attention. As he stood in the middle of the broad avenue, the loud cries and shouts came from the city gates. He saw a great crowd pushed up against the wall. The pair of tall wooden gates, several inches thick, remained tightly closed and barred with stout timber.
Selena might be safe, but the city was still in danger.
Taimin had an idea, and immediately turned to Vance and Lars. “The Protector is in the tower.” He directed his words to the entire group. “I need you to secure the entrance. Don’t enter. Just make sure no one goes in or out.”
Vance gave a puzzled nod. “Sure.” He met Taimin’s eyes. “Where are you going?”
“To do what I can.”
Taimin burst into the fastest run he could manage. The cries of the crowd grew louder. He began to make out individual figures. People were shouting. The crowd surged back and forth. Soon he heard both men’s and women’s screams.
“Open the gates!”
“It’s too late, Blixen’s already here!”
“Let me out!”
Children wailed. Fear was on every face as Taimin plunged into the crowd. The frantic people pushed back and forth. He turned his body to the side as he worked his way through, heading toward the wall of white stone, and the diagonal stairway leading up to the wall’s summit.
Taimin began to climb. He swiftly gained height as he lifted himself up one step after the other. With the shouts swelling below him, he moved onto the top of the wall. From his new position, thirty feet above the ground, he came to a halt and stood alone, a solitary figure framed against the sky. He looked down from his height at the city folk below.
People turned and saw him. A middle-aged man, holding a child in his arms, called out, “It’s Taimin!”
The name bounced throughout the crowd until every head had turned and then tilted back to look up at him. Gradually, the panicked cries fell silent. The surging motion stopped.
Taimin saw a sea of faces; these were the same people who had watched him fight in the arena. Many held weapons; they were prepared to fight for their homes, but they were afraid. They knew his story, that he was taught by the famed fighter Abigail, who had raised him after rovers killed his parents, men who turned out to be Galen and his brother. Taimin had refused to fight a skalen he considered a friend. He had challenged the commander of the city guard to single combat. He had led his fellow prisoners to freedom.
Taimin called down to the crowd below the wall. “People of Zorn!” Their expressions were expectant as they waited to hear his words. “The Protector has used fear as his weapon. He has sought to create hatred for anyone different from ourselves. He wants to make us so afraid of everything outside this wall that we will agree to anything, even terrible deeds against those we share this world with, so long as we think we’re safe.”
He scanned the crowd and saw the gaunt faces of the field workers. “Why did he not tell you that the well was dry? You know the answer. Because his rule would be threatened. Rather than find a solution together, and share his authority, he has lied. Rather than trade with those outside, he has made enemies out of them. Rather than protect you, he has brought an army to this city’s doorstep.”
“But how can you protect us?” a man with a gray beard called up.
Taimin turned to look out from the wall, toward the plain. A long line of figures, a dark mass on the horizon, was growing bigger. Even as Taimin watched, Blixen’s army marched inexorably toward the city. Bax after bax stood in long, frightening lines. Soon Taimin could make out bristling spears held upright.
He once more addressed the crowd. “We began this war, and we can end it. With the fall of the city guard, we have an opportunity for peace.”
“How can we trust Blixen?” a dark-haired woman shouted. “If he knows we have no soldiers, what is to stop him killing us all?”
Taimin called down to her. “I will ask him that myself.”
The stout wooden gates drew open, just wide enough to allow Taimin, Elsa, and Rathis to emerge from the city’s protection. There was something final about the thunderous clatter the gates made as the timbers crashed together once more.
With his two companions on either side of him, Taimin started to walk.
As his group of three left