Khollo meanwhile protected Kanin’s left side. Seeing the slightly built figure beside the dragon, apparently the leader, several had changed direction and attacked Khollo instead. But they quickly learned to fear the Sen-teel almost as much as the dragon beside Khollo. The weapon was a blur in Khollo’s hands as he slashed and stabbed, attacking and withdrawing faster than the larger vertaga could react.
After several minutes, Khollo stepped back from the front lines and surveyed the progress of the battle. Vertaga had flooded the courtyard now, engaging the defenders all along the line. On the walls above, Ondus’ force was still fighting bravely against those few vertaga that had gained a foothold and they continued pouring arrows over the battlements.
A snarling, snapping noise distracted Khollo from his survey and he saw a pair of lutags bounding across the battlefield, headed for Kanin. Khollo reached out to Kanin to warn him, but the dragon merely turned and blasted the beasts with a wide wave of flame. The snarls turned to yelps as the creatures’ fur caught fire. The lutags spun on the spot for a few moments, then ran back the way they had come, trampling and burning any vertaga who got in their way.
Khollo sighed and hefted his Sen-teel again. There was still work to be done. He had no idea how the battle was going at the north gate. Any moment, the vertaga could come boiling out of the central stairwell and take them in the rear. They had to finish off this half of the enemy army and get reinforcements to the soldiers below.
The young warrior took up his place at Kanin’s left again and went back to work, dueling furiously with a vertaga swordsman. The beast leered at Khollo unpleasantly and aimed for an overhead cut. But Khollo, smiling grimly, thrust with his Sen-teel and took it under the arm, piercing its heart with the blade. The vertag collapsed and Khollo spun immediately to aid a beleaguered soldier to his left, who was fighting two opponents at once.
All the while, Kanin single-handedly kept the battle in favor of the defenders. With his flame and teeth and claws he struck down vertag after vertag. None could reach him, protected as he was on all sides by determined defenders. Not one of them was nervous around the dragon now. They had been fighting beside him for half an hour at this point and it was more than obvious whose side Kanin was on.
The battle wore on, neither side able to move forward or back. Khollo’s arms grew leaden, the Sen-teel became a massive weight, difficult to move. Kanin was losing strength too. His charges were less and less frequent, and he tended to stumble when he retreated and put weight on his injured back leg.
Can’t take much more of this, the dragon warned, echoing Khollo’s thoughts.
Khollo backed away from the front line and wiped sweat from his face with his free hand. I know, he said to Kanin. I can’t fight much longer either. But what choice do we have other than pressing on?
Kanin flamed another vertag to a crisp before replying. We will continue to fight. We must. But we will be overcome before too much longer. The enemy are too many, and our allies grow weak as well.
The dragon lumbered forward again, swiping and biting, flaming the more persistent foes. Khollo sighed and hefted his Sen-teel again. But before he could rejoin the battle, a hand grabbed his shoulder.
Khollo spun and raised the Sen-teel, readying it for a killing blow. He just barely managed to change the weapon’s path at the last moment and spare the life of the messenger who stood before him.
“Sorry,” Khollo panted. “Didn’t realize you were on our side. What’s going on?”
“Lord Khollo,” the messenger gasped. “Lord Kurkan has urgent news. Another force approaches from the north.”
Khollo swore. “More vertaga? We’re barely handling what’s already here. And . . . did you say from the north?”
The messenger nodded. “They’re not vertaga,” he explained. “We think – ”
A horn sounded from the roof of the tower and the faint sound of cheering reached Khollo’s ears. Another horn echoed the first to the north, much fainter.
Who is blowing horns? Kanin demanded. What is happening?
Let’s find out, Khollo replied, leaving the messenger standing there and moving to Kanin’s side. Do you have enough left in you for a short flight?
Kanin bit down on a vertag’s forearm and hurled it across the courtyard. The beast hit the wall with a meaty smack and crumpled, lifeless.
Climb on, he replied, extending a foreleg.
Chapter 49
Khollo scrambled into the saddle and Kanin leapt upwards, nearly flattening the embattled soldiers below with the rush of air from his wings. Then he was up and soaring around the keep tower. Khollo saw Janis jumping and waving, smiling broadly, brandishing his sword. Wondering what had put his taciturn and often grumpy uncle in such a mood, Khollo looked to the north.
And his eyes fell upon the army.
The sun gleamed on armor and weapons, and Khollo could see horses and oxen among the marching soldiers. Wagons and siege engines were trundling along in the center of the new force, headed straight for the West Bank. As Khollo watched, another horn sounded in a series of short, fast notes and the horsemen broke into a gallop, leaving the rest behind.
“The reinforcements,” Khollo murmured.
The Sthan king?
Yes, Khollo replied, relieved. We may yet be saved.
The horsemen close on the West Bank quickly, Kanin observed. But they cannot get in from the north, the little wall gate is sealed.
Well, then we’ll just have to open it, Khollo said grimly surveying the ground below. The area around the wall was a charred wasteland, littered with
