Just as some women who feign helplessness might share his warrior's spirit, Inza noted silently.
As if to prove that statement's truth, she lunged at a passing ogre. Needle-pointed Novgor bit through the plate mail covering his chest, through the flesh and bone beneath. The blade finally came to rest in the brute's massive heart. He was dead before the startled gasp left his snaggletoothed mouth and the iron-spiked club slipped from his thick fingers.
As the club struck the ground, Lord Soth emerged from the shadow of a shattered vardo. The cold of the grave rolled out of the darkness with him, washing over the camp like some icy tide. Orange eyes ablaze, he surveyed the carnage. There was no need for Inza to say anything. The situation was plain enough.
An unsuspecting ogre, startled by the sudden blast of cold, literally stumbled into the death knight's grasp. Soth clamped one gauntleted hand around the soldier's throat. No blow, no gasp for mercy could make him slacken that grip. He squeezed until the ogre's eyes bulged and his mottled tongue lolled from his mouth. Satisfied the brute was dead, Soth dropped him like a child bored with his toy and waded into the fray.
The battle turned immediately. Inza could see the astonishment register on the ogres' faces. "Betrayed!" some of them cried as they fled into the Fumewood. Others tried to reach Inza, their faces florid with anger. Novgor decapitated the first who rushed her. The rest turned back.
Like Death itself, Lord Soth strode across the camp toward Inza. Every Invidian in his path fell before him. At first he did not draw his sword. His fists were weapons enough. When two ogres charged him, he smashed their heads together with such force that the skulls split open like old melons. The two sank down in a heap, purple brains and gore staining the ground.
It was only when he came upon Alexi, locked in mortal combat with one of the brutes, that Soth drew his ancient blade. The death knight did not slacken his pace, merely called to the Invidian as he came.
"Face me," he rumbled, "or flee. There is no third way."
The ogre turned, hesitated. Soth slashed open the brute's throat and continued on.
As his opponent crumpled, Alexi stood staring at the Knight of the Black Rose. He felt certain that Soth had not even seen him. The death knight was simply clearing a path to Inza.
As abruptly as it had started, the battle was over.
Only four of Inza's troupe remained alive. Piotr and Nikolas tried to offer their thanks to Lord Soth. They hesitantly approached the death knight, but he did not acknowledge them. Instead, he stood stone still among the dead, eyes focused on something in the carnage.
Inza wiped the blood from Novgor and came to Soth's side. "They were Aderre's lackeys," she offered, "sent here to slaughter us."
When Soth remained silent, Inza followed his gaze to the ground. A burst of silver and gold coins spread across the dirt, spilled from a leather pouch one of the ogres had been carrying. The Vistana knelt. Some of the coins were Invidian, others Sithican or Barovian. She held up one silver piece whose mint she could not recognize.
"Where is Palanthas?" she asked.
"Far from here," Soth said, his mind awash in a memory of that city's never-conquered walls falling before his magic.
The death knight pushed the remembrance aside and walked to the next fallen ogre. With the tip of his blade he opened the corpse's purse. A similar fortune in gold and silver slid onto the ground. He turned and seized Inza by the arm.
Her arm went numb immediately from the unearthly cold of his touch. "What is it?" she asked, panic making her voice shrill. "What does all that money mean?"
"That someone within my domain has bought the allegiance of this rabble," the death knight replied flatly. "They are garbed as Invidian soldiers and surely crossed into Sithicus as such. Yet even Malocchio Aderre is not fool enough to pay his army before a battle is fought or let them take their wages on campaign."
Soth indicated the battlefield with a swipe of his sword. "If I am correct, then this has been a simple diversion."
"Diversion?" Inza sputtered. She pulled free of Soth's grip. "There are but four of us left standing. Our vardos are smashed, our horses frightened off. This is the stuff of a diversion? The Wanderers are extinct!"
"In the larger war that will be fought, you and your tribe are meaningless," Soth said coldly. "You have been a pawn in this, put in peril to draw me away from the main army's true objective. Come, we must return to Nedragaard Keep."
Alexi stepped forward as though he meant to challenge Soth, to demand he release their raunie. But Inza flashed him a warning look, and he stopped in his tracks.
"What about the rest of my people, mighty lord?" she asked.
“They are not my concern."
"But they are my concern," Inza snapped. "They were my mother's concern, too. In her name, if not in mine, help them." She swallowed hard, as if the next word were barbed in her throat. "Please."
Soth regarded the men coolly. "Very well. Make your way on foot to my castle. You will be permitted to stay there."
"Alone and on foot they will be dead before noon," Inza said. "Only you saved us from this 'diversion.' What if they encounter another?"
"You demand much of me, raunie? Soth warned.
"Only what is fair. My mother's benediction is surely worth this small beneficence for her people."
Turning to Alexi, Soth said, "I will summon guards to protect you, but their number will be yours to determine."
"How so?" the grim Vistana asked.
"Shall your fallen kin be part of this guard or no?"
Alexi's face blanched. "No," he gasped. "Our ancestors would-"
"Enough," Soth rumbled. "You have chosen."
The death knight strode to the center of the camp and raised his arms. A sudden wind howled around him, billowing his purple cloak. Soth clenched his hands into fists, and midnight-black clouds blossomed in the sky, obscuring the sun. The wind's howl grew more strident. There was another sound, too, faint at first but growing more insistent with each passing moment. It was the awful moan of souls in torment.
The slaughtered ogres rose from the battlefield. There was an awkward, disjointed quality to their movements that made them terrible to watch. They shambled toward Soth, eyes fixed sightlessly ahead. Their arms hung limp at their sides. The zombies carried no weapons, save those still buried in their flesh.
"You will follow this man's orders," the death knight said, indicating Alexi. "You will escort him and his companions to Nedragaard Keep, killing anyone who tries to detain or harm them."
With that, Soth turned his back on them and approached Inza. "Now," he intoned gravely, "we are leaving."
"Of course, mighty lord," the Vistana said demurely. She glanced at Alexi and called out, "Bring the chest from my vardo. It has supplies you'll need on the journey."
Soth put his arm across Inza's shoulders and ushered her into the shadow of a gaunt oak. The Wanderers watched their raunie disappear into the dark. When she was gone, Alexi turned to the others.
"We have our orders," he said brusquely. "We are to travel to the keep as quickly as possible. We take the raunie's strongbox, but anything else that might slow us down must be left behind." He cast a meaningful look at Katan.