circle that revolved continually as it tried to fight its way to the third tier. In the centre the banner of the Red Scouts could be seen alongside the general’s pennant. The circle moved at an impressively steady pace despite the repeated assaults launched against its flanks, inching closer to the upper wall by the second, but also losing men with every step.
“You have work for me, Uncle?” Ellese asked, appearing at Vaelin’s side. “Where’s Juhkar?” she added, looking around for the tracker.
“He has his own mission,” Vaelin said. Moving to the wall he pointed to the centre of the encircled infantry. “Keep the general alive,” he told Ellese and Nortah. “Nothing else matters.”
Vaelin watched the continually shrinking formation of soldiers fight its way step by painful step towards the gate, assailed on all sides by an ever-increasing number of Stahlhast and Redeemed. The crossbowmen laboured to hurl repeated volleys into the ranks of the attackers, but for every warrior their bolts claimed, another three would come charging from the gate or the walls. Nortah and Ellese loosed their shafts at a more sedate pace, killing any warrior who seemed likely to force a breach in the soldiers’ tight-packed ranks. Whatever madness-inducing power Kehlbrand had over these people had not abated. It required two of Ellese’s poisoned shafts to put down one large, bear-like man who used a blacksmith’s hammer to club his way into the circle before collapsing into a wreck of bloodless flesh and bone.
Once the circle had forced its way to within twenty yards of the gate, a series of horns sounded out from its centre. In an obviously pre-planned move the circle became a diamond, the north-facing ranks charging for the gate whilst the others back-pedalled in their wake. The soldiers at the front charged with the deadly ferocity of men facing imminent death, cutting through a dense but disorganised mass of enemies to reach the wall. As they did so the ranks behind fanned out, forming a half-circle around the gate.
Vaelin ordered rocks and oil over the wall, deluging the attackers on either side of the half-circle whilst the crossbowmen continued to assail those to the front. It began to shrink as soldiers started to make their way through the tunnel. Vaelin was once again impressed by the discipline of Merchant soldiery, each squad continuing to fight until they were ordered through the gate, at which point they would deliver a final lunge of their spears before retreating, soldiers on either side moving to fill the gap.
Soon the half-circle had shrunk to a third of its former size, and still hadn’t broken. Vaelin could see Sho Tsai and Tsai Lin at the apex of the arc of struggling soldiers, fighting side by side. The general fought with an economic lethality, his sword lancing out to stab at the faces and necks of his assailants, barking out orders to his men all the while. Tsai Lin had claimed a Stahlhast sabre in addition to his own sword and fought with both weapons, slashing left and right with the kind of deadly precision that Vaelin knew could only be the result of a lifetime of expert tutelage.
“Lord!”
Vaelin turned to find one of the crossbowmen stepping back from the wall, gesturing helplessly at his empty quiver. A glance at the man’s comrades confirmed they had all either exhausted their bolts or were about to do so.
“General!” Vaelin cupped his hands around his mouth to call down to Sho Tsai, hoping he could be heard above the tumult of battle. “No more time!”
Sho Tsai gave the briefest glance in his direction, a Stahlhast taking advantage of his distraction to dart forward with his sabre raised before falling dead with Nortah’s arrow jutting from his shoulder. Sho Tsai barked out a series of orders that sent the remaining soldiers running for the gate. The orderly withdrawal was forgotten now as they scrambled for safety. Sho Tsai and Tsai Lin continued to back towards the gate, fighting all the way under cover of Nortah and Ellese’s arrows, claiming another half-dozen warriors in the time it took the pair to reach the tunnel. By then a group of Redeemed had forced their way into the knot of soldiers trying to reach the gate, killing many and invading the passage.
Vaelin didn’t hesitate in shouting out his next order. There was no choice if the third tier was to be held. “Bar the gate!”
As the order was relayed down to the soldiers guarding the