“Well, I do,” said Tain. “Look at this. We—” He broke off as a horn sounded. “They’re through,” he said. “This is it.”
Our people fell into place to meet the sudden rush of the enemy through the tower. We could no longer hold them off. My sweaty fingers clenched around the sword as I followed Tain into the throng. Then panic surged through me and I turned. “Hadrea!” I cried. She stood behind me, her long knife in hand, far steadier than I felt. “Get back to the city. The rebels won’t hurt you and the rest of the Darfri. You’ll be safe.”
For a moment her face, wet with tears, stiffened. Then, instead of fleeing, she pressed in beside me and kissed me hard on the lips. “But you would not, without me. I have seen you with a sword.”
It was like being at the bottom of the ladders all over again. My mouth was dry and I couldn’t get enough air as the lines clashed together and the rebel army poured in. I joined the protective circle around Tain and only as a woman with a spear charged at me did I realize I hadn’t taken a shield or even the crudest armor. I twisted to avoid the thrust, felt it catch in my tunic, and lunged back. As I did, the blur of Hadrea’s shape caught my eye and I spun the sword at the last moment to hit my opponent with the hilt instead. Idiot, idiot, you can’t just knock them all out, part of me shouted, but I knew, even as I ducked a swinging blow from a man with a hammer, that I was going to try. Unless and until it killed me.
The sword became my shield, for defense only. My free hand flung lavabulb seeds into eyes. Beside me, Hadrea slashed and pivoted and darted in and out. I felt a clumsy animal compared to her; with every swing and parry I grew weaker. I could only avoid their relentless attacks for so long. I tired quickly, my movements slowing and my strikes weakening. A glancing blow from a club to my hipbone sent me staggering, and the club would have crushed my head if Hadrea had not suddenly been there, slashing at the back of the man’s knees. He screamed and fell almost on top of me. I got out of the way just in time, wobbling to my feet.
I took another hit, this time a knife to the left shoulder, making me cry out in agony and lending a desperate strength to my right side as I smashed the base of my sword on the man’s elbow. As he staggered back, I kicked him in the knee as hard as I could.
As we fought and struggled I became aware of a pressing sensation around my head and glanced at Hadrea; she was looking around wildly, obviously sensing it, too. I saw a Speaker approaching through the crowd, dirt and grass stuffed in her raised and outstretched fists. Her face turned to the lightening indigo sky and she chanted over the roar of the battle. Somehow she moved through the crowd undisturbed, never deviating in her path, a gliding water bird on a still lake. I ducked under a swinging shield and drew closer to her. I knew I shouldn’t leave Tain’s protective circle but my shaking legs shuffled forward almost of their own volition, compelled and repelled by fear and the memory of the gritty hand on my leg and the sight of the swirling mists and debris-filled winds.
The Speaker’s head suddenly snapped down like a heavy lid closing. Her gaze moved over the crowd and she drew her fists in toward her bare chest as if pulling some great tense rope. The tight sensation around my ears intensified.
People behind me cried out simultaneously; I spun around. Great earthy ropes of grass and dirt burst from the ground and gripped Hadrea and Tain, along with half a dozen others protecting the Chancellor, pulling them to their knees like sentient vines. Hadrea clutched at her neck as the green-and-brown fingers tightened around her throat, and Tain coughed and beat at his chest as the ropy strands dragged over his shoulders. I started toward them but Hadrea’s eyes met mine and instead of fear I saw resolution; she jerked her gaze sharply to a point over my shoulder. I nodded and pivoted, leaping toward the Speaker without much thought beyond reaching her.
We collided roughly; the last instant before impact I slipped sideways slightly so that instead of catching my arm around the Speaker’s neck and barreling chest-to-chest as I’d intended, I struck her shoulder-to-shoulder. She stumbled back hard, losing one hand’s worth of dirt and grass, but didn’t fall. Her gaze snapped to me, crackling with rage. I had only enough time to stick my free hand into my pouch, for the next moment she thrust her arm toward me with a bellowed command, and grass and clods of earth sprang up from the very ground, pinning my arms and coiling around my torso like great snakes. The roaring in my ears intensified as the bizarre earth fingers tightened their grip.
I tried to back away but I was held fast, my sword flat and useless against my thigh. Inside the pouch my fingers scrambled around until they found a phial. Dangerous and foolish to attempt it, but I did anyway. With a series of quick, tiny yanks I got my hand out of the pouch and free of the bindings, the phial only just within my fingers’ grip. Hoping the fortunes were on my side, I popped the lid of the phial with my thumb and flicked my wrist toward her as hard as I could.
The scream from the Speaker as acid splashed across her bare stomach reverberated in my skull. I, too, felt a burn like a hot needle driving into the side of my thumb where I had collected a tiny splash. But as the Speaker collapsed, still screaming, my bindings fell away to nothing. Relieved coughing sounded behind me under the howls and shrieks, and I almost cried with relief to see Tain, Hadrea, and the rest staggering to their feet as well. With my uninjured hand I struck the Speaker unconscious with the butt of my sword then hurried back to join my friends. Wary rebels now circled in once more. My heart felt heavy in my chest. Darfri magic was real. How could we possibly stand against something like that?
So loud were the rasp of my breathing and the hammering of blood in my ears that it took some time for the sound of horns to penetrate. I looked around, confused. What were the horns signaling?
Tain’s voice cracked with disbelief. “It’s the army,” he said, then he shouted it again. “It’s our army!”
Others took up the cry. All around us, men and women on both sides slowed and fumbled in their attacks, looking around in fear and confusion. No one quite seemed to know what was going on. But the cheer picked up, louder and louder, until it finally sunk into my woolly head.
Aven had arrived.
* * *
Confusion reigned. Rebels on our side of the lake stopped pressing forward and instead worked to hold their ground as they peered frantically through the crowd, searching for instruction. None of the mercenary leaders could be seen amidst the mist rolling across the lake. Cynical, I doubted whether any had engaged in this first push across the bridge. Why should they when they could just send waves of our countrymen across to clear the way?
Eventually the retreat call sounded, and rebels fought their way, not forward into our territory, but back to the bridge. “Protect the tower!” an Order Guard screamed, and a surge of our own people thickened around the base of the tower to cut off the retreat. But Tain raced down the hill, leaving us scrambling to keep up.
“Let them through!” he bellowed. “Let them through!”
The Order Guard perched on top of the half-crumpled wall stared down at Tain as he charged toward them, head cocked as if not understanding what he’d heard. I puffed to keep up as Tain darted through the crush, fired by unnatural agility and energy from the darpar. Even unarmored it took all my effort just to keep him in sight while avoiding the desperate strikes of the rebels as they retreated to the tower.