Tanathos smiled. Victory is at hand.

Makrasha fought along the top of the wall against a pitiful force of defenders. Tanathos’ shadeleeches battled four sentinels who had only recently joined the fighting.

The sentinels clustered together and fought well as a team, but it wouldn’t be enough. The mighty defenses of the keep had trickled to nothing. That could only mean his halimaw had been successful. With the gerent out of the fight, victory was guaranteed.

As one defender leaped atop one of the battlements to knock over a ladder, Tanathos reached out with fingers of power and yanked the man off.

What a waste. He hated throwing away good souls, but war demanded so many sacrifices. Still, he would soon slaughter Antigonus, or what was left of him, in the heart of the mountain. Then he would have the time to properly destroy all the souls he wanted.

As was his right.

One of the sentinels stumbled onto the buckled stones of a weakened section of wall. Tanathos flung a bolt of crackling fire at another of them. Impressive to look at, it posed little real threat to the sentinels. It moved too slow and gave ample warning of its approach.

It wasn’t meant to kill. He nearly laughed when the fool dodged the bolt of fire and joined his companion on that weakened section of wall. The pitiful sentinels thought themselves so mighty, but he could make them dance to his will.

Time to finish it.

He threw out grasping tentacles of power that fastened onto the life forces of three makrasha slaves kneeling around him, and pulled. It took only a single heartbeat to drain their souls.

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Tanathos threw his head back in ecstasy, glorying in the influx of strength as the beasts shriveled to dry husks. The only thing sweeter was feeding on the life force of a true innocent, or ripping the soul out of an adversary. But this was good. So very good.

He laughed. This was true power. It was his right.

Tanathos pointed toward the buckled stones and unleashed the force of those three lives. A thick coil of magic, so black it sucked light out of the surrounding air, arced over his force and slammed into the base of the wall. It crawled up the wall, tracing the stones and sinking deep into its fractured joints.

Tanathos lifted his hands, then twisted them down, as if snapping a twig. The stones groaned and shifted. The groaning rose to a shriek, and the entire section of wall shattered.

Giant slabs of shaped granite exploded outward, raining onto his own troops and cascading down the slope. Borne along with the tumbling stone, the two sentinels were ground to bloody smears.

A billowing cloud of dust obscured the shattered wall for half a dozen heartbeats. Screams of pain and panic reverberated across the valley. Undulating in the breeze, the dust cloud clung to the sweating makrasha, forming a sticky mud on their hides. The dust finally parted to reveal a jagged crack two spans wide.

The wall was breached.

His laugh of victory died on his lips though as he glanced back at the battle in the town. The king’s forces were pushing his host back into the upper town, and soon soldiers would begin sweeping the horde before them. It did not matter. They had served their purpose.

It was the mounted force galloping toward the road to the keep that drew his attention. In their lead rode a white-robed sentinel.

Harafin!

A twinge of fear cracked his confidence, but he drove it away. Harafin would not win the day. Tanathos just needed a few minutes.

Pointing down the hill, he turned to the three shadeleeches still throwing magic at the defenders.

“Slow him. Take a hundred makrasha.” He nodded toward the blond-furred halimaw crouching next to Antigonus’ stretcher, licking its bloody flanks. “When you have his full attention, use the beast to kill him.”

Tanathos left them to their duty and spared a glance at Antigonus. The old sentinel barely lived. The front of his robe was blood-soaked, and thick crimson drops trickled off his sleeve.

Soon he would know true pain.

To half a dozen makrasha crouched nearby he commanded, “Guard him. Bring him when I call.”

He turned and strode toward the breach while his army overran the wall.