the time he had climbed to the top of the tower, the last of the refugees had long disappeared down the track on the reverse slope.
Fenn was so relieved to see him that she embraced him fiercely. 'You are very dear to me, my lord,' she whispered. 'My heart stops beating when I see javelins flying about your head.'
'If you have such high regard for me, then the least you should do is feed me before the rest of the Jarrian army arrives.'
'You have become so masterful since you returned from the mountain.
It pleases me, my lord.' She laughed and disappeared to the kitchens.
When she returned they leant on the parapet and ate eggs with dhurra cake. They watched the Jarrian commander send a detachment of fifty men up the slope to seize the ledge from which Meren and his men had hurled the rocks. He was standing in the middle of the track, just out of long bowshot, below them. He was tall and lean, and wore the ostrich plumes of a colonel on the crest of his helmet.
'I don't like the look of him in the least,' Taita remarked. The man had swarthy features, a hard, jutting chin and a large, hooked nose. 'Do you recognize him, Sidudu?'
'I do, Magus. He is a hard and merciless man, hated by us all.'
'His name?'
'Colonel Soklosh.'
'Colonel Snake,' Taita translated. 'He bears more than a passing resemblance to his namesake.'
As soon as he had control of the ledge, Soklosh sent his skirmishers forward to clear the rock-strewn path before the fort, and to test the mettle of the defenders.
'Send them a few arrows,' Taita told Fenn. Quickly the two girls unslung their bows. Sidudu's arrow passed so close over the head of one Jarrian that he ducked and ran. Fenn hit another in the calf. He hopped about on the uninjured leg howling like a wolf, until his comrades held him down and snapped off the arrow shaft short. Then they retreated down the track, two supporting the wounded man between them. After that there was a long pause before a dense phalanx of armoured men jogged around the bend, and came up the track towards the fort.
'I think it is time for me to go down,' said Meren, and slid from the ladder to the parapet. As the next wave of enemy infantry came into bowshot range, he called to Hilto: 'Stand by!'
'Massed volleys!' Hilto called. His men sheathed their swords, and unslung their bows. 'Level! Take aim! Let fly!'
The volley of arrows rose against the early-morning sky, dark as a
swarm of locusts. It fell upon the Jarrians, the arrowheads clattering on bronze armour. A few went down, but the others closed ranks, lifted their shields over their heads to form a canopy and came on at a trot. Again and again Hilto's men fired their volleys but under the canopy of shields the Jarrians were undeterred. They reached the foot of the wall. The front rank braced themselves against the stonework, and the second clambered on to their shoulders to form a pyramid. The third rank used them as a ladder to reach the top of the wall. Hilto's men hurled them back, hacking with swords and thrusting with spears. Others climbed up in their place, blades clanging and rasping against each other. Men shouted, cursed and screamed in pain. A small group of Jarrians forced their way on to the parapet, but before they could exploit their advantage, Meren, Nakonto and Imbali fell upon them. They cut down most and shoved the rest off the top.
On the tower, Fenn and Sidudu stood at each side of Taita, choosing their targets with care, picking off the Jarrian captains as they tried to regroup their men at the base of the wall. When the assault faltered and failed, their arrows hastened the Jarrians back down the track. The enemy left their dead at the base of the wall but dragged the wounded away with them.
Soklosh launched two more attacks before noon. Meren's men beat back the first as readily as they had the chariots. However, in the next, the Jarrions came in three separate detachments, carrying with them hastily constructed assault ladders.
Simultaneously they struck at both ends of the wall and in the centre.
The defenders were already thinly stretched, but now Meren was forced to split them into even smaller units to meet the triple-pronged attack.
It was desperate fighting, and Taita climbed down to join in. He left the girls in the tower with bundles of arrows they had found in the arsenal.
For the rest of the morning the battle raged at the top of the wall. When at last they had thrown back the Jarrians, Meren's men were in poor shape. They had lost twelve men killed, and another ten were too badly wounded to carry on the fight. Most of the others were at least lightly wounded and all were close to exhaustion. From down the track they heard Soklosh and his captains shouting commands as they mustered a fresh attack.
'I doubt we can hold them much longer.' Meren glanced along the parapet at his men, who sat in small groups, drinking from the waterskins that Fenn and Sidudu had brought them, sharpening their chipped and
blunted blades, binding their wounds or simply resting, their faces blank and eyes dull.
'Are you ready to set fire to the buildings?' Taita asked.
'The torches are already burning,' Meren affirmed. Only the foundations of the wall were of stone: everything else, including the main building and watch-tower, was built of timber. The wood was old and desiccated and would burn readily. The conflagration would seal off the head of the pass until the flames subsided sufficiently to allow the Jarrians through.
Taita left Meren and went to the far end of the parapet. He crouched in a corner and pulled his cloak over his head.
The men watched him curiously.
'What is he doing?' asked one.
'He is sleeping,' answered another.
