Pyra 21 – Pyra 22, Imperial Year 1645
The City of Stonebridge, Mercia
Stonebridge was named for the ancient span of grey rock that carried the eastern road across the River Serpent. The bridge was old, built by a forgotten king, its arches thick with moss. The city had grown around it – first a market, then a wall, then a sprawl of timber and stone.
Now the bridge was choked with refugees.
Corbin stood at the riverbank, watching the wagons roll across. He had been in the city for one day. He had no family, no coin, no place to sleep. But he was young and quick, and the dockhands found uses for him – hauling rope, carrying messages, fetching water.
"Boy!" a man shouted. "Get to the north wall. Tell Captain Harrick the south gate is secure."
Corbin ran.
Pyra 21 – Afternoon
The North Wall – Captain Harrick
Captain Harrick was a veteran of the border wars, his face scarred, his left ear missing. He stood on the parapet, watching the forest.
"The spawn are out there," he said. "I can feel them."
Corbin delivered the message. Harrick grunted.
"South gate secure. Good. Now find me a runner to the east wall. Tell them to double the watch."
Corbin hesitated. "Captain… how long can we hold?"
Harrick looked at him. The boy's eyes were hollow, but they did not blink.
"Long enough," Harrick said. "Now go."
Pyra 21 – Dusk
The Council Chamber
The council argued again. The head merchant, a fat man named Varro, pounded the table.
"We should have closed the gates days ago. Now we have thousands of refugees inside, eating our food, drinking our water."
"They are our people," said a younger merchant.
"They are from Ashenwell. They are not our people."
Captain Harrick stood in the doorway. "The spawn are moving. We have perhaps two hours until they reach the walls."
Varro waved a hand. "Then we fight. We have walls. We have guards."
"We have two hundred guards. The spawn are thousands."
The room went silent.
Varro's face paled. "Then we negotiate."
"With demons?" Harrick's voice was flat. "You negotiate with demons by dying."
He left the chamber.
Pyra 21 – Night
The North Wall – The First Wave
The spawn came at midnight. They did not batter the gates – they climbed the walls. Their claws found purchase in the stone, their bodies swarming up like insects.
The guards loosed arrows. Torches were thrown. Oil was poured. The spawn fell, screeching, but more came.
Corbin stood at the base of the wall, carrying buckets of arrows to the parapet. He did not look up. He did not want to see the shadows.
"Boy!" a guard shouted. "To the south wall! They're over the wall!"
Corbin ran.
Pyra 22 – Early Morning
The South Wall – Breach
The south wall had a weak point – a section repaired after a fire years ago. The spawn found it. They tore through the timber and stone, pouring into the city.
Corbin arrived as the first wave of spawn flooded through the breach. He saw a guard fall, his throat torn. He saw a woman dragged from her doorway. He saw a child, no older than he had been, running.
He grabbed the child's hand and pulled.
"Run!"
They ran through the alleys, through the smoke, through the screaming. The spawn were behind them, ahead of them, everywhere.
Corbin found a cellar door. He pushed the child inside, then crawled in after.
They huddled in the dark, listening to the city die.
Pyra 22 – Dawn
The Cellar
The sounds faded after an hour. The screaming stopped. The fires crackled. Then silence.
Corbin waited. The child – a girl, maybe six – clutched his arm.
"Are they gone?" she whispered.
"I don't know."
He waited another hour. Then he pushed open the cellar door.
Stonebridge was a ruin. The buildings still standing were gutted, smoking. The streets were littered with bodies – guards, civilians, and the twisted remains of spawn. The bridge itself had collapsed, its arches shattered.
Corbin pulled the girl out. "We need to go east."
"East?"
"To the sea. The ships."
They walked through the ruins, holding hands, stepping over the dead.
Behind them, Stonebridge burned.
Pyra 22 – Afternoon
The Eastern Road – Refugees
Corbin joined a column of survivors. The girl clung to him. No one asked her name. No one asked his.
They walked east, away from the smoke, away from the mountain.
A woman with a cart gave them bread. A soldier with a broken arm gave them water. They walked.
Corbin did not look back.
He knew that if he looked back, he would see the demon's face. And he would never stop running.
End of Chapter Seventy‑Four