Chapter 291: What Was Bought
Dawn arrived over Bastion Nine without a single cheer.
The impenetrable walls of petrified World-wood had collapsed into mountains of gray ash. The primary intersection lay completely open to the southern trade road. But the Capital forces did not march inside.
Twenty thousand heavily armored soldiers executed a flawless withdrawal. They turned their backs on the ruined merchant city and marched south. They moved in terrifying, mechanical silence. There were no war drums. There were no victory banners snapping in the freezing wind.
Near the center of the retreating columns, a heavy transport carriage carried General Marek back toward Bastion One.
The brilliant commander had survived the night, but his right arm was a ruined, pulverized mess of shattered bone. He was leaving the city unconquered, carrying a deeply inconvenient truth back to the frightened men in the Senate.
