I stood at the top of the rickety tower of Kauku fort and surveyed the expanse of dark water and deep forests before me. The Tamsi would arrive to the small ke from a narrow strait, while our side retained some space to manoeuvre. The hill on which Kauku stood was fnked by patches of deceptively soggy marsh in all directions save the shore. Rest of the surrounding nd consisted of thick spruce forest, which veiled the uneven terrain too wet and rocky for either farms or pasture.

  The six cannon, which had been dragged to the fort, could extend their deadly influence to the mouth of the strait. Of course, that was without a serpentist's touch. I left the most experienced of the Issoan serpentists --a hoary wild-eyed commander Piise-- to lead the small detachment at the fort and returned to my ship.

  On the morning of the second day at Kauku, an unfamiliar boat appeared in view. In the early afternoon, Tamsi ships began to pour into the strait, but no further.

  The Tamsi fleet numbered almost twice that of ours, and the ships themselves averaged significantly bigger with perhaps triple the oars. To add to my woes, the foreign mercenaries and hardened Tamsi soldiers would be better equipped than us. I could only hope the mercenaries were disinclined to wear their heavy armour in a battle over water.

  Brave men like mine always had a chance, and I said as much in my speech. Most of my soldiers weren't close enough to hear my words, so it was only necessary that I sounded confident, as I yelled at the prow of Hierodule.

  After acknowledging that, yes, the Tamsi had an advantage in numbers, I told them that it mattered not, as our ancestors fought with us. The Tamsi would die for their distant tyrant and the fear of his sh. The Ekrans struggled for freedom and for the safety of their families. Any veterans would be familiar with the drivel, but perhaps they'd assume the motif was traditional instead of unimaginative.

  At the end, I promised that anyone, who died with sufficient glory, would be whisked to a blessed afterlife. There their souls would be purified from the dross of sin and shackles of desire. Might as well. Nobody would be able to cim contrawise with any confidence.

  A roar carried over the ke, as Kauku fort shot its cannon. Save for one shell, which ignited the deck of a small ship too forward, our projectiles struck the water in front of the Tamsi fleet.

  I held my breath, as I waited for the Tamsi reaction. They might think that with their numerical advantage they would be able to handle a few cannon raining fire on them. Out of necessity, I had counted on their fleet being too precious to be spent so frivolously.

  It turned out I had anticipated the Tamsi correctly. Several of their ships moved to the shore and began unloading soldiers on the side with the fort. The strait became clogged with half-beached vessels.

  The steel shone on the Tamsi soldiers between the trees. Like ants they filled the wooded shore and swarmed to the swamp separating them from the fort.

  I gave the command to advance. As Hierodule unfurled its sails, the cannon on the hill thundered again. This time the shells hit in midst of the tightly packed Tamsi ships. Commander Piise truly had the touch of raging fire.

  The Tamsi troops on the shore picked up pace. Just as they stepped on the hungry wetness of the marsh, swift shapes of rge beasts burst from the shadows of the treeline. My cavalry appeared to harass the infantry ranks with bow and spear.

  At my command, Hierodule dropped anchor in the middle of the ke near the swampy shore. Our onboard cannon, bows and handguns greeted the Tamsi soldiers. Through the hail of iron and lead, the foemen advanced with apparent determination.

  The haunted bck ships rowed past Hierodule. With a wild cheer they surged towards to buy me time with their zeal and lives. In a sickening rumble of splintering wood, they smashed into the advancing enemy ships.

  More of our ships with guns and bowmen lined around Hierodule. Shots from the Tamsi cannon whined around us, bellowing fme when they hit one of our decks. Masts splintered, and many a vessels caught fire or began to take water. The air was a stinging soup of brimstone and smoke.

  An imposing war galley pushed through the bck ships, the polished bronze of its brow shattering pnks reinforced with ancient spells. Soon it was joined by others, and more of our vessels were forced to engage in hand-to-hand, in which our lightly equipped troops were at disadvantage.

  Despite the storm of missiles, the enemy infantry on the shore reached the base of the hill. Soon enough the fort would be taken, and its cannon turned at us.

  "Do it now, commander," I whispered.

  And he did. The monstrous explosion rocked the ships on the water. Even I flew off my feet. Kauku fort had turned into a majestic bonfire, worthy the glory of my Father.

  Thus denied an advantageous position, the Tamsi troops on the shore were out of the battle. I stumbled up, lifted Kkki and shouted the command to ram into the fray.

  Many men died, both by me and for me.

  Ships, their crews massacred and exhausted, disengaged from the battle and withdrew like limping beasts. Fighting ended for the day.

  The tired red Sun peeked between the horizon and the bck cloud-cover above us. The breeze indicated a storm was growing to challenge any bsphemers.

  Yet our enemy hadn't needed their gods. Looking at the ragged fleet around me, it was clear the Tamsi had had the better of the fighting. The only thing, which had saved us, was the ck of room to properly surround our forces.

  Our defeat was not inscribed in the annals of history just yet. The enemy had lost major portion of their heavy infantry in their disastrous assault on the shore. Though they had more ships, many of them would be crewed solely by rowers and cowards.

  I sat at the stern deck and sung iron to undo its wrath, as I cradled Sulme's head on my p. During the worst of the fighting, he had been hit by an arrow to the hip. The fool cimed that he was alright despite the obvious pain he squirmed in. Because his armour had stopped the arrow from penetrating further than the bone, I almost believed him.

  "The Vonir have sent a message," said a man in the war council, whose name I had forgotten. "The terms for our surrender."

  I gred at the man. "What does it say?"

  The councillor hesitated. Though darkness tightened its grip, I could see the fear on the man's face. The craven expression didn't suit the blood on his armour. "That all who leave will be absolved of any bme. They only want to capture the... 'possessed abomination, who so cruelly burned the innocent freedy of Issoan March'."

  I kept my ugh inside. Regardless of the wording, a pardon like that was uncharacteristic. It might have been a sign of desperation... Unlikely considering the situation. A calcuted move then.

  If the rumours of a pardon spread, a rge part of my fleet might use the midnight to make their escape. To balk from so much death was understandable. The bloodletting had been fierce even for the stomach of seasoned soldiers.

  The councillor had presented the terms with a hidden plea to me. He asked me to surrender, so the rest could live. I swallowed my anger, before it turned into fire.

  I couldn't show myself to be unreasonable or uncaring of the suffering of my soldiers. They had fought valiantly, more so than I had expected of them.

  Of course, my surrender would save none of them. Should our forces disband, the Tamsi were free to hunt us down at their leisure. To my brave Issoans, who had been shaken by the day-long battle, the truth wouldn't be so damned obvious. Perhaps they believed the Vonir had mercy for those they deemed their subjects.

  I leaned down and gave Sulme's lips a sloppy upside down kiss. I whispered: "I love you."

  Sulme stared at me, baffled and possibly dazed from the burned wine he drank for the pain. I gently moved his head off my p and stood up.

  "Go fetch me a boat," I commanded the councillor.

  The man flinched as if from a blow. "You will surrender?"

  "No. I shall negotiate in the only tongue the Tamsi heed."

  Sulme struggled to sit. He failed and let out a short whimper of agony. I knelt and pressed his chest down.

  "You need to rest, captain," I said.

  For long heartbeats our eyes locked. Physical pain turned into mental anguish in Sulme's expression. We both knew, I wouldn't return.

  "I won't abandon you, Teissa," he insisted.

  "And you will not." I uncsped Kkki's sheath from my weapon belt and put the weapon next to Sulme. "I need you to take this to my family. The human one."

  Kkki was a fine sword but had little true importance. Sulme needed a duty, for an excuse to remain and to help work through the inevitable grief.

  Before Sulme could try to sit up again, I reached down and held his head against mine. The man drew sharp inward breaths, and I didn't remain entirely composed myself.

  Through slow synchronised breaths, we managed to calm each other.

  "I love you," Sulme whispered.

  I smiled and let go off him.

  The Nilkoan took as authoritative position as a lying man could have and bellowed: "What are you tarrying for? The dy wanted a boat."

  Everyone within hearing distance burst into motion, even if they didn't have anything useful to do.

  I held Aanu in my hand and stood on the small boat. While taking off my armour, I had gifted my witchlock pistol to my page. Despite the day's horrors, the youth had managed to show certain grim enthusiasm. He'd have to find his own fire, though. Aanu was mine.

  The calm waters ignored the dead tainting it. Some of those souls still obeyed my heed. I didn't need oars to move my boat towards the Tamsi ships.

  I kept my posture straight, even though tears wetted my cheeks. I needed to show imperturbable confidence to those, who watched the small fire slip across the gloomy ke.

  Angry red embers lingered in the ruins of Kauku fort. It was rather shocking, how puissant of a wrath the fidgety old commander had managed to unleash. His age hadn't consumed the strength of his will.

  It was my weakness, which had kept me clinging on to a meek human form. My fellow serpentists at Surtalm had been consumed by fear, yet they had decided to fight regardless. They had shed out at the world with all their rage and strength. I had merely dropped my gun in middle of reloading and prayed to all the gods to preserve me from the fire.

  That was why I was still alive. My weakness had saved me.

  The fmes held dread for me no longer. With a short prayer to my Father, I let Aanu fall on the boat. Shouts carried over the mirror-still waters of the ke, but I hardened my heart from the familiar voices in it.

  The boat became a pyre. Hateful tongues of fme engulfed my clothes. A deep breath filled my lungs with smoke, pleasantly warming me from the inside. My mouth twisted, as the feeble human flesh caught fire. Yet the agony was overshadowed by etion. Like steel, I was first hardened by the fire and then tempered by the ke, until the purposeful consistency was found.

  Laughter broke from my strained throat, though the sounds was low rippling shriek. Aanu hissed in agony as the waters cimed her. The evening grew dark again. My new mass sunk the charred remains of the boat.

  A powerful tail propelled my twisting body through the water. Like a storm tide, I glided towards the Tamsi.

  Soldiers screamed, when I lifted myself from the water to the deck of a ship. For the first time, I tasted the flesh of men. With a seething rage, I called the fmes from a handgun's match to crown and wreathe me.

  I extended my body to show my splendour to all. Even without much more than lifting my head, I reached halfway up the tall mast of the galley.

  The gunpowder caught fire. Its heat caressed my scales.

  I left the sinking boat and moved on to the next one.

  The hounds of the Tamsi tried to fight me, but their bravery amounted to sheer foolishness. It took a while for them to understand that their weapons of iron bothered me less than gnats. A cannonball might have hurt me, but their serpentine powder served me and destroyed those who wished me harm. Nobody fought fire with fire and survived.

  With strong sweeps of my tail I crushed bones and wood. I coiled around steel-cd men and squeezed out their st breaths. My fmes devoured flesh and ships.

  Tamsi singers of great potency made an attempt at subduing my spirit. The buzz of flies. I was no incorporeal phantasm. Even had they gained power over my soul, they had no shackles for my earthly thews.

  Yet one song rang in my ears, like huge bells hammered in a cave. Mighty words of freezing harmony and acrid justice. Of strength drawn from self-denying discipline and mindless obedience. Of the binding power of unwise oaths. The singer shone in my vision as bitterly cold and appallingly colourless light.

  I smashed the aftercastle of the ship I was on, plunged into the water and surged towards the heroic singer.

  His galley was one of the biggest. The gilding on the intricate woodwork glinted in the light of my fire, until it melted as glowing tears.

  The noble warrior continued his song, even as his comrades jumped overboard or perished. He wore armour of gold and steel, lined with opulent white furs. His sword was a curved shard of moonlight. In his eyes burned defiance and valour. Gone was the indolent freelord I had known.

  I mocked him, this Tamsi hero, until I realised that he didn't understand my speech. Through some effort, I turned my sibint voice into human words:

  "Meek man mortal making his stand,in his conquest of my own nd.For naught he strives with sword and song,as the serpent scorching waxes strong.Hark now, foolish Tamsi warrior!Only oblivion awaits,this gold lord at the straits."

  The Tamsi stopped his singing and moved his sword between us in an amusing gesture of supposed potency. Had I been able, I would have smiled.

  "You speak, worm," he said, still resolute.

  I lowered my head against the pnks and moved my nose just into the striking distance of his sword. "You find that surprising?"

  "Not at all. You would need a tongue to incite this revolt, to command wless butchery and to spread your fell lies."

  "What do you know of falsehood, you servant of a grand fabrication?" I licked the air. There was fear in his scent. "Besides, truth is what we make it."

  "Indeed." The man's arm sshed at me.

  Too assured of myself, I didn't move aside. The bde cut through the scales of my snout. The steel burned as ice, and I howled.

  Fortunately merely lifting my head took me from the range of the bastard's foul sword. The wound stung, but it didn't debilitate me.

  "Come forth, worm of soot!" the Tamsi prick yelled. "Do taste the steel blessed in our Prince's hand by the lord of lords Amsama."

  That, I didn't wish to do.

  "Die," I commanded. The heat of the burning ship caused a nearby loaded cannon to burst. Pieces of metal pierced through the insolent little man, and I swept him overboard.

  My ughter was cut short. Lightning streaked through the sky, sending a shiver through my long spine.

  Thunder spoke words of self-righteous fury. A shape like the darkest cloud surged at me. I wrestled with feathers of steel and long ivory talons. A nce of heavenly wrath struck me, shaking my whole great frame.

  Vision in my eyes dimmed. Before the world turned bck around me, I saw the Ekran ships hurrying into the fray once more.