Sitting astride Vella, I watched from atop the hill the creatures of the Decay destroy Ekheim, trying to decide what to do next. If Una was no longer in town — who knew, maybe they had already taken her somewhere else — then I had no reason to risk my neck. If she was still in prison, that wasn’t too bad either as the situation had changed. Baron Tsunter definitely wouldn’t be able to save Ekheim, which meant that the new owners would eventually kill everyone, and that the Una would have to resurrect.

I couldn’t tell that for sure, of course. I could still see, or at least I thought that I saw, women in dresses on the walls, who calmly watched the bloody feast. If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, they were most likely the Mothers of the Decayed. This meant that the troops that broke into the city had intelligent commanders who could torture Una in hopes of prying out of her the location of the Parts of Zurtarn.

A black spot moving across the sky distracted me from my thoughts. Kane’s, and partially mine, eyes and ears returned from scouting. Flapping its leathery wings, the zombified Bat hovered in the air in front of my face.

“I… wouldn’t…” it forced the words of its master out of its unfit for human speech throat. “Go… in there… And neither… should you…”

Was Kane worried about me? It was easy to guess why if that was the case. I was important for the God of Darkness, and the congregation needed me, too. The stronger the Old Man and his Followers were, the higher the chance was for Kane to live a long and happy life with Mara. From Kane’s point of view, there wasn’t much sense in saving Una. Yes, it was important for strengthening our relationship with Rugus and for further development of all the Followers of our patron. However, the risk was definitely higher than any potential profit.

“I’m a Gleam, and you know it,” I replied. “And don’t tell me that Gleams can be taken prisoner, too. I know. Now, let’s get down to business, Kane. What have you seen? Is she still there?”

The Bat shook its withered, covered with matted fur head and spoke again.

“I don’t know… But the baron… is still there… He had… no time… to leave…”

“So the attack of several monster hordes was unexpected?”

“It would… appear so…”

Holy cow… Were the Longoria’s authorities wrong with their prognosis? Had the speed of the Decay’s spreading gotten higher than the calculated sixty times?

I sighed heavily and jumped off Vella’s back. I patted her neck and looked her in the eyes.

“Go back to the camp, dear.”

“Wooo,” she grumbled with displeasure.

“Don’t argue,” I said strictly. “You have a whole pack of subordinates to take care of. What will they do without their leader if you wind up dead here?”

“Grrr!”

“Don’t worry about me. I got this.”

She snorted and then licked my cheek. She turned her head and stared at the Bat.

“Grrr! Woof!” she woofed quietly, looking at it with an unwavering gaze.

“I will…take care… of your… master…”

Getting her answer, Vella nodded and looked at me one more time and then, turning around, darted off in the opposite direction.

“Okay, lead the way.” I said to the Bat. “You have an idea how to get inside inconspicuously, don’t you?”

Kane, of course, already knew which way to go in order to improve our chances of avoiding unnecessary skirmishes. Following the Bat, I looked around. Even from afar, I could see the mutilated corpses that lay scattered along the road. Those were the bodies of the people who tried to escape, but didn’t manage to. I doubted that anyone in Ekheim would be able to survive the attack.

Thinking about it, I felt a pang of guilt. The tiny, naïve idealist that was living deep in my soul, brought up on books and movies about honorable heroes, demanded from me to ignore all the obstacles and, without regard for my own life, save every doomed citizen.

But that was impossible now. First of all, I had to find Una; there would be more use for the world from her than from a dozen of commoners. I was almost sure that my mysterious patron was this dark world’s only chance of stopping the Decay. However, the Old Man needed help. Rugus’s as well. But Rugus needed help, too… So, in order to achieve a bigger, perhaps global scaled, goal in the future, we had to sacrifice something in the present. In our case, it was people.

Secondly, my most effective saving method, Elusive Darkness, which could immediately make new Followers of the God of Darkness from ordinary citizens, was unavailable now. The Old Man hadn’t contacted me since the battle for Ilyenta. Several hours ago, I spent points on Call of the Patron myself. He managed to say a couple of sentences in a rather tired and exhausted voice. He wasn’t physically able to transfer a crowd of people through him right now.

“Here…” the Bat wheezed, pointing with its muzzle at a part of the wall, somewhere between the wide-open northern and closed river gates in the western part of the city.

I looked around. There was no sign of any decayed beasts.

“Thank you,” I nodded to my guide and, lifting up my arm, aimed Joy of the Acrobat’s hook at the nearest pinion of the wall.

“Wait…” Without waiting for me to react, the Bat flew up higher. Glancing over the wall, it flew down at once. “Clear… Go…”