The townspeople gathered around Winston’s motionless form worriedly. He was lying on a salvaged blanket, using a small sack of flour as a pillow in a clearing on the edge of town. Most were unconcerned that the remains of their homes were still smouldering around them, though some, led by Ogden were combing the wreckage to see what could be salvaged, while Nathan’s men were standing guard over the road leading up the mountain.

“He’s coming to,” Steph gasped as Winston’s eyes fluttered open.

“Give him some room,” Nathan snapped as the others huddled closer.

“I suppose I worried all of you,” the innkeeper murmured weakly.

“How do you feel?” the dragon man ventured.

“Weak,” Winston croaked. “But I think I’ll live.”

“That is a good sign,” the dragon man mused as he looked off into the distance. “It means that the number of Her followers has decreased.”

“Will he die if no followers remain?” Steph asked worriedly.

“I don’t know,” the dragon man replied curtly, and Louis had the impression that he didn’t much care either way.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Winston grunted as he struggled to sit up right. “I owe all of you an explanation, and an apology.”

“I already took the liberty of telling them about your sordid past,” Nathan piped up. “The children said you’d agreed to tell them, and I thought I’d spare you from having to do it yourself.”

Winston’s face fell as he looked at the people around him. “So, now they know.”

“I can’t say things won’t change between us,” Greg began as he rubbed his head. “But we still regard you as family.”

There were murmurs of approval from the others and Franklin piped up. “I’d say you owe us a round of drinks after what happened.”

Winston’s eyes widened as he surveyed the destruction of the town. “Oh of course I’ll pay for everything you’ve lost.”

“I’m afraid most of your silver’s melted, boss,” Steph said, shooting the dragon man a dirty look. “It might cost a fair bit salvaging that.”

“Oh,” Winston blinked. “I suppose I still have a fair bit squirrelled away with Carson…”

His musings were interrupted by the arrival of Ogden, whose face was etched with concern. “There are people are coming up the mountain.”

The townspeople murmured worriedly, and looked to the dragon man, who asked, “More heretics?”

“I don’t know,” Ogden replied. “But they appear to be soldiers and are carrying a banner at their head.”

“What banner?” Nathan asked sharply.

Ogden shrugged. “They’re too far away to see.”

“Well you can all relax,” the lanky man sniffed. “They should be friendly.”

“Could they be your long awaited reinforcements?” Louis ventured.

“It’s possible,” Nathan conceded. “But they would have made very good time in getting here if it’s them.”

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With help from Louis and Steph, Winston sat upright and looked at Nathan. “They’ll want to meet with me, whoever they are, won’t they?”

Nathan nodded. He helped Winston to his feet and lowered his voice. “You could just let them come to you.”

Winston shook his head. “If they’re marching under a banner, I get the feeling that I should be the one to meet them.”

‘I suppose you have a point there,” Nathan conceded as he put Winston’s arm around his shoulder.

Together, the pair made slow progress through the ruined town. They were followed in silence by Louis, Steph, and the rest of the townspeople until they reached Nathan’s men who had built a makeshift roadblock across the road.

“Your ‘boys’ are not very well armed,” Winston observed, noting that they were armed with spears and crude bows. One or two wore crude leather armour on their chest, but most were dressed as common townspeople.

“They were blending in with the people in the town below,” Nathan pointed out. “You can’t really call this lot soldiers.”

“You’ll hear no argument from me,” a squat man with a bandaged head remarked. “You really put us through the wringer this time.”

“There’ll be fat bonus in it for you, Nick,” Nathan winked.

The squat man raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you were skint.”

Nathan looked down the mountain and shrugged. “Our boss is coming. Maybe he’ll throw some money our way after he’s seen the bang up job we’ve done.”

Nick looked back at the burnet out remains of the town and shook his head. “Well, I can appreciate your optimism.”

Then, something occurred to the squat man, and the colour drained from his face. “Wait, our boss? You mean…”

“That’s right,” Nathan grinned. “I hope you’ve practiced your grovelling.”

Winston looked down the road and saw the gold dragon’s head fluttering proudly on a red, gold tasselled banner at the head of the procession of over a hundred men who were clad in steel armour that glittered under the evening sun. Riding next to the banner was a man wearing gold armour and rode on a horse of pure white.

“That’s him, eh?” Winston said. “He looks just like his father.”

“That he does,” Nathan agreed. “Just a word of warning, he doesn’t like being compared to him.”

“I don’t blame him,” Winston remarked.

As the procession drew nearer, Winston and Nathan dropped to a knee. A moment later, Nathan’s men and the townspeople did the same, bewildered at who the visitor was. Only the dragon man remained standing, though he bowed his head deferentially as the armoured soldiers quickly fanned out to form a cordon around the townspeople while another helped the man wearing the golden armour down from his horse. He was a handsome man of around thirty, possessing short cropped blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.

“It’s been a while, Weaver,” he remarked. The face of a snarling dragon had been etched into his armour’s chest, and a strange green longsword hung from his hip.

“Your Grace, you honour me with your presence,” Winston said as he raised his head to look at the king of Carthus in the eye. “My how you’ve grown.”

“I came as soon as I heard,” the king remarked. He then surveyed the town before turning back to Winston. “Alas, it seems I was too late.”

“Fortunately we had one of Barylon’s Children with us,” Winston said, gesturing to the dragon man, who nodded perfunctorily.

“He certainly was… thorough,” the king remarked.

“It is dangerous to let even a single heretic escape,” the dragon man replied.

The king nodded thoughtfully. “So, Weaver, what will you do now?”

“I would like to stay here and rebuild,” Winston replied at once. “If these good people would continue to have me.”

The king raised an eyebrow and looked at the townspeople who kept their heads bowed in fear. “And are you, the good people of Chalybe happy to have him?”

For a while, no one dared reply, but at length, Ogden managed to mumble, “We do, Your Grace.”

The king nodded. “Good. Then I will permanently station a garrison of a hundred men at the foot of this mountain in case of future attacks.”

Winston’s eyes widened. “That’s very generous, Your Grace.”

“In addition to that, I will fully finance the rebuilding of this town,” he added.

Louis’ jaw dropped, and in the corner of his eye, he could see that the other townspeople were looking at the king in shock.

“My king, I don’t know what to say,” Winston said, bowing his head. “That is…”

“You deserve all of that and more,” the king smiled. “Now, I’m afraid I must return to Estos at once. I’ll leave some of my men here to ensure that your people are looked after.”

The townspeople knelt in silence as the king climbed back onto his horse and departed with most of his men in tow. Once they had disappeared from view, Winston slowly got to his feet and turned around to face the others when they surged forward and mobbed him.

“Was that really the King of Carthus?” someone demanded.

“Will he really cover the costs of rebuilding the town?” someone else asked.

Franklin jumped for joy. “This is wonderful, my house was falling apart!”