Star-Moon Bay Square was packed with Cavalry. Earth Elementals and Water Elementals were there too, while more than twenty Fire Elementals occupied one corner.
There was no movement from the Lord's Manor ahead. Their lord had yet to appear, but the Musketeers knew a bitter battle awaited them and made their own preparations.
Some Cavalry wiped their Magic Muskets as tenderly as they would a lover. Others cradled their guns and whispered to them. Still others gathered several guns together and prayed softly around a kneeling Musketeer:
"Great Annan, grant me courage and honor. Great God of Muskets, grant me immortality and cruelty..."
Annan had once asked Luoxi what this custom was. Luoxi had looked surprised. Wasn't Annan himself the reason? It had all begun when Annan returned from the Royal Capital and told Aunt Susan a funny story about spinners praying to the Susan Spinning Machine. For reasons everyone knew, half of Star-Moon Bay had heard it by that afternoon.
Luoxi had told the Musketeers to Love their guns as they would their own women, so they had followed his example. Whether it actually helped... well, the gods had long since stopped answering their prayers. They might as well put their faith in the guns in their arms.
The murmur of voices continued for several minutes, then fell silent as Annan appeared outside the City Lord's Mansion.
"Our neighbors in Glacier Harbor face destruction."
Annan did not speak loudly, but his voice carried to all two thousand soldiers in the square. The Musketeers stood in neat ranks again, radiating a silent air of deadly resolve.
"Their lord shamefully abandoned his people. But we stand for justice, and we must not abandon them... Second Company, I give you the name Hellfire. Burn our enemies like the fires of Hell."
At