The Phantom Hounds escape East

Military action

Eight Coyote Comet leads the Phantom Hounds Regiment East out of Muirthemne. They suffer many casualties during their escape.

Friday March 27, Sixth Year of the War; Somewhere in the Barrier: We've been running for a week now, and we're all exhausted. None of us have much hope of escape anymore. The Dark is gaining on us little by little, and we skirmish with their advance elements daily. The undead are everywhere except ahead, and we lose men every time they hit us. Every time someone is wounded or can't keep up and falls behind, they are lost. We can wait for no one. The Captain fell two days ago, and we couldn't give him a burial, couldn't stop to remember all that he had done, couldn't even recover the armor he was so proud of, But at least he died wearing it. The worst of it is, we're going the wrong way. Not back west toward Maeldun and the Cloudspine, but east, toward another range of mountains whose name I don't even know. Eight Coyote Comet leads us now, but he's not exactly what I thought he would be. Most of the time, he's silent. When he speaks, it's sometimes in that calm, wise, soothing voice he has - and sometimes he raves like a madman. Even when he seems lucid, he speaks of things that no one understands, even the other Journeymen. He seems to be insisting that east is the way we must go, which is just as well, because the hordes of the enemy haven't given us a choice since we broke the prophet out of the catacombs. Even if we wanted to turn back, Eight Coyote would not go, and we can't very well make a break through enemy lines while dragging him. Nor would the Journeymen allow it. They treat him with the utmost reverence, as though he's some kind of high priest. Ahead, he told us, we would find a great chasm, running across the desert as far as the eye can see. and sure enough, we have come to it. There are only a few crossings, all seemingly sculpted of the very stone from which the chasm was torn. On the largest of the bridges, an image of a gauntlet is scorched into the rock. None of us know what it means. But it is here we will make our stand.