Sho Tsai sighed, stroking his chin as his gaze roamed over the assembled troops, no doubt taking note of the many lolling heads and misaligned spears. “One more hour then,” he decided. “Then the watch will be reduced by half . . .”
“It’s starting!” Ahm Lin cut in. He pointed to something in the depths of the ruins, Vaelin moving closer to make out the sight of a large column of infantry approaching the walls. Their chanted prayers soon reached the battlement, this time voiced at a higher pitch that spoke of near hysteria.
“Two thousand?” Sho Tsai said.
“More than three, I’d say,” Vaelin replied. Peering closer he blinked in surprise. “No ladders that I can see. Nor any kind of ram.”
The column came to a halt two hundred paces from the gate, too far for any but the most optimistic archer to score a hit. Their chants, already discordant with fervour, now took on a more frenzied note. They were close enough for Vaelin to identify them all as Redeemed, men and women in their mismatched armour, which, to his astonishment, they all began to discard. Breastplates, hauberks and greaves flew into the air as the Redeemed cast them away, their prayer chants becoming something that resembled the baying of animals. Bared to the waist they milled together, embracing, before joining hands and reforming their ranks, this time fashioning themselves into a narrow column four abreast aimed directly at the gate like an arrow.
“They don’t need a ram,” Vaelin heard Ahm Lin say. “They are the ram.”
The column surged forward at a run that soon became a sprint. The crossbowmen above the gate began to loose their bolts before Vaelin even shouted the order. He saw a hundred Redeemed fall at the first volley, others keeping on despite the bolts jutting from shoulders or arms. Some of those that had fallen scrambled to their feet and ran to rejoin the column as it closed on the gate. Another volley slashed down before they connected with the oak doors, Redeemed falling by the dozen. The gate heaved under the assault, wooden beams shuddering but failing to break. The surviving Redeemed below reared back, stepping on the corpses of their slain brethren, then joined their bodies to those following behind and once again threw themselves at the gate.
“This is plain insanity,” Sho Tsai said in appalled wonder as the hail of bolts continued to claim yet more victims amongst the Redeemed. The column shrank as it pummelled the gate, bodies piling up before it, some rising to add their weight to the assault despite having been pierced with multiple shafts. The gate boomed as the fist of close-packed humanity struck it once more, but as yet showed no sign of breaking, Vaelin hearing the sharp crack of breaking bones amongst the tumult.
“General!” one of the sergeants called from close by, pointing at another column approaching from the north. They numbered the same as the first cohort and were also composed of Redeemed. Their screaming chants had already begun, and like their comrades they had discarded their armour. Despite their obviously unreasoned minds they kept a tight formation as they charged, running through the rain of bolts with no more regard than if it were a light drizzle. The second column slammed into the remnants of the first, another boom from the gate, more snapping bones. The dense mass of flesh roiled against the gate, pushing ever harder as they screamed out their prayers and died.
Hearing a shocked curse from one of the crossbowmen, Vaelin raised his gaze, seeing another column charging from the gloom, with another two behind. He turned to Sho Tsai but the general was already shouting orders.
“Captain, shift every crossbow from the south gate to the north! Sergeant, light the oil and throw it over!”
The third column suffered the same losses as the first two, the remnants of which were now piled against the gate in an ugly confusion of compressed, twisted bodies. Undaunted by the flaming oil that rained down from above, the Redeemed smashed their bodies into the piled flesh. Then Vaelin heard a squeal of protesting iron amid the boom of impacted oak.
“Take charge of the regiments before the gate,” Sho Tsai ordered Vaelin. “They cannot break in, regardless of the cost.”
Vaelin nodded, pausing at Alum’s side as he moved to the nearest stairwell. “Get the mason back to the temple,” he said.
The Moreska replied with a grave shake of his head, hefting his spear.