Two weeks of hard riding found Damien and the others at the edge of the northern army’s war camp. Hundreds of tents sprawled along the length of a river valley. A cloud of wood smoke rising from the camp made a dark gray day even darker, so many fires burned to keep the regular warriors warm. The scent of burning pine reached them even from a mile away.

He felt bad for them, huddled around their fires, trying to keep warm while they waited for an eight-foot-tall monster to try to take their heads off. The only good thing about a winter camp was it kept the stink to a minimum.

Damien and his companions only bothered with a fire when they set up camp to enjoy a hot meal. Both warlords and sorcerers could keep themselves warm through the use of soul force. The warlords sped up their metabolism to generate heat, and Damien simply heated the surrounding air to a temperature he found comfortable. It took such a tiny portion of his power he didn’t think twice about the effort.

The other squads had fallen a day behind as they didn’t have Damien to create a road above the snow for them to ride on. They had to resort to forcing their horses to plow through ever-deeper drifts of snow the farther north they went. If the other members of Jen’s squad hadn’t already gotten to like him, the fact that he could keep them out of the snow would have made him their best friend.

The squad reined in at a checkpoint half a mile out from the camp. “Halt and name yourself.” What Damien had initially thought was a snowman spoke and raised a snow-covered spear.

Jen urged her mount a little closer, forcing Damien to extend his platform so her horse wouldn’t sink in up to its knees like the unfortunate soldier. “I’m Jennifer St. Cloud and this is my squad, reporting as ordered.”

The guard lowered his spear. “Where are the rest of the squads and how is your horse standing on top of the snow?”

“The others are about a day behind us and my brother’s a sorcerer.”

Damien waved at the guard. The poor snow-covered guy just stared at him. Perhaps he’d never seen a sorcerer before.

“Can we go?” Jen asked. “I imagine General Kord is anxious for us to report in.”

The guard scrambled out of their way and waved them through. They rode past the still-staring guard. Damien smiled at him as he rode his conjured horse past, but got no reaction. On closer inspection Damien guessed the guard was about his age and someone had probably assigned him to guard their rear line to keep him away from the fighting. He always knew John’s father was a good guy and this was more proof of it.

They reached the first of the tents and Damien let his portable road vanish. Some unfortunate had shoveled the area down to the dirt allowing them to move around without trudging through snow. Jen led them toward the center of camp where a tent twice the size of Damien’s quarters back at the tower waited, a flag with a snow-covered mountain crossed with a claymore flapping in the breeze above it. Was the duke in camp or was he leaving it to General Kord?

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When they arrived, two young men standing outside the command tent rushed over to collect their horses. Damien waved them off and reabsorbed the energy from his mount. The pages were younger than Damien, but they didn’t give the squad a second look. Stationed outside the command tent they probably saw all sorts of unusual people come and go. The boys led the horses off to the temporary stable.

Jen brushed the tent flap to one side and led the way in. A huge table covered with a map of the Northlands dominated the central chamber of the tent. General Kord stood beside it, talking with a soldier who dripped on the floor as the snow melted off his uniform, and adjusting the positions of models representing the Ice Queen’s troops. Jen, Damien, and the rest of the squad stood with their hands clasped behind their backs, waiting for the general to finish with what Damien assumed was a scout.

Finally the scout bowed to the general and brushed past them back out into the cold. General Kord noticed them standing by the tent flap and smiled. “Jennifer, and Damien too, this is a pleasant surprise. Come in, come in, no need to be so formal.”

They approached the map and bowed. John’s father was a big, broad-shouldered man, with a thick beard, dark hair and hard green eyes. He looked nothing like his son, who very much favored his mother. The general came around to their side and hugged Jen when she straightened. He shook hands with Damien and nodded to the rest of the squad.

“Reporting for duty, sir,” Jen said.

“I wasn’t sure your father would send you. Well, I guess everyone’s got to fight their first war sometime.” The general turned to Damien. “Where’s your mentor? You were a year behind John so you can’t be acting alone yet.”

“I was visiting Jen and tagged along. I can’t seem to find a mentor and we did good work together this summer, so I thought I could lend a hand.”

“I heard. Killed a demon, impressive. Still, you’d best report to the sorcerers’ commander after we finish here. I wouldn’t want to step on her toes.”

Damien nodded. He’d check in, but whatever the woman said, he had no intention of letting his sister face whatever was waiting out there without him.

“What’s the situation, sir?” Jen asked.

General Kord returned to the map and the rest of them gathered around. He pointed out two model ogres a few miles north of the kingdom’s border. “They’ve divided their army. Half will attack through Frozen Hell pass and the other half are climbing up and over an ice ridge here. We have to defend the pass, but we need to keep enough men in reserve to handle the force climbing the ridge.”

Jen pointed at another gap in the mountains. “What about this one?”

“We’ve seen no activity in the middle gap. My guess is they’re trying to spread us out. That’s a new trick. Maybe the dragon isn’t as stupid as we hoped. This is the first time she’s divided her army, usually they try to overwhelm us with numbers at one of the passes.”

“What’s our assignment going to be?” Jen asked.

General Kord pointed at six white circles ten miles behind the enemy’s line. “Our sorcerers spotted these supply depots while long range scouting. Food and weapons are gathered there before going on to the monsters on the front line. I want your squad to destroy them. I don’t know if it’ll slow them down much, the ice trolls fight with their claws anyway, but if we can eliminate their food supply it might make them desperate enough to make a mistake.”

“Understood. When do we leave?”

“It’s too late in the day to go now,” the general said. “Why don’t you find a tent, get a hot meal and a good night’s sleep, and head out first thing in the morning.”

“Yes, sir,” Jen said. “Where might we find an empty tent?”

“I have no idea. Ask the pages out front, one of them can help you.”

“Where are the sorcerers camped?” Damien asked. He wanted to get the meeting over with so he could focus on the task at hand.

“When you go out take a right and go until you see the big blue tents. That’s them.”