Dokholkhu hardly remembered what happened . When he gnced back, he saw Jaliqai o himself. The girl’s arm went limp; one of her fs had snapped, but her rifle had killed a soldier aiming at his back. Out of the brood, sixty-eight died, leaving just forty alive despite Dantai’s assistance. But they were at the main keep’s walls, a proud t building that oversaw the city below!

  Thanks to Iron Lord’s preparation, the losses from the bombardment were limited. Shells that tore through the shield found troops hidden irenches and vehicles protected by the earthen walls. Armor carriers delivered their packages to the breaches; soldiers used siege equipment to scale the captured walls, and the enemy arsenals had already fallen.

  And the lord of the city was below, blog shots of the buzzing raiders with his on while his elite guard fired back, killing the riders.

  “Face me!” shouted the magnifit warrior in golden power armor and raised his sword high in the air. “If you are half the man you cim to be, Iron Lord, e and face me!”

  The cymore in the man’s hand exploded into a rainbow of light, blinding the raiders. This unnatural light, a miracle of the Old World, had pierced through the lenses, and the hordemen veered off course and smashed against the stohe lord’s legs carried him on, making almost impossibly elegant moves figantic three-meter-tall body. In three mighty swings, he ended eight lives, and the bikes exploded in his wake as the man marched on, intending to either push the foes out of his city or die trying. There were traces of battle on his armor; a pauldron was missing, his visor was cracked, blood spurted from cracks in his armor, and he probably battled against exhaustion by overdosing s. This king wasn’t a coward.

  His guard followed him, loyal to the fault, aiming to face the t figure that rode ihe courtyard. Iron Lord. He came to collect the prize, holding his position behind the troops, the grisly remains of the defenders dangling from his give, while the querors scoured the streets behind him, gathering the popution.

  The rest of the leaders came to join Iron Lord. Impossibly thin Phaser caused reality itself to shatter around his cws, and small passages leading to the realms unknown lingered in the air at the touch of his fingers. Drozna, a beast of hardened muscles and ferocity, approached Iron Lord from behind. His oversized hands carried no ons; gore and crimson belonging to the defenders covered his body. Svetaker, a man of simir stature, shoved Brood Lord’s bodyguard away from Iron Lord and smmed his machete into the ground, his cloak of fyed skin billowing in the air. Widowmaker, a tall and utterly rabid woman, still ughing from the thrill of the battle, fnked Iron Lord from the other side, hungrily eyeing the twins, killers in Brood Lord’s employ. The brother and sister, dressed in matg domino suits, lurked in the background; a mask of one of them had a ughing face painted on it, while the sed had a mask of a grief-stri man. They bowed gracefully, responding to the minor khatun’s attention. And others came too—the stro and most merciless fighters of the horde, Abnormals and Purebloods with few equals.

  For a sed, it looked as if two groups would collide: a man in golden armor fag a man in steel armor, swainst give, for the best man to win. Dokholkhu knew why the enemy leader had rushed out, abandoning safe positions in the courtyard. Civilians were rushing toward the castle, and their noble leader repared to give his life to buy them time.

  As, it was not to be. Dokholkhu learned and learned well, that there was no justi this world. Drozna stomped, and a wave e emanated from him, f the most weak-willed of the defeo turn their ons on each other in fusion. The king turned back, stunned by a sudden call to mindless violehat had sparked in his mind. Every single grievand frustration he had ever experienced in his life came ba, turned up to eleven. His discipline held, his people’s did not. Civilians and soldiers alike cwed and tore at their friends, and gunfire speared those who tried to escape.

  And in the midst of it all, Brood Lord leapt from the castle, and with horror, Dokholkhu saw a screaming infant in his pincer hand. Striding proudly, Brood Lord approached to the frozen-in-fear ruler, dangling his g son before his very eyes.

  “Please…” the man whispered before Brood Lord spat acid. The cracked lenses of the helmet did a poor job of holding it back, and the man screamed, reag for his eyes as his vision was obscured. Immediately, the twins were on him, hag at his sides.

  The lord swung blindly, driving them back, and Phaser stepped out of an opened portal behind him. His cws passed through the king’s swordarm with disgusting ease, taking it away. Drozna charged i, kig the man through the fountain in the ter of the courtyard with enough force to shatter the goldepte. Brood Lord tossed the infant aside and hacked away at the man’s knees, not allowing him the dignity of fag the end standing.

  Finally, Iron Lord closed in; the tread of his thundering bull fttehe few remaining loyal defenders. His steel mask’s white lenses dispassionately examihe writhing in pain man, and the golden give struck. The disruption field formed around the edge, breaking the molecur bonds of the get and sending the head flying.

  “The Gilded Horde has quered!” Iron Lord’s augmented voied loud enough to shake the windows. He thrust his on skyward, and the surrounding khans roared in support, ign the dead and dying around them.

  Hundreds stormed into the pace, ending the st few pockets of resistand dragging arecious paintings, artwork, and historical records. Simple things were flung into fmes; preetalwork was melted down as weeping servants watched the rich history of the royal house reduced to ashes. The Gilded Horde will spare nothing; no statue will be left untouched, and no artistically crafted staircase will be permitted to stay.

  “Greetings, my dear friends!” Brood Lord spread his mighty shoulders, his voice sounding surprisingly soft for his enormous bulk, and the tless golden amulets around his neck chattered in rhythm with his many steps as he advaoward the traitors who gave the information to the horde. Only they, the doctors and stists, will be protected. Dantai joined him, silently watg for Mad Hatter. “We will now discuss how this pce will be run.”

  Dokholkhu jumped off the wall, relieved that the fighting was over. He knew what would happe. The traitors will be celebrated before the ey and put in charge. Naturally, no one will trust the bastards, and this will spark rebellions in the horde’s absence. But therein y his father’s cruel pn. The Gilded Horde did not care for cities; they lived on the distant steppes, where the only buildings were the ons factories. Cities led to false security, to a desire to settle down, and in turn to weakening and dee. Khans coveted farms and mio feed their khaganates and pay the Merts. Their minions held cities and towns, but a careful stroking of hatred ensured stant infighting so that none would ever be strong enough to break free from the oppressors.

  In the er y the fotten infant, screaming at the top of his lungs because of his broken arm. Dokholkhu picked the child up as gently as he could with his pincer arm and headed into the pace. He knew what his father would do ter. Brood Lord will taste women, and in a week their wombs will explode, sending forth a new and for a time mindless brood. Dokholkhu could not save them.

  But he could save someone.

  ****

  Dokholkhu came upon two soldiers standing guard nervously before the inner chambers of the ruler’s family. The men clearly wao be with the others, to pilge and loot, and Dokholkhu took advantage of this.

  “Leave,” he told them, striding forward.

  “But our orders,” one of them tried to say, and the boy grabbed the fool by the neck, sileng him.

  “My prize.” His eyes glowed in the corridor's darkness as his fingers bent the metal get. “Leave and find something else to amuse yourself.”

  Dokholkhu’s body ached; several of his chitin ptes were missing, his armor was in tatters, and one finger on his human hand was broken. But something in his eyes had vihe guards to quickly nod and walk away, allowing him to ehe vandalized room. He hahe child to a weeping woman in a crimson gown and looked down at the frail woman and several servants, including a few older people who bore a resembo the dead ruler, but were smaller.

  The pce itself was a mess. The once rich bed had been torn to shreds when Brood Lord came through the ceiling earlier. One of the three infant cribs was smashed, and something red within it twisted the young man’s stoma disgust. The other kid was alive; thank the Sky.

  “Do you have a way out? A secret tunnel, anything?” Dokholkhu asked, and the woman stopped g areated, worried. He grimaced, ched his fist in anger, and tried to speak more clearly. on was a difficult nguage. “I am not joking. They will kill you. Listen to me, and your two remaining children will live.”

  “There is a tunnel, but…” The woman’s eyes fshed with , and Dokholkhu turned around. The same two guards from before had returned.

  They said nothing, seeing their fate in his eyes. Their hands reached for ons, but before either could pull the trigger, Dokholkhu’s pincer hand closed around the neck of one, ripping the man’s head from his body. The sed guard gasped for air as a stinger emerged from his chest.

  “What are you doing?” Jaliqai dropped the dead man. The irl closed her face to his, nearly head-butting him. “The father is going to murder us for this!”

  “A you decided to help. Thank you, sister.” Dokholkhu grinned back, turning his head toward the people. “He ’t kill us if he never learns of it. Acts happen.”

  “I ’t believe I am helping with this madness,” his sister said. “And for whom? Normies! They would’ve left us to rot at the first opportunity! Nobody cares about the Brood but the Brood.”

  “Oh, don’t say such harsh words!” They whirled at the sound of ughter. Ugchi, the Cupbearer and their father’s current favorite sycophant, cpped his hands in the corridor, and a stinky line joined his palms. Three more Purebloods raised their ons. “I’d be delighted to see you burn…” Hearing heavy stomping footsteps, his pale-lipped grin widened. “And it seems we are not a…”

  A line appeared across his lower jaw, on the necks and shoulders of the Purebloods. None of the warriors had mao so much as gasp as their heads left their bodies and pieces of stone fell from the cut corridor, leaving a single figure standing against the Brood siblings.

  He was entombed into a heavy suit of metal, devoid of gold jewelry and amulets. A shoulder oved, taking aim at the young people. His lenses were illuminated by a pale light like his master’s, but instead of a give, the member of Iron Lord’s elite guard wielded a rge axe with which he decapitated four people at once. Were it not for his geor, he could easily be mistaken for a metal statue.

  “Dokholkhu, son of Brood Lord.” The boy spped himself over the chest. “Have you e to kill us?”

  “Mehmed, son of Iron Lord,” in the warrior introduced himself. There was no static to disturb his worn tone. “Brood Lord looked funny at my father. He seo sp the bitch. It is done. Had I wao kill you, I’d already done so.”

  The siblings said nothing. They waheir potential oppoo think they were vulnerable or weak. The hulking behemoths in Iron Lord’s employ ofteimated the thiess of their ptes and uimated the resilience of a human body. Dokholkhu raised a hand and stopped Jaliqai. Perhaps there is no need for a fight?

  “What are you doing?” Mehmed asked, and his lenses flickered, zooming in on the room. “I see. Might as well help. I have a map for pnernal raids.”

  “And how do we know you won’t betray us?” Jaliqai asked calmly.

  “Do you enjoy murdering children?” Mehmed asked her, and the girl shrugged and accepted his reasoning.

  In the end, everything was easier than they had expected. There was a tuhat led straight out of the chambers to a small underground river. Dokholkhu helped the Normies get there by removing the debris left by his father and giving them the ons of the dead guards. Even now, their ces of survival were slim, for the raiders would be plundering the area for weeks to e. But at least he had done something.

  Together, the three traitors set the room abze, feeding corpses to the fmes and hiding every sign of their involvement. The legend was simple: Ugchi’s group got into an argument over women and riches and got themselves killed after a mp fell over while they fought.

  “Not sure I like it.” Mehmed scratched his . “Father hoped to leave a message.”

  “Then you’d be the target,” Dokholkhu told him. “Brood Lord doesn’t five insults…”

  “You give that whore too much credit.” The iron warrior hoisted his axe over his shoulder. “If you ever need help pulling off a stunt like that, call me; I don’t mind helping. And I saw you leading the Brood. Wheime es, stand aside. Iron Lord’s beef with Brood Lord, not with the Brood.”

  “What makes you think he win?” Jaliqai inquired.

  “In the war between the ventional and the unventional, the ventional alrevails!” Mehmed ughed. “e to my tent ter. Father gives us good and kind healers.”

  ****

  They found the khaing before the titanic statue of the former king. It stood taller than most buildings, sword to the sky, its hand outstretched toward the people below. In the days before the quest, the people must have used this pce for prayers or ceremonies. Now the querors were celebrating here, and someone had already shot out the eyes of the statue.

  Wooden pnks were id all around the square, and underh them were the city’s defehose soldiers who refused to bend the ko the new rulers—groaning and screaming. And the khans and their closest subordinates sat on these pnks, ughing and drinking, shifting their bodies slightly when a bone or an an of mutited people below them burst or cracked. The stoatue watched them, its inspiring smile turning more and more into a horrified scowl formed by the shadows cast by the dang fires.

  Brood Lord surrounded himself with the ring of his champions and supplits; the meraries from outside the Horde had formed a protective circle around their employer, knowing full well what awaited them should he die. Iron Lord sat surrounded by his children, their helmetless heads far too small for their massive armor. This surprised Dokholkhu.

  In the Horde, children served as a tinuation of the bloodline. Each parent kheir offspring might one day overtake them, ahem at arm’s length, elevating the weakest to foster petition and divert the attention of the stro. To die in one’s bed, surrounded by a family thteo end you, was sidered the pinnacle of a successful life, and any life-prolonging medie was frowned upon. You came into the world when Heaven ordained, and you went out at the end of your natural lifespan.

  Iron Lord seemingly ighese rules, boosting himself through the sce. Rumor had it that he treated his wife and es kindly, and rarely used a whip to discipline his children, instead enlisting them in his personal guard and transpnting his meical knowledge upon them when they reached adulthood, elevating them above Dirtybloods and close to Purebloods. Several of his guards kept vigil even now, standing silently alongside automatic turrets.

  “Dokholkhu, Jaliqai!” Their father called them, spreading his arms. His nose was red from the alcohol he had ed. “e, sit by me. Let us drink and sing before the quest!”

  “Why should we tihe grey-haired Mungke Khan grumbled. He was an old ruler who had pledged ten thousand people to the horde when he overthrew his father as a sixteen-year-old. Today, he had over thirty thousand warriuarding his domain and more in the army. “We have quered enough nd to feed us for millennia to e. Why should we bother with these desote nds any longer?”

  “Are you challenging my rule, Mungke?” A single voice cut through all the celebration, turning the blood of every member of the horde into ice. Only the tortured soldiers tio groan, begging for a quick release from death.

  Jaliqai wept and prostrated herself, her body shaking, and Dokholkhu followed her example, casting a g the statue’s head. Mad Hatter. She came in person. The woman was head and shoulders taller thaallest khan; her body, covered in exquisite furs, had a chubby appearance, but Dokholkhu knew how deceptive looks could be. Inparable muscles and unbreakable bones were hidden under a protective yer of fat. Her legendary fury had uhe Gilded Horde into a unified force that had devoured entire tries. She wore a simple leather cap that covered her head like a su cup, and a loher swayed in the wind. A golden half-mask covered the woman’s upper face, revealing her bloodshot eyes and two trickles of blood running down her .

  “Mungke Kha no disrespect, Khan of Khans.” Brood Lord folded all six of his ioid legs and bowed to the supreme rider of the skies. “Arkhi simply got to his head, that’s all.”

  “Yes,” the elderly Khan said quickly. “Pray five my impertinence, oh peerless ruler.”

  Mad Hatter jumped off the statue, nding on the wooden pnks. The wood splintered, uo endure her weight, and small torrents of blood spshed upward, f a brief crimson halo around the woman. She ig and walked toward the khans, killing a soldier with every step. Servants gave her a wooden cup of buttered milk tea as an appetizer.

  “Have you found aion of him?” Mad Hatter asked Dantai.

  “No. We have tortured the shamans, but they know of no god fitting your description,” the priest replied.

  “A pity. What nd is ?”

  “The Recmation Army.” Iron Lord reported. He was the only one who hadn’t removed his helmet. He used an analyzer to check his food and drinks before taking any. “Their nds are just to the northeast of us. We will be ready to leave in a few weeks after we receive supplies. I caution against advang sooner. Our new booty is quite rge; it would be disastrous if we ran out of ammunition in the middle of the quest.”

  “In the meantime, we have learned something,” Brood Lord eagerly interjected. “My agents have already found us moles in Houstad, one of their richest capitals. Our mole has revealed that the Recimers are responsible for wiping out the raiding party led by Sky Lord and my dearest son... What was his name again?”

  “Chimbai,” Dokholkhu said. Chimbai is dead? Sure, he was insane as a rat, but among the brood, he survived the lo, enduring sixteen winters, the father’s tortures, and tless raids. How did he die? Wait, Sky Lord was with him; does that mean…

  “Ah, yes, him. How sad. These Recimers also butchered Sky Lord Khan,” Brood Lord tinued. At this revetion, the Khans murmured, plotting to take his nds and w over whoever was strong enough to match him in bat. “So I pn to return the favor. While we are waiting, me and the others will pay a visit to this Houstad, stir up things a bit, and help our mole get into a more advantageous position to aid with the ing quest.”

  “You pn to wage war against the Recmation Army?” The new city’s ruler paled, grasping his thin white beard. “I have heard that their champions are unrivaled in might and…”

  “Brood Lord Khan, did this pce share a border with the Recimers?” Mad Hatter asked deceptively calmly.

  “It did, yes. Now we share that border. We also found some of their diplomats, as they called themselves, in an embassy nearby.” Brood Lord fshed a smile. “They weren’t much of a bother to crack.”

  Mad Hatter’s scimitar struck. Dokholkhu never saw the ce her hand on the hilt or draw the bde, but what he did see was the statue behind her crack. A single line split the stone in two, and the shockwave that followed soon reduced the statue to tless pieces of stohat fell on the houses behind. The arc of air unleashed by Mad Hatter did not stop there. It cleaved through the wall and raced across the nd, tearing up swaths of ground before ing to a slow halt far from the city.

  The Khans fell silent. Worried about drawing Mad Hatter’s wrath upon themselves. She could have easily finished off a number of their own troops and citizens, but perhaps as part of the challenge, her cataclysmic swing was aimed for devastation, and even the guards at the wall froze, silently thanking the heavens for their salvation. The khatun had found her bdes in an a bunker and coated them in gold to celebrate her regal blood and savage soul. Besides their incredible toughness, they had teology or trick.

  “I alone could have taken this city ihan an hour, but that would have decimated my future servants. If you have been free all this time, it makes the Recimers weak.” She returned her scimitar to its sheath. “Sky Lord’s nds are my nds. Any threatening his family is my snack. Brood Lord. They have killed a khan. Proceed as you wish, but I want the head of someone equally valuable before the fun begins.”

  “As you wish.” Brood Lord bowed back. “I will see to it myself once my es amuse me enough.”

  “The horde shall quer all. Including false gods,” Mad Hatter told the elder, frozen with horror, and sat down, ughing aing beside her khans.

  Dokholkhu wept, pressing his face against the wood. The khan of khans spoke true. Nothing iire world could escape her power. Nothing at all. He and his siblings were stuck with the father, who valued them less than bullets, and with an insatiable ruler, who would eventually see them dead in one quest or ahey may hate, fear, loathe her, but it mattered not, for she aheir very existence, and there was no pce to run or hide. And no one could stop her.

  There truly is no peace left in this world.