KINGSLAYER

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Everything that lived was being scorched to a crisp, even the very earth. According to her calculations, most of northern Fas Kaling was comprised of grassland and forests, with the exception of the desert in its center. The Godfire spread quickly enough that any survivors would be restricted within the Samasna Desert, whose sands would not burn easily, and they would starve to death if their injuries did not do them in first. As for the rest of the land, it was already as good as gone. The Kalingi would discover the hard way from city to city that water was not adequate, and by then it would already be too late. Once the fire was leveling the entire nation, she would write to the Paragonian Queens to explain the way they could protect their own border from the ravages. The only foreign conflicts she could afford were the ones she could win, and now she could win them all. Nevertheless, she had no problem with Paragonia—as long as they didn't attempt to save Fas Kaling in any way.

With the option of traveling across the northern border gone, the peoples' only hope would be swimming upriver to the coast to find some way off the mainland. But Jaylah had a plan for that too.

"Dump them," she said to the men waiting against the edge with closed crates. They did as they were told, throwing the crates overboard to be sucked into the streams, where they would travel deep, deep into the nation's heart. It was a waterborne poison derived from digging deep crevices into the earth while mining for Bloodiron in the south. The groundwater was contaminated and killed any water life that may have existed.

And now a dozen loads of it were unleashed upon Fas Kaling's people. They would have no food and no drinkable water. If she was lucky, they would even pass around a deadly sickness when they got desperate enough to drink it anyway.

They all deserved it. They had supported the unprovoked mass murder of nearly a million of her innocent people. Killing a million of them would be fair, but she was not looking for justice. She was looking for vengeance. That was why she was going to kill as many as she could.

Only then would they leave her people alone. She was doing this for future generations, so they would not have to know the constant fear she did.

The pull of the bowstring became mechanical, time after time of letting Godfire loose on villages and moving on before the wreckage reached its peak. The villages were growing into towns, which were growing into fully-fledged cities. Jaylah had her sights set on the glowing boon of the north, Jarrelah. She knew that was it in the distance because she had never seen another city glow so brightly in her life, not even the City of Luck, which never knew sleep. Even the green mountains encasing it were gleaming.

Jarellah was Fas Kalingi's most prosperous city, the eastern jewel of trade and commerce, protected on most sides by the valley and incredibly high walls. No one had ever taken it in a siege before today.

Because the wind was against them, no smoke had warned the people. They sailed ever closer, a creeping snake parting the grass. Jaylah could see the beams of light flicker as citizens passed by. They were so stupid, so unassuming. Did they truly believe they could get away with what they had done?

When Jaylah blinked again, she saw that street filled with girls in tousled clothing. They were just girls. The soldiers did not even just kill them, they could not bear to let their subjects of suffering keep an inkling of dignity. A million defiled bodies, their only crime being their citizenship of Oceana.

She failed them she failed them she failed them—

"Fire until we run out of arrows," she whispered. They were underneath the wall now, cast in utter darkness. The perfect cover.