored and better trained force.

Cam held up a hand and the group slowed. The armored men filled the hall, spread out, and locked shields. They came forward and stopped ten feet away from Cam’s group. He moved through his, Theus on his heels, and stepped into the zone between the two groups.

“What’s going on here?” Cam asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

“By order of the Lord of this Mansion, you are not allowed to leave the walls of the mountain.” A man wearing heavy armor stepped forward, his hand gripping the pommel of his sword. His helmet was off and tucked under his off-arm.

Cam recognized him. The man’s name was Vogen. Dark brown eyes, swept back black hair, puffy cheeks and a square jaw. He looked more like a cave Troll than a Human, and Cam wondered about his ancestry.

“The Lord of the Mansion doesn’t have that authority,” Cam said. “This is my army, and I’m taking them out.”

“You do not have any such right,” Vogen said. “The Lord demands—”

“This is absurd,” Theus said. “You know the Elder council put Cam in charge of the army, don’t you?”

“My Lord says otherwise.” Vogen gave them a stinking grin. Half his teeth were crooked.

“Your Lord can say whatever he wants,” Theus said. “Your Lord doesn’t matter.”

Vogen stepped forward. “You will stand down,” he said. “You will return to your rooms and await further orders.”

“We won’t do that,” Cam said. “You know that’s not going to happen.”

“Good.” Vogen sneered at them then pressed his helmet over his blocky skull. “I hoped that would be your answer.”

Cam felt his pulse quicken as Vogen stepped back into formation with the rest of his heavy infantry. He felt his men fall into their own battle lines.

But Cam couldn’t let this come to a fight. He barely held onto his legitimacy as it was. If he let this go too far, the very thing Galla tried to avoid would come to pass. The Mansion would break out into a bitter civil war and the wolves would sweep in through the front, killing them all.

He couldn’t allow those men to attack.

Cam reached for his power. He wanted to cook them in their armor, turn them all to ash. But that wouldn’t be much better.

Instead, he swept a hand forward. A line of fire leapt from his outstretched palm and filled the air between the two groups. He held that wall of flame, raised it up, and made it deep enough so that any man who dared step forward would cook in a matter of moments.

“Theus,” Cam said through clenched teeth.

“What’s the plan?” Theus asked, stepping back with his arms raised to ward off the heat.

Cam saw a moment of panic in his friend’s eyes.

“Take Arter and the guard,” he said. “Go forward with the plan.”

“But—”

“Go,” Cam said. “I’ll keep them here. Take Arter, find the wolves, and report back as soon as you can.”

“Remorn can’t get away with this.”

Cam nodded once. His eyes were flint. His jaw felt like a willow tree.

“He won’t,” Cam said. “Now, get moving.”

Theus turned away from the flames and began to bark orders. Cam saw the men hesitate. Arter stepped forward to argue, but Cam stared back at the men and waved them off. He saw the frustration in their eyes, but Arter seemed to understand.

He’d make a fine guard Captain one day.

Theus got the men turned around and marched them to the door. Cam heard yelling from the heavy infantry, but when they tried to split off and head around Cam’s wall of flames, Cam simply made it larger. Sweat dripped down his back. Muscles tensed in his arms. When the heavy infantry shifted, he swayed with them.

Theus disappeared out the main entrance with Cam’s men.

When they were far enough, Cam dropped the fire. He took heavy breaths and sucked in blackened air. The stone glowed red where he’d placed the fire, and steam rolled lazy arcs up into the air.

“You’ll answer for this,” Vogen shouted at him from across the glowing red line.

Cam didn’t answer. He turned from the men and walked toward the far side of the entrance hall, toward a series of tunnels. He saw some heavy infantry men try to come forward, but the residual heat from the fire kept them at bay.

Several Wardens were gathered in a cluster nearby. He caught looks but couldn’t read them.

His mind was too twisted by Need to care as he swept back toward his rooms.

11

Galla sprawled out on the bed. Her skin glowed with sweat. Her hair spread out like