Three days passed. Within the Lereyne family estate, preparations had been underway since the morning after Alarant and Lisabelle had returned from the Assembly. A carrying case for Anna's orb had been constructed, weapons had been readied and Alarant's regiment had been by, ostensibly for a gathering organised by House Lereyne. Alarant had made the plan, and the risks, clear. Any that wished not to follow those orders were free to go and Alarant and Bomenn would ask no questions or make any demands on their service or oaths. To Alarant's great pride, every ryder under his command chose to stay. Ducerain left the spire and came to stay at the estate. With his affairs already in order, he spent much of his time sitting in Anna's room and reading. Sometimes Alarant would pass by and hear his father reading aloud. The thought that Anna might be able to hear it made them all glad, even though the possibility was slim.

The planned day arrived, and Alarant, Lisabelle and Ducerain climbed onto their mounts and left the estate behind. They carried all the truly valuable items on their persons, but there were still many belongings and memories left behind in their family home. Each wondered, as the estate passed behind a hill, if this would be the last time they would see it. Alarant knew that all over the city, ryders from his regiment were travelling to the Beloch Palisade, their lives strapped to their backs or the sides of their mounts. They met in the courtyard of a minor noble-house in an adjacent district. Alarant was sure that spies, Ashers or not, must have observed the movement of nearly 30 people on mounts, but hoped that his gamble would pay off. According to Lisabelle's men, Raleigh de Brumlen was still incarcerated in Usine's Spire, so the Marquis was bereft of his spy in their inner circle. Concerns must have been raised in the citadel about Lord de Brumlen's disappearance, but no outward actions had been taken yet.

Alarant left Lisabelle and Ducerain in Bomenn's care, and walked into the Beloch Palisade on foot. He waved to the guards at the gate, hoping that they would not need to strike the guards down during the course of this plan.

A woman from Ariana's Bend spotted him entering and began to move towards him. It took Alarant a moment to recognise Lyriana, for the militia captain had much darker clothes than he had seen on her on previous occasions, and her hair was tied into a bun. Before she could shout out to him, Alarant put a finger to his face-mask, since he had no lips, to motion for silence. Lyriana seemed surprised for a moment, then looked past him at the gate-guards who were still in view. Without a word, she turned and moved further into the district and out of view of the city beyond. It was possible that an Asher was observing them, but Alarant's hope was that the Marquis was acting based on the plan that Alarant had shown more openly. The real plan was to use the tunnel, the one his father called the Kreuz, while the majority of his men carried out the fake plan. He had hoped to avoid putting anyone in danger, but he must also admit that was a childish hope. In something like this, someone was always going to be in danger.

"Good day, Lyriana, daughter of Joalor." Alarant said, keeping his voice down. They were well away from either gate by now, but that was no reason to not be cautious.

"Likewise, Alarant. I just hope that it remains as such. This could get really ugly." Lyriana said. Her arms were crossed and she kept glancing around them as they talked, looking at rooftoops and alleyways. Alarant did not have to ask her what she was looking for.

"So do I, Lyriana. For both sides." Alarant agreed, resisting an urge to lean in like in some conspiracy story. "How has the search been progressing?"

Lyriana took a deep sigh and stilled her restless glances. "I put some of my best scouts on the task. They're more experienced in plains and forests, but they're good, and I am confident that we have found where it starts."

The woman opened a scroll-case on her hip and drew out a scroll of vellum, which she unfurled on top of a couple of barrels.

"What am I looking at?" Alarant asked, looking at the patterns of coal on the vellum.

Lyriana began to explain, pointing at various places on the vellum as she spoke. "In one of the larger houses, we found a metal plaque on a wall in one of the study-rooms. The plaque was some pastoral scene. A figure with a shepherd's cane stood on the left side, driving a flock of sheep before him. We had one of our artists, old people with little else to do, do some coal rubbings. This is the third one, and the best of four if you ask me."

Alarant pointed to a spot on the right half of the rubbing. "What does this look like to you?"

Lyriana broke into a smile. "That, Lord de Lereyne, looks like a wolf in sheep's clothing."

Alarant had cheated a little; on the rubbing, the disguised wolf had been circled with a smudge of coal. The coal made it difficult to tell the intended colour, but it was clearly a different shape from the livestock, and the sheep's wool hung loosely. The metalworker that had created this plaque had been an artist with the metal.

Looking at the actual plaque, the burnished copper had taken the years well. According to his father, the owner was Frederick de Kreuz, a noble lord with artistic pursuits, though he had always been more succesful as a patron of the arts than as a practitioner.

"So now we know where the tunnel's mouth is." Lyriana said. The militia chief did not share Alarant's appreciation for the plaque, but he knew she had more important things on her mind.

"But my scouts went through the whole building from basement to loft and could not find the actual entrance to the bloody place, nor any obvious method to open it." Lyriana added.

Alarant moved closer to the plaque. "Your scouts can rest easy, I know how to open it." Without waiting for Lyriana's response, he put his hand to the plaque and pressed down on the figure of the disguised wolf. This must have been where time had taken its toll on the artpiece, for the mechanism did not slide as smoothly and quietly as Alarant had thought it would. But slide it did, and the grinding of stone filled the room as the mechanism split the wall, bricks curling back to reveal stairs going down into darkness. Lyriana stepped back coughing, fanning the stale air away.

"You're lucky you couldn't smell that." Lyriana said. She stepped away from the tunnel and looked to the group of scouts assembled in the hall behind them. "Gellen, get some light and scout the tunnel. I don't want a detailed report of every meter, just that you find the exit and come back to us if you find any dangers we need to know about."

A young man nodded and, patting a fellow scout on the shoulder, hurried from the room. Lyriana turned towards the scout that Gellen had teased.

"Annell, go inform Latega. This time, I'm not waiting for a scout to return before setting out. Gellen will have to keep ahead of us as we move."

The scout, a young woman, nodded. "That shouldn't be hard."

Lyriana's eyes narrowed, though Alarant sensed no real anger in her tone. "Sass later, information now. Go. The rest of you, rearguard. If someone or something stalks us in those tunnels, I want to know about it."

The scouts confirmed their orders and scattered to begin their own preparations.

"My father Ducerain knew the estate's owner before the Calamity. According to him, he used this tunnel more than once." Alarant explained as they waited.

Gellen returned with a lantern and hurried over the tunnel threshold. The lantern pushed back the darkness until Gellen rounded a corner and took the light with him.

"I see what you said about bringing animals in there." Lyriana was looking at the dimensions of the tunnel entrance.

"Leaving our livestock behind will make the winter hard, but an animal panicking in the confines or the darkness will set us back too much." Lyriana said. "Though some villagers are looking at your mounts and asking why they can't bring their own animals."

"Our mounts are not easily frightened. Not easily moved to any emotion, really." Alarant explained.

"I could tell them that, but I doubt it would change their disgruntlement." Lyriana said.

The rest of the townsfolk began filtering into the mansion and into the tunnel, with Alarant's knights interspersed between them. Alarant grimaced at the mess it all made of the mansion's floor and carpets, but there was too much at stake to truly worry about such trivial matters. The tunnel was surprisingly wide and tall, so even their armoured forms could move easily. Lyriana's scouts had split into two major groups, one to range in front of the column while the remainder would be the rearguard.

Lyriana looked to her left where one of the ryder-mounts was walking along the left wall. The creatures were keeping pace with their respective ryders where possible and sticking closely to the left wall to take up as little space as they could. Beyond the occasional grunt or scrape of metal-on-stone, none of the mounts had made a sound since entering the tunnel.

Alarant laid a hand on the shoulder of his mount. He had elected to walk, wanting to avoid banging his helmet on some low-hanging strut in the darkness. "Our mounts are not animals in the strictest sense. They were a creation following in the wake of our own transformation. Ideal riding mounts, but they have next to no personality, and they cannot outpace a horse."

"I would offer for you to join us to Vallaris, but I doubt you would welcome coming to another city in our empire after how Calimdar has treated you and yours. And besides, Vallaris would have no food." Alarant said after a moment of silence.

"With all due respect, Alarant, I would prefer to never set foot in one of your cities again." Lyriana replied and stepped glanced along the column around them.

"Even once your Marquis is gone." The militia chief added after a moment.

Bomenn Gralis strode up to walk alongsid them. A spear was slung over his shoulder and a shield strapped onto his back. "My lord!"

"Sir Gralis," Alarant replied and shook his hand, "How goes the diversion and the transportation?"

Bomenn peered past Alarant down the tunnel as he replied. "The diversion goes well. Linerett said she saw one of the Ashers looking at her from an abandoned house, and several others have reported very observant passers-by. I think they're taking the bait, at least for the moment."

A gaggle of townsfolk entered the tunnel and passed them by, hunters judging by the style of their dark clothes, as well as bows and knives on their persons. They glared at Alarant and Bomenn for a moment before noticing Lyriana. Excusing herself, the militia chief increased her pace to talk to them, leaving Alarant and Bomenn alone.

"As for the evacuation, it's happening. Some of the folk are stubborn to hold onto their cows or goats or what have you, but Lady de Lereyne is helping to convince them." Bomenn said after Lyriana had left.

Alarant wondered, and not for the first time, whether this plan would get them all killed. If the Marquis learned of their plans in time, it might still.

"My lord, I have something for you." Bomenn Gralis said and handed him a scroll-case. It was a simple thing, a leather case with wooden stoppers.

"Is it important?" Alarant asked, wondering why his lieutenant was bringing this up now, and not at the regimental gathering.

"As important as you make it, my lord." Bomenn replied and took his leave, turning back along the tunnel to help with the preparations.

Lyriana had returned by the time Bomenn was out of sight, the woman glancing at the scroll-case. "What is it?"

"I don't know yet." Alarant said, bemused. He pulled out one of the stoppers and took the contents into his hands. It was a scroll, covered in writing. Alarant recognised it immediately.

"It's Gardt's letter of knighthood." Alarant said after a moment and unrolled the scroll fully, looking at his and Gardt's names on the parchment.

"When you are inducted into the knights of the realm, you are given a letter like this as proof. It is signed by another knight, usually a noble, who is then your patron. I recommended Gardt to be inducted." Alarant said by way of explanation when Lyriana gave him a questioning look.

"Sounds like Gardt was in your debt, then." Lyriana replied and turned back to look at the townsfolk around them.

"He paid it back a thousandfold." Alarant said, a mixture of happiness and sadness in his voice. With great care, Alarant replaced the scroll inside the case and slung it over his shoulder.

"You know," Ducerain de Lereyne started, "Last time I used this tunnel, Kreuz, I and one other had returned from a night at the Kelsira family estate."

"Was this function so dull that you felt compelled to flee the city in secret?" Lisabelle asked, humour evident in her tone. The two of them had entered the tunnel as the evacuation neared its end and had caught up to Alarant.

"On the contrary, the function was excellent. So excellent, in fact, that three of us got so drunk on their excellent choice in spirits that we stole flowers from their garden and declared our love to Lady Mellina de Kelsira." Ducerain replied, then added. "Her husband did not like that very much."

Alarant listened to Ducerain's story and Lisabelle's laughter with half an ear while examining the tunnel around them. So far it had been worked stone descending on a comfortable decline into the darkness. Judging distance was difficult with no landmarks to go by, but he imagined they were still travelling under the district itself. Hopefully their advance scout had entered the area under the wall, if he hadn't found the exit already.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alarant noticed one of the scouts run up past the column to Lyriana's side to relay a message. Lyriana nodded, and the scout turned about to head back to the rear of the column.

"The last one's in," Lyriana said by way of explanation, "The scouts closed the tunnel entrance behind us."

"Only one way to go then." Alarant replied and looked ahead. The front of the column had turned one of the tunnel's many corners and was out of sight. Niches had been carved into the stone wall of the tunnel at regular intervals, where various bottles of spirits and liquor rested in cold water baths. A group of youths had tried one of the bottles in the first bath, but had spit it out in disgust, comparing it to vinegar. Their parents had laughed, then tried a sip for themselves, assuming their children's palate to be the cause. A moment later the parents also spat it out; the wine had been down here in the tunnel for so long, it had turned into vinegar. Most of the other drinks had fared similarly unpalatable fates.

"Kreuz was a considerable opponent of sobriety. Even escaping his drunken revelries was to be done with a bottle in hand, if at all possible." Ducerain explained when Alarant inquired about the niches.

"I had not taken you to have the acquaintance of someone like this Kreuz, Lord de Lereyne." Lisabelle said.

"When your body can no longer take a drink, one must embrace other pursuits." Ducerain explained. Lisabelle chuckled.

The rest of the trek through the tunnel was uneventful, save for one instance of dust and pebbles falling from the ceiling. The townsfolk were understandably nervous, but with the way back into the city closed to them, there was but one way to go; forward. Eventually Gellen returned with news; he had found the exit, but it was snowing heavily outside.

"A cloud with a silver lining." Lyriana said when she had sent the boy back down the tunnel. "If they do have someone following us, the snow will make their job easy. But if they have yet to realise we've left, the snow might just cover our tracks."

A while later, the townsfolk cheered up. Their eyes lit up and their steps quickened. Many shouted that they could feel the wind on their face from the outside, even if it was cold. Within half an hour, the very front of the column cried out and rushed ahead. Around a final turning in the tunnel, the sun shone through a triangle-shaped exit, reflecting off newly-fallen snow. The exit of the tunnel was uncovered and the townsfolk rushed past Alarant and his fellows to bask in the fresh air. Some even grabbed handfuls of snow and rubbed it on their faces, glad to feel the outside again.

Alarant too was glad to see the outside, but he had a disquieting feeling that he found hard to identify. Lyriana came out beside him and took a deep lungful of air, staring into the sky as if she had been beneath the earth for days rather than hours. Behind them, more townsfolk were emerging from the tunnel exit and spreading out beneath the wall that extended to the horizon in both directions on either side of the tunnel exit.

"If someone was standing on the wall directly above us, they might spot us if they looked directly down. If not, I should think we are safe, for now." Lisabelle said, as if reading Alarant's thoughts. The wall towered above them, and Alarant had an inkling of what it must be like to assail such fortifications. If the Emperor decided to march on Calimdar, the fighting would be brutal.

"Once everyone is out, we're moving on." Lyriana said and, nodding briefly to the Lereyne family, turned to leave.

"Lyriana, wait." Alarant said, more out of instinct than any kind of conscious thought.

The militia captain turned back towards him with a question plain on her face, but waited for him to speak.

"Where's Gellen?"

Lyriana made to reply, but then checked herself and looked around the townsfolk milling about the area. The young scout had been first out of the tunnel, so should have met them as they exited the tunnel. Lyriana called out to him and grabbed two of the other scouts in passing to assist in the search, but as the minutes passed with no sign of Gellen, Alarant's unease grew.

A call went out. "Captain! Over here!" Alarant hurried to join Lyriana as she went to where the scout that called for her. As he got closer, he could see that the snow had been disturbed, tossed to disguise something. The bush was also without its own covering of snow, which must have been shaken off when Gellen's body had been tossed under it. The young man's throat had been cut and the front of his coat was red with his blood.

"His skin is still cooling." The scout said with a grimace on her face.

The scout that had found him noted that he still had all his arrows in his quiver, and his hunting dagger was still secured in its sheath. Whoever or whatever had attacked him had left him no time to draw his bow. While they were examining the body, more townsfolk emerged from the tunnel, Chief Latega among them. A bird call could be heard over the din of people.

"It cannot have been long ago." Lyriana said as she stood back up from the examination. "I want all the scouts to range out around the group. I want the culprit found."

Lisabelle walked up behind Alarant and leaned in. "Alarant, did you hear that bird?"

He nodded in reply, wondering what she meant by it.

"No birds live near our cities. There aren't even any trees here, just a few dry bushes." Lisabelle explained and looked around the wasteland beneath the walls. Little life grew near them, as was the case near Vallaris.

Alarant had no time to reply before a horn sounded. Not from above on the walls, but to the east and west. The ground shook to give the briefest of warnings as to what was about to happen, and then ryders rode out from clusters of rocks to their east and west. The townsfolk began huddling together, scared and confused about the new arrivals. Lyriana began shouting orders for the scouts to withdraw and the militia to prepare, but the press of people and the general confusion made the preparations sluggish, and they would not be ready before the ryders were upon them.

"Alarant, please tell me these are your surprise reinforcements." The militia captain shouted.

"They are not ours, my lord." Bomenn Gralis assured him.

Alarant turned to his wife. "How could they have learned of our plans?"

Lisabelle kept her eyes on the approaching ryders. By now, two full regiments of ryders had emerged from cover and were bearing down upon them. They held spears but the weapons were held high. This was not a charge to attack. "Maybe Raleigh had some other means of communicating. Maybe they had more than one spy. I cannot know, and I dare say we have more important matters to attend to at this moment."

Alarant drew the hammer from his belt. "You are right, of course."

Bomenn had drawn his spear while assembling the ryders that had come through the tunnel with the townsfolk. All told, Alarant had 10 ryders behind him, as well as Lisabelle. His wife had brought her halberd with her. Ducerain carried no weapon and instead he helped with guiding the scared townsfolk together. The flat wasteland of the plains surrounding the city had little to no cover, but if they could get to a cluster of rocks, they could chip away at the advantage of the mounted ryders. However, the ambush had clearly been planned with that in mind, for the closest rocks were the very ones the approaching ryders had used as cover.

The townsfolk were arrayed around the tunnel exit, keeping some space in the middle as more people from the tunnel were emerging into the daylight and the ill news of the ambush. The militia of the three townships formed up around them. Spears bristled and shields were held together, but the formation was disorderly and slow to react, for it held people from three different populations and their leaders, Lyriana among them, had had little time to practice together. Alarant's ryders were positioned in a semi-circle around the townsfolk, weapons in hand but outnumbered four to one.

The opposing ryders slowed their approach and encircled them, pinning the townsfolk against the wall and the tunnel exit. 40 ryders surrounded them, leaving no exit. They held spears and shields in their hands with an array of weapons in their belts, ready for battle.

One of the opposing ryders, armed with a halberd that they held down along their side, stepped their mount forward. Separated from the others, Alarant recognised the knight; Halbard Reklen, Jace de Kirgaan's lieutenant.

"Lord Alarant de Lereyne," Halbard called out in a mocking tone, "What errand brings you out here with such an escort?"

"If you are here, Reklen, then your masters know full well why I am here." Alarant retorted.

"I am sure they would like to hear you say it, Alarant." Another voice said. Jace de Kirgaan stepped past Halbard on his mount. The knight-captain was leaning forwards on his saddle, sword still in his belt.

Alarant glanced at Lisabelle. What could it hurt to say it aloud at this point? His wife looked back, resolute. The box containing Anna's orb was still tied to her mount. Alarant turned back to look Jace de Kirgaan in the eye. "I am taking these people away from the city. It is not right for innocents to be imprisoned in our cities, to be used in some vile experiments."

"But, Alarant, it was you that led them here," Jace de Kirgaan said in a tone so matter-of-factly that it almost disguised the smug undertone, "It was you that led the 'Winter Vanguard'."

"Under orders. If I had disobeyed a direct order from the Marquis, someone else would have taken the task." Alarant gripped his hammer harder, "Someone like you, Jace de Kirgaan."

The lord drew himself up in his saddle, and Alarant imagined that Jace's eyes would have narrowed if his face was not a metal mask. "And what would be 'like me', Alarant?"

There was no need to mince words here. "A knave, someone unfitting of the title of knight. You do not hold to the oaths, if you even know what they say."

Jace was silent for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed. Halbard joined him, but their men were silent, weapons at the ready.

"You are right, Alarant," Jace said after his laughter had subsided, "I do not hold to the oaths. Those oaths are null and void now, as any sensible man should be able to see. Those oaths were made in a different time, for a different world. We were a different people, but the Calamity and the Reincarnation changed all that. Our bodies are different and the world around us has moved on, without need of our protection. Look around you, Alarant de Lereyne."

"The ways and the Old Empire are gone." Jace de Kirgaan finished.

Alarant could feel the eyes of his knights on him. "The oaths gave us purpose, de Kirgaan. Without them, we are brigands in shining armour, now moreso than ever."

Jace de Kirgaan chuckled harshly and threw up his arms. "By whose judgement? We would sit at the top of the world, Alarant, if not for the outdated ways of you and yours. We would decide what is right and wrong, what is 'just' to do. We would be the lords of Auriga, not just of the Amber Plains."

"There is no one but ourselves to cast the judgement, de Kirgaan. In their hearts, our people would know that we have strayed. The Old Empire may be gone, but the old ways still hold in Vallaris, if not in Martin de Suluzzo's city. Your ways would make you no better than the necrophages we have fought for so long. Lords of Auriga, indeed. Broken lords of broken oaths." Alarant retorted.

"Hmmph," Jace retorted and drew his sword. The ring of the metal sent a shudder through the townsfolk, "Think what you will, Alarant. The time for talk and debate is over."

"Answer me one thing." Alarant replied.

"Why should I answer the questions of a dead man?" Jace said. Halbard shouted a command, and Jace's ryders lowered their spears.

"I am dead, as you said. What does it matter what I know?" Alarant said. His mind was racing, trying to figure out a way out of this bind, but the only course he could see was a bloody battle. One nigh unwinnable.

Jace de Kirgaan looked at him for a moment, then chuckled. "I suppose you speak true, for once."

"How did you know of our plans?" Alarant asked.

The captain looked to the group of ryders on his right. "Commander, time to show your colours."

At the words 'commander', Alarant felt a chill. If he had a human body, he imagined he would have broken into a sweat. One of the ryders in the group stepped forward and raised her head, showing her face–mask clearly and lowering a shield emblazoned with the crest of an eternal wall.