Overhead in the darkness, there was a faint rustle of leather wings.

Korinna lifted her head first. At her gasp, the guards around her looked up and raised their spears in readiness.

They were too late. A company of marewings—sixteen wild monsters, captured and trained for the sole purpose of war, each one carrying a veteran warrior armed with weapons and armor worth a year of Korinna’s farming profits—came gliding over the walls and landed in the courtyard.

One of the mercenaries vaulted off his mount and looked around the courtyard with his hands on his hips.