With its seemingly endless arable land, Fort Rizon was more populous by far than Krasia, but Rizonan men were not warriors, and they fell before Jardir's trained ranks like grass before the scythe.

With a roar, six thousand dal'Sharum warriors poured into the city.īefore the Rizonans even knew what was happening, the Krasians were upon them, kicking in doors and dragging the men out of their beds, hurling them naked into the snow. There were a few brief grunts as the Watchers subdued the guards in the gatehouse, and then a creak as the city gates opened wide to admit Jardir's host. When dawn's light began to fill the sky, they lowered their veils, that their enemies might see their faces. Men did not attack other men in the night. They gathered before the city, but the veiled warriors did not attack immediately. Even corelings gave berth to so many Holy Warriors on the move. As the greenlanders cowered behind their wards, the Krasians had braved the demon- infested night to advance. The advance guard of Jardir's elite warriors had come under cover of darkness, thousands of sandaled feet crunching the fallow, snow- covered fields surrounding the city proper.

'People so weak and negligent deserve to be conquered,' Hasik said. The Watchers didn't even need their steel-shod ladders most simply leapt to catch the lip of the tiny wall and pulled themselves up and over. Barely ten feet high and only one thick, the entire city's defenses were less than the meanest of a Damaji's dozen palaces.

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett