She had been used to receiving that response throughout her life, and had learned to suppress her frustrations. Brynd said, 'We could defend the docks with our forces stationed on the quayside to prevent the enemy getting into the city.'
'Let them just come ashore, then I can rid you of many more than your army could ever hope to do in one attack.' Beami couldn't wait any longer. If she was going to aid his defence of the city she had to do it immediately. 'Leave it to me, please. I only need half an hour. Send the order to call the soldiers back from the front line and make them stand two streets away from the waterfront instead. They'll be safe there, and meanwhile I can focus on the-'
'One hour and the invasion fleet will be arriving here by that very same entry point into the city,' Brynd snapped.
'Exactly,' she smiled. 'So trust me.'
With a rush of emotions she fled the room, hearing him say, 'You have just one chance to earn that trust, do you hear me?'
*
She burst out through the fog, this cultist on a lively mare, heading out through the back of the Citadel. Gathered civilian foot soldiers looked up half astonished at her thundering through their mass.
Out into the city, her route took her the long way round, due to the military blockades and the thousands of troops readied for engagement. Under the shadow of the Onyx Wings, along the fringe of Althing, the Shanties, and straight towards Port Nostalgia, with a bag of modified Brenna-based relics slung across one shoulder, and suddenly Lupus was riding behind her, on a muscular black mare, still in his Night Guard uniform, a bow strapped across his back.
'Why're you following me?' she shouted.
'Commander's orders. He doesn't quite trust you, I'm afraid.'
'Well, he should,' she replied.
'Beami, wait a moment.'
She sought to curb her horse and was surprised at how quick its response was. 'What?'
'Have you ever killed anyone before?'
She shook her head. Only then did she realize what she was taking on.
'You want to prove things to a world of men, I know,' Lupus said, his voice carefully controlled. He was on army time now. 'But listen, when you kill, your heart will start to beat incredibly fast and you'll feel a rush of emotions like you've never felt before. Your throat might seize. Take deep breaths to calm yourself and take control of your body else your muscles might seize. Think only of the relics, that might help.'
They galloped through deserted streets, abandoned neighbourhoods, rubble and detritus. Hooves reverberated loudly on cobbles. The mood of the place seemed to foreshadow a forthcoming apocalypse, but only a few streets away life flared: files of men and women lined up behind stout barricades, with their cheap weapons, and charged by a hope laced with fear.
Eventually Beami slowed down, and she moved the bag of relics in front of her.
Lupus pulled in alongside her. 'Where are we heading exactly?'
'Western side of Port Nostalgia,' she replied, 'and then we're moving through to the east, and at some point we'll need to cut a line back to the front of the Citadel. We won't have long so please, Lupus, you'll have to hold back because of the sheer scale of this experiment.'
She undid her necklace, the silver tribal symbol he'd given her all those years ago. 'Look after this for the moment.'
Without emotion, he took it and placed it safely in his pocket. He made a silent but important gesture, edging his horse slightly behind hers once again. Drawing his bow over his shoulder, he glanced from side to side. 'At least let me cover your back.'
'Thank you,' she whispered.
Beami primed the relics and stared up as the snow began falling, bold flakes that saturated the grey sky. She nudged her horse forward into the open Port Nostalgia district – surprised at how this unfamiliar mount seemed to react as if it already knew her thoughts. Now to the harbour front itself, where four ships of the invading fleet had already breached the harbour walls and were parting the vessel-crowded port with ease.
Fishing boats capitulated in their path, buckling under the impact, a series of tiny wooden explosions.
'You'd better hurry,' Lupus advised her.
Beami observed the terrace of coloured buildings, noting their vacant facades. Thankfully there was no one stationed in the windows, no sword points or arrow tips sticking out from behind the barricades.
The commander had done what she asked.
She dismounted and hauled out the first of the amplified Digr-Brenna relics. She had modified several of them so they could sit on spikes, and with a small mallet pounded one into a gap between the cobbles.
Lupus loitered close by, watching intently.
'Please, Lupus, keep clear. I'll be all right on my own. It'll get dangerous very soon. Please, go now – and take my horse with you.'
His understanding was instant, and nothing seemed to demonstrate his respect for her more than when he silently turned his horse away.
'I'll be at the east end of the harbour, waiting.' A smile and he was gone.
No time for emotion, not now. Deep breaths.
She wedged another device in a gap, where it leant at an angle, but remained upright. Another twenty paces, another relic, and so on; all the time she had to endure the fearsome racket of the enemy ships crunching their way towards the shore.
For ten minutes, Beami continued at her task, her cloak billowing around her. She dared not stop to examine the hulk of metal now towering immediately before the shoreline.
There, that was the last of them.
She took several more deep breaths – and fled.
As she ran she heard the ship doors opening, the sound of them lowering to strike the stone quay, then the clanking of footsteps across a metal bridge. Things crawled out from inside, unnatural creatures with shells. Whatever they were, they were armed and came skittering across the quay towards her, towards the city, pouring out of the boats as if they'd sprung some vile kind of leak.
Deep breaths, remember.
There were shouts and cries from within the city, people beginning to react to this sight. An arrow whipped through the air from somewhere deeper in the city, and she prayed that the soldiers would not come forward to meet the invaders in combat, not yet.
Patience.
She crouched to plant the detonation device as one of the creatures scuttled forward, now only twenty feet away from her. With her heartbeats slamming in her mouth, she waited for as many of these things as possible to descend onto the harbour front. A subtle twist of her hand, and she set off her chain of devices.
A web of purple light shot out across the quayside. In an instant the harbour front ripped into the sky.
Cobbles exploded upwards all along its length and the aliens began to scream, unnatural and piercing, suffering under such an almighty display of her cultist power.
Deep breaths.
A brutal hail of stone fragments slammed down around her, and she ran further along the street to take shelter in a doorway. Ripped body parts and portions of exoskeleton clattered along behind her, coating the road with blood. A rumel head, severed by the blast, spun towards her and finally fell still, eyeing her reproachfully.
Suddenly she could sense the underpinning cohesion of the ground begin to fall apart, and she realized that she needed to escape. Dashing through successive street junctions, her cloak flapping around, she kept glancing back, but none of the unnatural invaders seemed about to catch her.
She turned to witness the next phase of her handiwork while nestling in the shelter of a narrow alleyway.
A terraced row of housing shook and leaned over in a surreal fashion, then fell forwards as if the buildings themselves were drunk, smothering any enemy left standing from the first assault.
Masonry dust and smoke obscured the scene, and when it partially cleared it revealed that hundreds of the
