2 A Dark Horizon

THE IMPERIAL MARSHAL hefted the child in his arms, shifting her weight. Silv was getting heavier by the week, or so it seemed.

His wife, Morla, took their daughter handing her off to the female mongrel who was already making clicking noises. Silv snorted in laughter, always delighted by the sounds that Clip made.

The imperatrix had freed all mongrels from service, but some remained in their former roles as paid staff. Artorius had never imagined he would have a mongrel working for them. He’d also never imagined he’d live in a grand villa on the edge of the Glut: since his appointment, Sarscha Todralan had provided for his family. A child of the Muck Quarter, he had risen high and far, so dizzyingly fast, he worried about the fall. Surely, it couldn’t last. Nothing good ever did.

‘What are you thinking about?’ asked Morla, clutching his arm as he gazed out of the window, the wooden shutters fastened against the white-washed walls. The waves of the Adalcis Ocean heaved towards the shoreline, gulls and terns wheeling above a lone fishing vessel braving the swells. It was nearly summer, yet a strong storm was brewing.

‘Oh, nothing,’ he lied.

She squeezed his arm and after a moment, echoed his thoughts, ‘It’s not going to last, is it? All of this, I mean.’

He looked down at her, hearing their daughter in the next room giggle as Clip sang one of her people’s weird clacking songs. Their singing made no sense and barely held a tune. ‘You shouldn’t be thinking about such things. It’s all going to be fine.’

‘Art,’ she whispered, ‘I’m not a fool. I know about the preparations in the city. Everyone does.’ She paused, catching, and holding his gaze. ‘I want to join the legions.’

He turned and she let go of his arm, staring up at him with that defiant look that had caused him to fall in love with her. ‘We have a daughter.’

‘We have Clip.’

‘The mongrel has been invaluable, I won’t deny it, but Morl - you can’t be serious.’

‘Well, I am. Besides, I’ve already applied.’

‘What? No one informed me!’

‘Well of course they didn’t, because I asked them not to. You’re their imperial marshal and I’m your wife. Who wants to get in the middle of that argument? Besides, I knew what you’d say.’

‘You can’t,’ was all he could manage.

‘It’s not up to you.’

He glared at her then, feeling his anger rise. ‘And what about Markus, eh? Our son? You hated me for years because I let him join.’

She looked sad, but determined. ‘I was wrong. Our son died fighting for our imperium. He died a hero.’

He ran a hand through his thinning hair. It had grown so thin he was sure he would soon be bald. His wife reckoned it was stress, and here she was, adding to it. For years she hadn’t spoken to him, their marriage all but finished as they’d lived separate lives, until slowly he’d found a path back to her heart. Now, here she was twisting it all around, turning it upside down. ‘You are not a fighter.’

‘Many women fight in the legions. We’re not Ewsannec savages, you know, where they think men are the only ones who can swing a sword.’

He glared at her, knowing if he got angry, she would only dig her heels in. He heard Clip scuttling with their daughter down the corridor to another room on the other side of the villa. The mongrel was good alright; she knew to make certain the child couldn’t overhear.

‘Morl, I know you have the right to fight, but you’ve never trained. The women in the legions have years of experience, many of them veterans of several battles or more. You’ll just get yourself killed.’

‘Those women had to start somewhere. None of them were fighters in the beginning. Why am I so different?’

‘Damn it, woman, because you’re my wife, that’s why!’

She turned away from him, staring out the window. ‘The end is coming, Art. You can pretend all you like with everyone else but not with me. I know everything you do, or well, almost as much. I’m sure you’ve kept some secrets. The Darkness has fallen across most of the world. It will soon fall across our imperium. I want to stand and fight when it all ends. I won’t cower in this villa waiting for death.’

He let out a ragged sigh. She knew too much, it was true, far more than most Icarthian citizens although he had told her little. Where she got her information, he didn’t know, but it was too late now. ‘The kecc is out of the sack,’ as his mother had loved to say.

‘I can’t stop you,’ he whispered, ‘can I?’

She shook her head, turning back to him. She placed a tentative hand on his, like she was approaching a wounded animal. ‘I love you, you dolt. You know that, but my staying here won’t keep me safe. I think you know it too. Clip has instructions to hide Silv when things get bad. The mongrels have their secret places. She will be safe, far more than if she were to remain with either of us.’

‘You could go with them, then.’

She shook her head. ‘You know the mongrels don’t share where they live with us. Silv is young enough, and they will raise her as one of their own if the worst happens.’

His anger rose again, giving far more bite to his words than he meant to. ‘You’ve given up, haven’t you? You expect us all to just die. Well, I’m not giving up so easily. We’re going to fight, Morla, and we’re going to win, and our daughter is going to grow up in a beautiful world free of darkness.’

His wife smiled and she embraced him, her cheeks wet with tears. ‘Oh, my beloved husband. I know you wish to believe that. I wish it too, but we both know how this is all going to end. Let us not lie to one another anymore.’

He wanted to shout, to curse, to shove her away from him even as she clutched him tighter. He wanted to tell her it wasn’t true, to prove it to her, but deep down he knew she was right. He felt it in his bones.

A short time later, as he donned his cloak, Morla checking his armour, tightening the straps of his breastplate, Artorius Agrippa said farewell to his family and stepped out of the villa into a brightening world.

Far in the distance, however, across the heaving waves, the sky was marred by a dark red smudge, heralding a vicious storm.