Dark Armor V3 Ch01 SC03

 It was just before dawn when Pallian reined up and lifted a fist, signaling to the troopers behind him to stop as well. They'd gone a long way south before crossing the valley and advancing. Darvin, their commander, rode up beside him and waited; so did Liiras, the sorcerer-assign for this company. 

"Pass the word back quietly," said the Black Knight. "When I hit the edge of the camp, you follow. Let them focus their attention on me, and then come up behind them." That would also hold the troopers back from the disasters that Pallian would be visiting upon the camp. "Liiras, do they know we're here?" 

"I expect not," said the sorcerer-assign. "I have been screening us against magical watchers. But this force is more than it seems, and I could have been fooled."

The Black Knight nodded, and made a note to recommend Liiras for advancement. To Darvin he said, "Assign a squad to find their supply train once the attack begins. Either take it, or burn it; I don't care which. Our goal here is to hurt them as much as possible while losing as few of our people as we can manage."

"With your permission," said Liiras, "I'll ride beside Darvin and do what I can to protect our troops from any spells their sorcerers might throw at us. The sortie for the supply train will have to rely on stealth and make shift as best they can." 

Pallian nodded. "Agreed." He considered the camp, with its neat rows of tents and its banked cooking-fires. There was a double-row of watch-fires around the perimeter, but no earthworks or even fascines; there was nothing here that would slow him down, and once he was inside the camp the eyes of the guards would likely be following him. The company could ride up on them unseen. 

What worried him were the two unknowns: the Archer, who could send arrows to targets ridiculously far away with impeccable accuracy, and the Shadow of Edrias, whose defenses were darkness, illusion, and invisibility. The armor had closed over the place where her dagger had pierced it, and his flesh had closed beneath it; even so, it worried him that she held a weapon that could injure the Black Knight. He expected the Shadow to come to him, rather than trying to slaughter his men; if she had any sense, she'd want to prevent the sort of devastation he could bring to the camp. The archer, on the other hand... might do anything.

There was only one way to discover how this might turn out, and no way at all to turn back. His father had placed him under his older brother's command, and an attempt to escape now would result in annihilation. No, the sorcerer-king would want the Black Knight to make an example of his enemies, even -- perhaps especially -- if those enemies had prepared for that. 

Turning back to Darvin he said, "Pass the word. I want everyone ready to ride when I hit their camp."