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Amara rushed back to the battlements with Giraldi beside her and watched as the Marat horde, beneath the droning yawls of huge, hollowed ani forward at a steady trot, olves and herdbane loping along beside theionares beside Amara She saw the man reach for his spear, fu out and batting the falling weapon away froht it in one scar-knuckled hand "Steady," he growled, eyes on Aionare "Steady, lads "

The horde grew closer The sounds of thousands of feet hitting the ground as they ran rose like far off thunder

"Steady," Giraldi said He looked up and down the line and barked, "Archers&039; Shields&039;"

The legionares stepped up to the battlee Legion wall shields Behind each, another legionare, ar his bow and took position Most of the archers were holders frorew closer, the eerie droning of their horns growing louder,A restless shuffle went down the line of shieldlanced at the young holder in borrowed armor beside him "You sure you lads can shoot that far&039;"

The holder peeked around the edge of the shield of the burly legionare in front of hie "

Giraldi nodded "Archers!" he growled "Fire at will!"

All up and down the line, archers set arrows to their bows, their tips pointing up at the sky, standing close to their shieldman half-draw his bow, then bu the shield, and the archer drew as he lowered the bow, took quick aiain swiftly, bringing his shield back into position

All along the wall, the archers began shooting Each man loosed an arrow every five or six breaths, or even faster Amara stood beside Giraldi in the one crenellation not occupied by a shieldh the air and into the onco Marat ranks The deadly aim of the Aleran holders dropped Marat and beast alike with equal ferocity, littering the ground with fresh corpses, er crooop and dive in a swar horde

But still the horde ca at close to six hundred yards-an incredible distance, Aht&039;s skill to e such a feat For perhaps a runt of archers drawing bows, legionares kneeling and standing again, the droning blare of Marat horns, and the ru of thousands of feet

But when the Marat closed to charging range of the walls, the entire horde erupted in a sudden shout that hit A in its sheer intensity At the sa shriek, terrifying from one such beast, but fro all its own At the same moment, the sun broke the horizon across the distant plains, a sudden harsh light that swept over the top of the battlements first, and made archers flinch and squint as they attempted their next shot

"Steady!" Giraldi bellowed, voice barely carrying over the din "Spears!"

The shield-bearing centurions gripped their spears, faces set in a fighting grie hit the first razor-edged defensive spikes the holders had crafted out of the earth itself Amara watched closely, her heart in her throat The leaders in the Marat charge began to leap and skip a for all the world like children playing at hopping games Behind them leapt their aniels, begin to strike the spikes fro them

"The ones with clubs," Aer we can keep the spikes in place, the harder it will be for therunted and relayed her order up and down the walls, and the archers, instead of firing into the eneets

Scaling poles and ropes with hooks fashioned of soionares thrust at the poles with the crossguards of their spears, pushing them away, and some drew their swords to hack at ropes as they came up, while the archers continued to fire on the enean to flicker up from the horde below, short, heavy arrows launched froered in aih both cheeks in a sudden welter of blood The holder choked, dropping

"Surgeon!" Amara yelled, and a pair ofhi the arrow

Aaze over the

ene beyond a horde of Marat and their beasts, so many thousands of them that it was difficult to tell where one left off and the other began

Giraldi abruptly seized her shoulder and dragged her back frorowled

"I can&039;t tell what&039;s happening," Amara panted She had to shout to make herself heard "There are too many of them"

Giraldi squinted out at the enemy, then drew his head prudently back "About half of their force is here They&039;re holding the rest back, ready to bring the theht," Giraldi called back, "but the gate is our weak point They attack the walls only to keep ate They&039;ll force the barricade sooner or later"

"Why didn&039;t they craft the gate closed?"

"Can&039;t," Giraldi reported "Engineer told me No foundation under it for extra wall, and the interior surface is lined withsound and a sudden chorus of mixed Aleran war cries of, "Riva for Alera!" and "Calderon for Alera!"

Giraldi glanced out over the field again "They otten part of the barricade down The hordemaster has ordered the rest of his troops in, and they&039;re on the ate until the defense breaks" Giraldi grimaced "If they don&039;t repel this first thrust, we&039;re done for"

Aht Almost time, then I&039;ll be back up as soon as I can" She leaned out to look down into the courtyard below She could just round al There were shrieks and cries froht a flash of motion, a dark blade seen for only a second as its wielder spun it out behind hiate once more

Amara hurried to the nearest stairs and pelted down the around wildly Hay fro lay scattered everywhere over the courtyard All but a few of the wounded had been pulled back to the west courtyard, and the last of the loaded onto stretchers She started across the courtyard toward the stables As she did, she saw Pluvus Pentius ee from one of the

barracks, white-faced and nervous, one hand wrapped around the hand of a little boy, whose hand stretched back behind to another child, and so on, until the truthfinder was leading half a dozen children across the courtyard

Amara hurried to hi here?"

"H-hiding," Pluvus stuttered "I found the under their fathers&039; bunks in the barracks"

"Crows," Amara spat "Get them to the west courtyard with the wounded They&039;re supposed to be fortifying one of the barracks to hold theht," Pluvus said, his skinny shoulders tightening "Coether"

A with his back to the wall just inside one of the doors, his eyes half-closed "Bernard," she called "The gate is under attack They&039;ll be co"

"We&039;re ready," Bernard mumbled "Just say when"

A her attention on Cirrus, then sent hi for the windcrafters she kneould be carrying Fidelias&039;s rogue Knights toward the fortress

She felt it astreahtcrafting, sweeping the sky, searching for the inco troops

She spotted them while they were still half asky "There," she shouted "They&039;re co in froht," Bernard murmured

Ahts Aeris with their transport litters swept down frohts Aeris flew before the litters, weapons ready, and the sun gleaate in a steep dive

"Ready!" Amara shouted, and drew her sword "Ready!" She waited a pair of heartbeats more, until the enemy reached the valley-side wall and passed over the western courtyard then the garrison co her hands to stop shaking "Loose!"

All around her in the courtyard, hummocks and lumps of scattered hay shook and shimmered, and a full fifty holder bow Bernard had worked over theuely visible As one, they lifted their great bows and opened fire directly up at the underside of the incohts

The holders&039; aim proved deadly, and their attack had taken the hts Aeris in their aran to plu hailstones The archers stood their ground, shooting, even as the stunned hts Aeris who had not been hit began to weave the air into a shield of turbulence, and arrows began to abruptly veer and miss Amara focused on the ht let out a cry of surprise and fell like a stone

The second and third litters listed and began to spin out of control toward the ground, while injured and surprised bearers struggled to keep theh one of its bearers had taken an arrow through the thigh, h it had to veer to one side, and dropped onto the roof of one of the barracks on the opposite side of the courtyard

Knights Aeris began to swoop and dive toward the courtyard, attacking, and though the holders&039; archery had done hen the Knights had not been prepared to face it, the air shortly beca the holders&039; arrows all but useless

"Fall back!" Aan to withdraw, harried by the airborne Knights, toward the stables The Knights gathered together for a charge, their intention evidently to take the courtyard and hold it, and rushed at the retreating archers in a swift and deadly dive Ah she was able to do little hts Aeris, they broke off the charge, swooping back up into the sky above the fortress, enabling the archers to retreat into the carrion-stink of the stables

Aionares stationed outside the gate She caught a gli beside the ed to find two or three ways to crawl through it, and Pirellus danced from one spot to the next, his blade, and the spears of the twothe Marat at bay "Pirellus!" she shouted "Pirellus!"

"A moment, Lady," he called, and whipped his sword out in a blinding thrust The Marat who received it died without so ap a the various wooden objects Pirellus took a pair of steps back and nodded to the spear by The men moved forward to hold the barricade, and Pirellus turned to A The mercenaries attacked?"

"Two of their litters went down outside the walls," she said, and pointed, "But a third landed on the roof of that barracks "

Pirellus nodded once "Very well Stay here and-Countess!" The black blade swept out and soun to turn, felt splinters of wood flickering against her cheek, and the broken fletch of an arrow rebounded from her mail She lifted her eyes to the barracks and saw Fidelias there, cal aian to clamber down from the roof The forh he stood in the shadow of the newly risen walls, Amara could see his eyes on hers, calm and cool, even as he drew back the second shaft, aimed, and loosed

Pirellus stepped in the way of the shot, cutting it from the air with a contemptuous slap of his blade, and called to the men behind hihts Aeris who circled back above the fortress and then dove toward the gates

Pirellus dragged Arowled, "Stay down " Even as he did, Aed rank that hts above with an uncertain tenacity Fidelias, on the barracks roof, cli over the hay scattered there He knelt into it There ca in the air, and then he si of his own

"There!" A at Pirellus&039;s ar and headed for the gates " She pointed at a flickering over at one side of the courtyard, hardly visible behind the struggling legionares with their backs to the gate

"I see hilanced down at Amara and said, "The Steadholder exhausted hi Good luck " Then he rose and stalked out into din and whirl and screaht in the courtyard

A where she had left hi with labored breaths She

went to his side and took her canteen froainst his hands "Here, Bernard Drink"

He obeyed, nuht The legionares were having a hard tiiant of a swordsman, Aldrick ex Gladius, closed in on the shieldwall, swept one blade aside, danced past another, and killed acut that sheered through his helround on ied the two men on either side of the first One of thethrust to his biceps The other lifted his shield too high in a parry, and Aldrick spun, sweeping his leg off at the knee The ed forward hard against the shields

Pirellus appeared a One of the Knights Aeris, his dive too low, clutched at his belly with a sudden scream, and turound, wielding a forty-pound hed no e weapon at Pirellus The Knight commander slipped to one side with a deceptively lazy motion, and his return blow struck off the round A third mercenary darted his blade at Pirellus, only to be parried and al end over end to rattle against the wall of the stable not far froate!" came Aldrick&039;s bellow "Fall back!" Thetheir wounded with theion troops to halt their advance as well Neither Aldrick nor Pirellus retreated, leaving the twosteps apart

Pirellus extended his blade toward Aldrick and then swept it up before his face in a gliding salute, which Aldrick uard position

"Aldrick ex Gladius," Pirellus said "I&039;ve heard about you The Crown has a pretty bounty on your head"

"I&039;ll be sure to check the wanted posters next tih a town," Aldrick responded "Do you want to settle this, or do you need ionares?"

"My name is Pirellus of the Black Blade," Pirellus said "And I&039;m the ed "Never heard of you, kid You&039;re not Araris"

Pirellus scowled and moved, a sudden liquid blur of muscle and steel Aldrick parried the Parcian&039;s first thrust in a sudden shower of silver sparks, countered with one of his own that proved to be a feint, and whirled in circle, blade lashing out Pirellus ducked under it, though the blow struck sparks fro and sround

The two ain, and Pirellus smiled "Fast for an old man," he said "But youA heartbeat later, a slow trickle of blood dribbled down from beneath the rim of Pirellus&039;s helmet, and toward his eye

The swordsman must have driven the helmet&039;s rim into the cut Pirellus had taken earlier, Aain

Now Aldrick sone sallow beneath his brown skin He lifted his lips at Aldrick and cah again Aldrick parried him in showers of silver sparks The swords in short, hard cuts at the smaller warrior Pirellus&039;s black blade intercepted each blow, sparks of a purple so dark as to hardly be visible exploding at each point of impact The blows drove the Parcian back a number of steps, and Aldrick pressed forward ruthlessly

As Amara watched, Pirellus almost took down the swordsman He slipped beneath a cut, slammed the swordsman&039;s arm aside with his open hand, and drove his blade at Aldrick&039;s belly Aldrick twisted aside, and the Parcian&039;s blade struck h it like paper The thrustscarlet line across Aldrick&039;s belly Aldrick recovered, parrying another thrust, and another, while Pirellus followed him up with determined strokes