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Arter grunted and the drums banged. If anyone down below could hear them, Cam couldn’t see any proof.

As soon as the fighting began in earnest, the flags and drums seemed to disappear. He sent messages as necessary, and a steady stream of scouts ran between the main fighting armies and Cam’s outpost, but the situation on the ground rarely changed.

Cam felt like he was going to lose his mind.

“Try and calm down,” Miuri said.

Felin sat beneath a tree with her knees pulled up to her chest and stared off into space.

“I should be down there,” Cam said. “I’m the best weapon this army has.”

“Right now, we need you here,” she said. “We need you making decisions.”

“You can make decisions,” Cam said. “I can fight.”

She smiled and shook her head. “Not how it works, General. You took this position on, and that means you’re important. We can’t have you running around down there and getting yourself killed.”

Cam’s jaw clenched but he said nothing.

“Things are going well,” Arter said. “Lines are holding. Wolf bodies are piling up. We might come through this after all.”

“It’s just the start,” Cam said.

As he spoke, a shape moved down below them along the left flank. It took Cam a moment to understand that it was a mass of wolves running along the far ridge.

He felt a spike of excitement.

“Look,” Miuri said, pointing.

“They’re trying to flank us,” Cam said. “Watch, they’re going to gain ground then drop down.”

“That’s a bad thing, isn’t it?” Miuri asked, a tinge of worry in her voice.

“Normally, yes,” Cam said. “Arter, play the drums. Let’s get Brice out there.”

Arter nodded with a savage grin and began furiously waving a flag as the drums boomed. Cam crossed his arms and watched as the flanking wolves got into position along Stavar’s flank then ran down the slope toward them.

Stavar turned part of his column to respond to the flank, but they were slow. The wolves hit hard and Stavar’s middle began to buckle, his front line cut off from the rest of his troops.

Behind the flanking wolves, a host of glittering bodies emerged from the trees.

“There she is,” Cam said.

The heavy infantry marched in tight lines down the slope behind the flanking wolves. They slammed into their rear before the wolves even realized what was happening. Brice’s heavy infantry hacked and killed and slaughtered the flanking movement, and once those wolves were cleared out like dead brush from a meadow, Brice turned and went to meet the wolves at the front.

“You had them hiding,” Miuri said. “How did you manage that?”

“Branches,” Cam said. “Pine branches covering their armor. They’ve been sitting up there for hours, covered in pine needles, just waiting for our signal.”

“Is that the whole heavy division?” she asked.

Cam grinned wickedly and shook his head. He gestured at Arter, and more flags waved, more drums boomed.

Along the ridge to their right, more glittering armored soldiers stepped forward from the sparse tree line. They descended the hill and smashed into the wolf flank.

Two heavy divisions, one on either side. Brice’s division shoved their way forward and began to pinch the wolf flanks, forcing them back into an ever smaller space at the very front of the army. Captain Frant was in command of the right division, and his tactics were similar, but more savage: his men hacked, slaughtered, and stomped on wolf corpses, rolling over them like animals.

The wolves were squeezed tight on either side but didn’t back down. They continued to throw themselves at the front lines, and their bodies began to pile up. The wolves behind scrambled over the corpses of the fallen, and Cam saw the spearmen shove the body piles over before they could act as ramps for the wolves behind.

For a moment, Cam felt a surge. The Elves hadn’t joined battle yet, but he might not even need them. Although there were so many wolves that he couldn’t see the ground, his armored divisions were smashing them on either side and squeezing them into a bottleneck. The center and the flanks held, while the heavy infantry did their bloody business.

“We might not need your father after all,” Cam said.

Miuri smiled. “Looks that way.”

“Frant’s pushing hard. He’s almost swept in front of the right flank entirely.”

“I’m worried he’ll overextend,” Miuri said. “If he goes too far, his flank will be exposed.”

“Not if he turns and pushes ahead.” Cam gestured at Arter and the drums slammed again.

He watched as the heavy division down below them responded to the beat. They inched their line to the right, turning their flank forward. Cam felt a surge of pride in his army. The heavy divisions were like the wings of a great bird, their armor glittering in the sunlight as they slaughtered their foe. The lighter infantry pushed forward, keeping pace with the heavies, and slowly the army gained ground as the wolves fell beneath their boots.

For a moment, the world hung suspended in the air. Cam saw the future, golden and good. He saw himself in the Mansion with Galla, with Miuri and Felin and Key and Brice. He saw children, weddings, laughter, long lives filled with hard work and joy. He wanted to give his people a future brighter than anything they’d seen before, and this would be the start of it, the beginning of something better.

But then, the great silver wolf trotted forward from within the tree line. The wolves all around her parted and gave her space as she threw her muzzle back toward the sky.

“It’s Lycanica,” Cam said.

“You knew she’d come,” Miuri said. “It doesn’t change anything. She’s just—”

Her howl tore Cam’s eardrums. He staggered back and threw his hands over his ears. The flags fell behind him as the guards dropped to the ground, their hands covering their ears. Arter roared something incomprehensible and Cam stared into his guard’s eyes. The fear there tore a hole in his gut. Arter shook him and pointed at the valley.

Cam followed his gesture. The