Something hit him hard and he spun around, toppling to the flagstones. A bulletwas
he dead? Garth clawed at his shoulder, saw a bright scar on the metal of his armor but no hole.
Sir! Damn him, his helper was running back to save him. No, get to the stairs dammit! Garth yelled, but it was too late. A dozen bullets hit the man and some of those went right through his armor. He fell and slid forward, and died at Garths feet.
Garth had never even learned his name.
Up they came now, soldier after soldier hopping onto Liriss roof. One loped forward, ignoring rifle fire from the stairs, and pitched a firebomb into the central courtyard. The cherry trees were protected under a siege roof, but a few more of those and they would burn.
Swearing, he tried to stand. Something hit him again and he fell back. This time when he looked up, it was to see the black globe of a Sacrus helmet hovering above him, and a rifle barrel inches from his face.
Garth fell back, groaning, and closed his eyes.
She nodded, but the council officers were already ordering a retreat. For a few seconds she watched the soldiers scampering back under relentless fire. Then she cocked an eyebrow at Bryce, and grinned.
Weve lost our momentum? When did you decide this was your fight?
People are dying, he said angrily. Anyway, if what you say is true, theres far more at stake than any of us knew. She shrugged and glanced again at the retreat, but then noticed he was staring at her.
What?
Who are you, really? Surely not Amandera Thrace-Guiles?
Venera laughed. He hadnt been there for her moment of humiliation at the feet of Guineverahad, in fact, been flying through the air over brambles and scrub just about then.
She stuck out her hand for him to shake. Venera Fanning. Pleased to meet you.
He shook it, a puzzled expression on his face, but then a new commotion distracted him. Look! Your friends
Through the drifting smoke, she could see a dozen spindly ladders wobbling against the buildings walls. Men were swarming up them and there was fighting on the roof. In seconds she could lose the people who had become most precious to her. Come on!
They braved rifle fire and ran back. The army commander was crouched over a map. He looked up grimly as Venera approached. Can you feel it? When she frowned, he pointed down at the ground. Now she realized that for some time now, she had been feeling a slow, almost subliminal sensation of rising and falling. It was the kind of faint instability of weight that you sometimes felt when a towns engines were working to spin it back up to speed.
I think Sacrus cut one too many cables.
Let the preservationists deal with it when were finished, she said. Right now we need to cut down those ladders.
He shook his head. Dont you understand? This is more than just a piece or two falling off the world. Somethings happened. Itwe She realized that he was very, very frightened. So were the officers kneeling with him.
Venera felt it again, that long slow waver, unsettling to the inner ear. Way out past the smoke, it seemed like the curving landscape of Spyre was crawling, somehow, like the itchy skin of a giant beast twitching in slow motion.
We cant do anything about that, she said. We have to focus on saving lives here and now! Look, I dont think theres more than three dozen men on those barricades. The rest of their men are waiting on the far side for us to try to relieve Guinevera.
With an effort he pulled himself together. Your plan Can you do it?
Theyll start to pull back as soon as they realize were concentrating here, she said. When they do, well have them.
All right. We have to do something. He got to his feet and began issuing orders. The frightened officers sprinted off in all directions. Venera and Bryce ran back in the direction of the roundhouse and as they passed the fringe of the no-mans land she saw scores of men standing up from concealment in the bushes. Suddenly they were all bellowing and as more popped up from unexpected places Venera found herself being swept back by a vast mob of howling armored men. She and Bryce fought their way forward as hundreds of bodies plunged past them. She had no time to look back but could imagine the Sacrus barricades being overwhelmed in seconds; the ladders would tremble and fall, and when they rose again it would be council soldiers climbing them.
A small copse of trees stood at the end of
no-mans land; bedraggled and half-burnt, they still made a good screen for what hid behind them. Venera smelled the things before she saw them, and her spirits soared as she heard their nervous snorting and stamping.
With murmurs and an outstretched hand, she approached her Dali horse. A dozen others stood huddled together, flanks twitching, their heads a dozen feet off the earth. All were saddled and some of the horsemen were already mounted.
Bryce stopped short, a wondering expression on his face. Venera put her hand on the rope ladder that led up to her beasts saddle, then looked back at him. See to your people, she said. Run your presses. If I live, Ill see you after.