The Ghost Army

Chapter 6

The clicking sound above didn't sound like any animal Robbin had ever tracked. It was precise. Sharp mechanical ticks, like gears breaking inside a pocket watch.

"Don't move " he whispered.

He held the torch high its flame casting shadows on the snow. In the branches above a dozen metal shapes crouched like wolves. They were wolf-sized. That was where the resemblance ended. Black iron plates made up their bodies seamless. No eyes. No ears. No mouth. Just a horizontal slit across each face glowing with a pale blue light.

One of them shifted its weight. Its claws sank into the bark with a scrape.

"Captain " Elaine whispered. Her knuckles were white around her sword hilt. "They're not looking at us. They're tracking our body heat."

The lead hound opened its mouth. Or rather its face slit.. Shrieked. The sound was like metal tearing on metal. Then it leapt.

"Scatter!" Robbin shouted.

The machine hit the snow where they'd stood sending up a burst of powder. It didn't hesitate. Spinning on its hind legs with ease it lunged for Juliana.

Juliana screamed, backing into the drift clutching a broken object to her chest.

Robbin threw himself across the ice driving his saber down. The blade bit into the hounds neck sparking against the plating. The blade caught. Wedged between segments. And severed a bundle of cables that sputtered light. The creatures legs seized, thrashing wildly. Then the light in its face slit died.

Above them the rest of the pack launched from the trees.

The hillside became a storm. Elaine moved quickly using the snow to slide and dodge. She ducked under a leaping hound spun and drove her blade up into its belly. Hot black oil sprayed across the snow. It hissed where it touched the ice.

"Too many!" she shouted, parrying a beasts claws. Her sword was already dented.

"The ravine. Move!" Robbin grabbed Juliana by the coat. Hauled her upright. "Rocky ground breaks their swarm!"

They ran. Their boots skidded on ice hidden under powder. Behind them iron hounds gave chase, claws clicking against the earth.

Then the snow erupted.

A massive shape burst from a drift ahead. Not a hound, but a shock trooper. It had been waiting in ambush its arm spinning a heavy three-pronged drill. The machine-soldier raised the weapon the drill screaming as it aimed for Robbins chest.

He tried to stop. His boots slid. The ice betrayed him. He was sliding helplessly toward the spinning teeth.

Bang. Clang.

A silver rapier flashed through the falling snow. Struck the side of the drill wrenching it wide. The drill buried itself into a trunk and shattered it.

Robbin looked up.

Commander Cedric Montgomery stood in the snow his uniform torn and bloodied splattered with oil. He was breathing hard. His eyes were steady.

"You frontier folks don't get to have all the fun " Cedric said with a grin. "My regiments gone. The fort is ash. I'll be damned if I die running from metal puppets."

"Montgomery!" Robbin scrambled to his feet saber raised. Three hounds circled them now. "Aim for the cores. Or any unarmored joints! Blade-work won't cut through their hides!"

"Let them test my steel."

The world and the frontier drew close backs against a cliff, blades drawn against horror. The war had stopped being about a fort. It was about surviving the night.

An iron hound lunged at Cedric. The commander stepped aside. Fluid, unhurried.. Thrust his rapier into the creatures eye slit. Blue light flared. The hound crumpled.

They fought like it was the thing they'd ever do. Steel against rust. Blood against oil. The snow around them turned red and black.

Minutes. The pack was dead bodies stiffening where they'd fallen. No time to breathe.

Then the storm changed.

The wind shrieked louder. The sky above darkened to purple and in the distance terraforming spires pulsed with energy. Waves of it rippling outward. The ground shuddered. A deep boom rolled through the earth.

From the ridges crest a silhouette emerged through the falling snow. Massive. Deliberate.

General Alistair Thorne.

He hadn't sent the hounds to kill them. He'd been herding them.

The General stood against the sky his colossal two-handed greatsword blazing with a light so bright it hurt to look at. Behind him the Ironborn Legions elite vanguard stepped forward. A wall of glowing eyes and iron hundreds frost crystallizing on their shoulders.

Thorne raised his blade. Pointed it at the sky.

The air pressure dropped. Robbins ears popped. The snow around them lifted, defying gravity hanging suspended like a thousand stars.

"The anomaly expands " Thornes voice boomed. "Surrender the scholar.. Be scattered to frost."

Robbin looked at Cedric at Elaine at Juliana. Dented blades. Bleeding bodies. A sheer cliff, at their backs. A nightmare army waiting above.

They'd reached the end of the line.