Chapter 73
Like a lion she rushed upon her prey,
and her chief delight was in slaughter,
and her pleasure was in blood.
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—Isis, The Story of Re
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MIKHAIL
When you're a soldier, you go where your commanding officer tells you, but the bādiyat ash-shām ranks up there with some of the most terrible places I've ever served. I've fought battles with ice-monsters on planets where the temperature approaches absolute zero, trudged through the mud on bleak swamp worlds, and battled lizards on asteroids which teetered too close to a sun, but never have I had to do it without modern survival equipment. Here, not only must I traverse this great, flat, desolate strip of sand on foot, but once the sun sets, I don't dare fly too far ahead.
Come morning we slaughter the first of our goats, but mu
