right flank, chopping his way towards her. Thrynn’s blades were a blur. Men instinctively made a space around her, bringing them onto the blades of Illast, Bylaan, Acclan and Ulysan instead.
Auum butted the man directly in front of him, splitting his nose at the bridge. The man staggered back, raising his blade over his head only to bury the point in the skull of the soldier behind him. Auum slashed a cut across his throat and fell back, finding himself next to Illast.
Illast blocked a blow aside. A second sword point drew blood down his left arm. Bylaan took the pace from the strike and thumped a punch into the soldier’s mouth. Auum glanced back and thrashed a sword across the chest of a man only half turned in his direction. He kicked another in the groin and followed up with a roundhouse to the temple, knocking him down. He heard Thrynn cry out and moved faster, Ulysan joining him.
Men were shouting warnings, calling for cover and screaming for more help. But there were eight TaiGethen among them and it was futile. Auum nearly reached Thrynn from one side and her Tai were almost there the other. Auum dragged a soldier back by his hair and stabbed him low in the back, letting him drop and climbing over his body.
A quick soldier laced a cut into Thrynn’s thigh, unbalancing her. She began to fall and the soldier raised his blade to finish the job. Porrack of her Tai roared and burst through, blocking his blow. But he had left himself open and a sword took him across the stomach, spilling his entrails onto the ground.
Porrack screamed and collapsed. Thrynn roared his name and buried her blade in his killer’s neck.
‘Push!’ called Auum. ‘Straight through.’
He hacked down into an enemy’s leg, shouldered a second aside and scooped Thrynn up with one arm. Auum put his head down and charged the line of soldiers ahead. They were already beset by Ataan, Thrynn’s second, and Auum chopped out with his sword, not knowing what he was hitting. He heard Ulysan holler a war cry followed by the shriek of a dying man.
Auum burst through the line and carried on into a side street, back towards the main road in.
‘Ataan, break and clear!’
The TaiGethen pounded away. Auum released Thrynn and looked back over his shoulder. All the rest were clear. But in front of them men were still streaming into the city and the spells continued to fall. Soon they would be among the city folk and Auum feared the slaughter that would follow.
Katura echoed to the sounds of falling buildings and the roars of men. Smoke billowed into the sky and blew through the ruined streets. The smell of burning wood tainted the air. The ground beneath Merrat vibrated with explosions and to the thundering of human feet as the invaders poured into the city.
He edged a fraction out of his hiding place to look down the street towards the gates. Ysset sprinted into view from the left, tearing down the largely undamaged centre of the Tuali ghetto. She slid to a halt and stepped into the alley, which lay in deep shadow.
‘Corinn’s Tai is coming. There are hundreds of soldiers, guarding a mage count of eighty or so, on her tail. Stiff odds.’
‘Stiff odds for all of us,’ said Merrat. He signalled across the street to where Grafyrre was similarly hidden. ‘Remember: we hit the mages and get out. Lead them onto the next trap. Don’t stop for the fallen. Tai, we pray.’
Merrat dropped his head but a whistle from Grafyrre interrupted his intended brief meditation. Grafyrre tipped his head up. A spotter mage flew the length of the street, above bowshot range, turned and flew back towards the gates. Merrat flattened himself against the side of a building.
As soon as he had passed Merrat leaned out again, just in time to see Corinn and her Tai of Arkiis and Perrar enter the street, the enemy force a few paces behind. The men’s shouts and taunts, which had been muted, became loud and echoing. They were like beasts baying for blood, with no idea they were running headlong into a trap.
‘Hold your nerve, Corinn,’ whispered Merrat.
And so she did. A few arrows fell about her Tai but none really threatened them. Shafts which fell short bounced from the magical shield covering the enemy and were met with angry shouts. She was too close to the soldiers for mages to risk casting and had resisted the urge to up her pace to seek temporary sanctuary in the run of alleys where Merrat hid.
A movement above them caught Merrat’s eye. The spotter mage had flown back and was hovering midway along the street, pointing out targets. Moments later, spells arced out from the main concentration of mages by the city gates, trailing smoke as they came. Two clusters of blue-brown flame orbs, fizzing and spitting, plunged into houses either side of the road and about thirty yards behind Corinn’s Tai as they continued their retreat.
Flame and burning timber exploded up and out. Burning debris was scattered across the street. Merrat heard at least one building collapse and a wave of heat and noise rolled past them, filling the air with the smells of fire once more. Merrat saw the spotter mage put his arms across his chest in an X-shape.
‘Missed,’ said Nyann.
‘No, they didn’t,’ said Merrat, and he signalled Grafyrre to be ready. ‘Corinn’s in trouble.’
The air chilled so quickly that Merrat’s next breath frosted in front of him. Freezing air blasted from both sides of the street across the burning buildings, flattening anything that remained upright and snuffing out the fire. Plumes of smoke and steam forged skywards. Merrat swore and gave the black howler monkey’s guttural call.
‘Tai, we move!’
Merrat led his Tai into the street. Grafyrre mirrored his move while overhead the spotter mage began signalling again. Corinn had turned at the sound of the flight call but had not otherwise responded.
‘Corinn!’ yelled Merrat. ‘Run. Get back to us now!’
Like a dream running slowly, Merrat saw Corinn look at the blasted buildings behind her as if for the first time before beginning to run with her Tai. But at the same time, the first humans surged across the blackened, cold timbers and spilled onto the street, filling it quickly.
‘Get among them!’ shouted Merrat. ‘Corinn needs a path.’
The chasing force roared and charged. Merrat led his Tai forward at a sprint. Elven arrows flashed across the space from high buildings on the outer circle. A few men were struck but all too soon the shafts were bouncing off a shield and spells began falling on the elven archer positions.
Merrat drew his twin blades and crashed into the attack, Nyann and Ysset at his sides; Grafyrre’s Tai just to their right. Dozens of men had turned towards them leaving the rest to close the pincer on Corinn’s Tai. Merrat could just see her, blood covering her sword, moving fast and keeping low and balanced, determined to take down as many as she could.
Merrat blocked a man’s blade and chopped his free blade into his neck. Blood sprayed across the humans and the enemy collapsed to the side. Merrat moved up a pace, blades defending his body and head. He heard Ysset gasp, then the thud of her blade and her victim’s scream. Nyann’s blades weaved in Merrat’s peripheral vision, one striking sparks off enemy steel, the other stabbing through a man’s throat.
Merrat ducked a flailing strike and rammed both his swords into his enemy’s gut. He stood, kicked the man aside and moved up, his Tai with him.
‘Keep pushing,’ he urged. ‘We can break through.’
But on the flanks the enemy were beginning to understand the attack in the centre and were running round to box them in. Above, the spotter mage brought down fire and ice on buildings twenty yards behind Merrat and Corinn and her Tai were completely surrounded.
‘Merrat!’ It was Grafyrre. ‘Too many. Break off, or we’re trapped.’
Merrat smashed the hilt of a blade into his enemy’s nose and with the other blocked a strike from another intended for Nyann. Nyann reacted quickly, disembowelling the man and swaying inside a thrust to his heart from his left. Ysset broke her attacker’s knee with a straight kick before moving in half a pace, crushing his nose with her elbow and driving a blade through his heart.
‘No! We can’t leave them to die,’ Merrat called back.
But he knew Grafyrre was right: the lines of men were thickening. A glance behind told him they were close to being cut off, and ahead an elven shriek followed by a roar of triumph told him that one of Corinn’s Tai had perished. Merrat pushed back a pace, needing a moment to make a decision.
And then there she was: Corinn. She had leapt high above her enemies’ heads, her legs brought up to her chest and her dripping red blades circling in her arms to strike down. Her clothing was drenched in gore and blood pulsed from wounds all over her body. Merrat took in her face. It was cut across the forehead and her cheeks and
