at their head. Many of the boys had war paint on and their hair shaved into strange shapes. They had already taken their smoke, it seemed, and had been worked up into a frenzy by their leaders.
Harold pulled his horse up and shouted to the boys. “Today is a historic day. Today is the day when we boys show the world what we’re capable of. We don’t need old men to lead us or tell us what to do. We know what to do. We know our power, our speed, our strength. And now the world will learn about it too. The world will learn to fear us. The world will learn to ignore us no more. Today we invade Calidor. We take the wall, and the Bears will hold it. I will run with the rest of you to Calia.”
What? That wasn’t the plan at all. That wasn’t what Harold had promised Noyes. He had agreed to hold the wall until his father arrived with his own troops. He had promised not to go on to Calia.
The boys were cheering and whooping. But March was silent, trying to take in this news. He turned to Sam, who was waving his spear in the air. “We’re going to go to Calia? He’s going to leave Thornlees at the wall?”
“Sounds like it. We can do it too. We’ll show them.” Sam’s eyes were bright with excitement.
Harold continued, “Calidor will be ours. Everyone in our path will learn to flee, or they will die. We boys will take Calia. We boys will take Calidor.”
The shouts and cheers were deafening.
Harold was standing in his stirrups, his arms out, his armor shining. “Are you ready to show the world what we can do?”
The shouts grew louder still.
“Are you ready?”
But March could hardly hear what Harold was saying now, the shouting was so loud. Harold leaped from his horse and ran ahead of the boys. March and Sam ran close at his heels, and the other boys were following as fast as the wind and on toward the wall.
The first wall was the lower one. Though it was solid and imposing, with smoke in his body March saw it as an easy obstacle. The thing he feared was the pit. If he fell in when it was on fire, then getting out would be almost impossible.
The place where Harold had chosen to breach the walls was between two lookout points, and the boys were hidden from them by the undulating land until they were nearly at the wall. But once the boys were in view, speed was essential.
The boys raced forward faster and faster. Ahead of March the first of the four ladders was being raised. The Bears and Wasps were working together on it. The Wasps scaled the lower wall with ease, and the Bears raised their ladder, scaling the wall and then pulling the ladder in an arc. As the ladder swung, it opened out to land with a huge clang across the pit between the two walls.
Calidorian soldiers were already running along the top of the main wall to meet the invaders. They unleashed their first arrows at the Wasps, who were crossing the pit on the first ladder. A second ladder landed across the span with a crash. The third was arcing down as one of the guards hurled a flaming torch into the dividing pit below the Wasps. More flaming torches followed as the last ladder fell into place.
Arrows zinged down on the crowd of boys as they threw grappling hooks over the first, lower wall. March was with them at the base of the lower wall and protected from the arrows, but not for long. Harold climbed up a rope and March had to follow. At the top he had a view of the battle. Flames in the ditch had already taken hold and were licking the bottoms of the ladders.
Calidorian soldiers were using their spears to lever a ladder over, tipping boys into the ditch. Archers were targeting other boys on the wall. Harold drew his sword and ran across the nearest ladder, showing no fear, no hesitation. The Gold Brigade followed, shouting as they went, even though the flames were round their ankles.
March ran across and could hardly see where to put his feet for the smoke rising from the pit. The ladder sloped upward and his boot slipped, but he regained his balance and ran on. Then he was through the smoke and on the second