The Black Kingdom was being overrun. The defeat on the flood plain, which had been so humiliating that nobody had wanted to name the battle, had left the Sutherners free to rampage north of the Abus for the first time in centuries. It was as though each soldier had endured that wait personally, such was their appetite to loot and burn. Especially to burn. It was common enough, when at war, to set villages and granaries ablaze as you passed through them. It weakened the enemy’s morale, hampered their ability to resist and signified the helplessness of the occupied territory.
