Soldiers of a Dying God — Harry Connolly

Novelette. Tindehall is the last human city in the world, and soon it will be empty ruins. The powerful Digger peoples have been waging a long-distance war against the human race, and within a few short years their genocide will be complete.

But the Royal Engineer, who should be have been working toward a magical protection or counterattack, instead wastes his days catering to the whims and vanities of his aging Empress, a woman he is sworn to serve. His people die, his leaders have failed, and his beloved god, who had once sent colossal warriors to protect the city and its people, does nothing.

Just when he thinks things couldn't be any worse, Her Majesty casts him out of the city to make his way through the wilderness, exposed to the deadly Digger weapons all the way, to destroy the last remaining soldiers in the world.

Can a devout man survive his journey and serve the god he loves without breaking his unbreakable oath?

Originally published in Black Gate Magazine #10