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downside no one else is as reckless as her either. She wouldn’t have been so badly injured if she hadn’t tried to hold off the werewolf attack on her own.”
    “The entire regiment could have been lost if she hadn’t,” Athena replied. “It was because of her we managed to scramble through that narrow defile, and hold off the attack until the infantry broke through.”
    “No one’s denying her bravery or her abilities as a fighter,” Artemis said, recognising the defensive tone in her daughter’s voice. “And I’m grateful for what she did. I’m just saying that one day her luck will run out and she’ll be killed.”
    Athena nodded and shuddered gently, but then determinedly straightened her shoulders and changed the subject to one that worried them all. “Any news from Frostmarris?” There had been several debriefings and analyses of the battle as soon as the battered Hypolitan army had made it back safely to their main city of Bendis. But the Vampires had attacked almost immediately and there had been no time to explore every source of information.
    “Nothing,” her mother answered. “There’ve been no communications from the capital since before the battle. TheVampires and Snowy Owls target any pigeon just in case it’s carrying a message, so even if the city still exists, we’ve no way of knowing. But it might be that there were no survivors from the King’s army after their shieldwall was broken.”
    “Including the King himself,” Herakles said. “I’ve heard from sources I trust that he was killed with all his bodyguard.”
    “Sources you trust?” Basilea Artemis questioned.
    “Commanders Antonius and Hero. They were the last of the Hypolitan to leave the battle field.”
    “And did they see anything of Prince Redrought?”
    “No. Nothing at all.”
    The Basilea sighed. “Well, that’s it then,” she finally said. “Unless the Wittanagast has survived long enough to elect a new King, we’re on our own.”
    Athena and Herakles said nothing. Fighting Their Vampiric Majesties without allies or support wasn’t sustainable, and eventually Bendis would inevitably fall.
    “It seems the Icemark is already dead,” the Basilea went on. “It just doesn’t know it yet. The Royal House of Lindenshield is wiped out and there’ll never be a new ruler in Frostmarris ever again . . . at least not a human one.”

O nce again Kahin was waiting for Redrought to arrive in the Campaign Room. There had been further developments in the reconstruction of the army. So far only the infantry had been painstakingly rebuilt, but now there was an opportunity to remake the cavalry.
    With an eye to a potentially huge market, traders from the Polypontian Empire had risked entering a war-zone and had arrived with a train of over a thousand horses! Obviously they’d somehow heard that the Icemark’s cavalry had been annihilated in the Battle of the Northern Plain and had moved in with replacement mounts before anyone else could snap up the sales. Once Redrought had arrived, he and Kahin would be heading down to the market area in the city to inspectthem. She may not have known anything about horses, but as her people would be bankrolling any deals, she was determined to be on hand.
    Suddenly she became aware of a change in the atmosphere, almost like a huge ship pushing a bow-wave before it. “Hiya, Kahin!” Redrought boomed as he erupted into the room. “Are you ready to go and have a look at these gee-gees?”
    Boy or not, King of the Icemark or not, he really was an irritatingly loud person at times. “Yes, My Lord. Will the survivors of the original cavalry squadrons be meeting us at the market?”
    “Yeah, but there aren’t many of them. Most went down with their horses when the werewolves broke their charge. Still there are just enough to help train new recruits and they’ll all make good squadron commanders. We’ve at least got the core of a new cavalry. It just depends on the horses