Demon Castle

Wyndham has rotted under Kushan rule. Bodies hang skewered on spikes for crows to pick at, and dense fog smothers every street. Rowing up a waterway, Laban and a band of men steer toward a bridge where torchlight signals them to a meeting with a hooded figure of the local resistance. Laban explains the mist hid their approach, and the leader lays out how far the city has fallen: corpses litter roads, fountains and even churches, the men shipped off as war slaves, the women hauled into the castle for some unknown rite, leaving only the very old and the very young behind.

Hope survives, the leader says, because Princess Charlotte still lives, held on the top floor of the Tower of Rebirth. Laban brightens, seeing a chance to rally the nobles back to the allied cause. The hooded man then lowers his cowl to reveal himself as Foss and asks where Griffith is. Before Laban can reply, a crocodile-like humanoid bursts among them, smashing boats and seizing a man in its jaws while the rest scatter. Foss explains that Kushan sorcery drives such beasts, a power that has turned Wyndham into a city of demons.

Reaching a main road, the group is boxed in when an elephant-shaped monster lumbers into view just as the crocodile resurfaces. Arrows suddenly rain down and drop the crocodile, and they look up to see Irvine on a far rooftop with his bow raised. The elephant creature is likewise slain, a lance hurled by the mounted Locus punching through its eyes. Locus tells the shaken group to stay calm, promises a strong wind will soon scatter the fog, and departs to ready the ground for the Falcon's advance, stunning Laban, Foss and the resistance. Deep in the mist, the Kushan leader Ganishka senses Locus and silently dares the band to come and take his city.

Laban makes contact with the Wyndham resistance and finds its leader is Foss. He learns Charlotte remains alive in the Tower of Rebirth and that the Kushan use sorcery to unleash pishacha monsters on the city. Irvine and Locus reveal themselves, killing the beasts and confirming the Band of the Falcon intends to storm Wyndham. Ganishka senses the intrusion and welcomes the coming battle.

Part of the Millennium Falcon Arc, this twenty-one-page chapter ran in Young Animal issue 22 on November 14, 2003. It reintroduces Foss as a resistance figure and gives the first shadowed glimpse of Emperor Ganishka.