Under the hanging crimson glare of the potion-made flare, the snow-swept expanse of the Upper Spear Court looked as if it had been dipped in red ink. Along the northern mountain road three miles above the hall, a long, winding river of pitch torches came into view around the lower shoulder of the pass. Not a twenty-four-man recovery calm distance, but the entire winter guard post of the Northern Enforcement Circuit, three hundred armored men strong, marching down the grade with two extra Jade-realm exam guards riding at their head.
Commander Keth Or had never been sent to win a clean duel inside White Heron Hall. He had been the vanguard pinning force sent to hold the gates and locate the stone tablet until Chief Examiner Vaska Ren’s main siege column closed the net around the ridge.
At the northern low roof wall of the Upper Spear Court, Keth Or spat a mouthful of blood onto the red-lit snow and backed slowly toward the outer stair where his surviving troopers were retreating in a tight shield-ring. “Look up the road, Soran!” Keth Or called out hoarsely, cradling his cut right wrist against his dented breastplate. “Three hundred lances of the Northern Circuit and the heavy mountain heavy steel crossbows will be at your gatehouse within a quarter of an hour! Surrender the Ash Reed boy and the Balance slate now, or Vaska Ren will raze every timber on this cliff before sunrise!”
