The Sacred Guard had caught his father’s bodyguard and, like a fire licking at a thatch roof, consumed it. One warrior in particular, immense in its steel and rage, had stepped forth and flattened Suthdal’s best knights with an inexorable hammer. This horrifying weapon had then been turned on the king’s horse, slamming down on its back and oddly denting the beast, which fell with a scream. King Osbert’s father, King Offa, had rolled to the feet of the antihero. He had stirred, trying to raise himself from the ground under the weight of his armour, and the war hammer had come down on his head.
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