Kingdom of Ash

the charred land flashed below.
Villages and farmsteads: gone. As if a
force had swept in from the sea and razed
everything in its path.
But there had been no armada camped by
the shore. No, this army had been on foot.
Keeping just within the veil of clouds,
Nesryn and Sartaq crossed the land.
Her heart pounded, faster and faster, with
every league of seared, barren landscape they
covered. No signs of an opposing army or
ongoing battles.
They’d burned it for their own sick
enjoyment.
Nesryn marked the land, the features she
could make out. They’d indeed barely crossed
over Fenharrow’s borders, Adarlan a sprawl to
the north.
But inland, growing closer with each
league, an army marched. It stretched for