Hirad nodded, looked up and saw the Dordovans organising for another run. Twenty bodies were scattered on the ground and, forming more barriers, horses, dead and in distress, lay on the dock. It would be a broken charge and Hirad determined to use that to his advantage.
Along die line, the Protectors waited, silent and unmoving. Their casualties were light but couldn't be ignored. The time was now.
'Come on!' Hirad sprang away, running full tilt at the Dordovan horsemen, and hearing the footfalls of the Protectors as they made their progress. A shout went up from the cavalry, who began to move, riders struggling with horses unwilling to ride into the face of the masked killers Hirad led. Their heads down, they could smell the blood of the dead and dying and their hooves were uncertain on the crowded, slick ground.
Hirad raced on. Running straight at a cavalryman, Hirad saw the man heft his blade. He hurdled the body of a still-twitching horse, landed and rolled to the left, coming to his haunches behind the rider. He was up, spinning and jabbing into the rider's kidney before he could turn his horse.
Turning again, Hirad took in the Protectors, a perfect picture of organised savagery. Arranged two and three to an opponent, horse and rider were attacked simultaneously, giving the cavalrymen nowhere to turn, no meaningful defence and no clear target. No chance at all.
With no immediate opponent, Hirad watched, for a few mesmerised heartbeats, a trio of Protectors in action. One crouched and sank his axe into the horse's hindquarters, another slashed his sword into the animal's neck while the third fielded the rider's desperate swing on his axe before slashing through a disembowelling strike with his blade.
It was over before Hirad had drawn second breath and reminded him of nothing more than a pack of wolves.
Thraun.
Dimly, Hirad recalled howling as he stood over The Unknown's body. With the Protectors occupying the Dordovans, Hirad did a full circle, searching for evidence of the pack, but could see nothing. To the west along the dock towards the berth vacated by the Ocean Elm, the Dordovan and Lysternan cavalry had scattered, pockets being hunted down by Protector groups run by mounted mages.
Towards the target ship, the scene was of carnage all over the ground. Protectors had swiftly beaten away any lingering resistance and were already checking every body, crouching to finish off any that were still breathing. Otherwise, the dock was empty and that was very bad. Hirad came to himself with a jolt and knew why The Unknown was lying so close to death. The Raven had allowed
themselves to be split and scattered. Something they had sworn never to do.
Thraun would have to look after himself.
'Denser!' shouted Hirad. 'Darrick! Where are you?'
His voice was whipped from him by the wind and further diminished by the steady rain that pattered stone, timber and water, and the crackle of flames from the still raging fires spreading towards Centenary Square fanned by the gale.
'Denser!' Hirad swung around. 'I need you now!' He looked at the target ship, frowning. It was very still on board. The crew that had lined its rails had gone. All that was left were the lanterns swinging wildly and illuminating the empty deck.
Hirad marched towards the ship.
'Denser!' he roared a third time. 'Please! The Unknown's hurt. Denser!' Gods, where was he? He turned and began to walk back to Ilkar and The Unknown. 'Ilkar how're we doing.'
'Not well, Hirad. Find him quickly.'
'D-' There was movement on the ship. A door opened and a figure emerged. Denser. 'Get down here now.'
'What's up?' Denser surveyed the docks, the scattered cavalry and the Protectors who chased them, and raised his eyebrows.
'Gods, you must have cloth in your ears. It's The Unknown, he's hurt. Ilkar needs you.' Hirad pointed to where the elf knelt over the prone form, his face white in the firelight. 'Quickly.'
Denser nodded, cast, and flew from the ship on ShadowWings. Hirad watched him fly through the smoke that blew overhead like low cloud over Arlen. He began to trot back towards the Big Man, not pausing to wonder why Denser was aboard, or where Darrick was. For the moment, it didn't really matter.
The fighting had all but finished on the dockside but he could hear the sounds of violence further back into the town as the Protectors sought the last of the Dordovans. Hirad could see what were probably some of Arlen's guards, wandering aimlessly around the bodies or staring at the fires that heated the chill of the night. The rain hadn't eased at all and the wind howled its force onshore.
Hirad felt drained. It was a long time since he'd run and fought like that and, though the battle had been quick, it had been intense. But more, he'd seen The Unknown cut down and he could see by
Ilkar's urgent gestures as Denser landed that the injury was bad. Probably fatal if spells couldn't help him.
Hirad sheathed his sword and slowed to a walk.
'Hirad!' It was Aeb. The Protector was striding towards him, weapons on his back mounts.
'What is it?'
'Come with me.'
Hirad glanced over at Ilkar and Denser, both men still, concentrating as they cast. There was nothing he could do. He shrugged. 'Lead on.'
Aeb turned on his heel. As he approached a smouldering mass of black, two other Protectors rose from next to it and withdrew.
Hirad frowned and looked harder, quickening his pace, the smoking bodies resolving themselves as wolves, rain hissing on seared flesh.
'I don't believe it,' he muttered but Aeb restrained him with a hand.
'You can do nothing for them. But you can for the shapechanger.'
Hirad stared into Aeb's blank mask.
'Say that again?'
'The shapechanger.' Aeb pointed to a form which Hirad had assumed was just another body, white face staring at the sky.
'Gods falling.' Hirad ran, sliding to a stop and dropping to his knees, heedless as he splashed down into blood and water.
Beneath the cloak, the figure was hunched in foetal position. Protectors had lain another cloak beneath him and had tucked the loose edges in to keep the chill from his body.
A mass of brown-flecked blond hair flowed from the exposed head and the face was covered in a fine fur perhaps half an inch long, with only his nose and closed eyes hairless. His skin seemed old, somehow, his ears long and more elven than human. Hirad laid a hand on the quivering body and bowed his head. Thraun.
'Never thought we'd see you again, old friend,' he whispered. 'Gods, how you must be suffering.'
The barbarian considered for a moment and looked up to Aeb, who was staring over at The Unknown, his Protector's stillness broken by an uncharacteristic repetitive clenching and unclenching of a fist.
'If anyone can save him, it's Denser and Ilkar,' said Hirad.
'We have failed him.'
Hirad nodded, a sweep of guilt washing through him. 'We all have.'
Yet again Hirad scanned the dockside, its cranes smashed, its warehouses gutted and its walkways and paths swathed in death. It was not a place for sick men.
'We need to move them both,' he said.
'Arlen has medical facilities.'
'And they'll be full if they aren't destroyed,' said Hirad. 'No. Thraun can't be cured like that and besides, they're both Raven. I won't leave them here.'
'I understand.'
The barbarian looked at the ship. It was still quiet. Unnaturally so. What had Denser done? And then, of course, it clicked.
'Help me with Thraun and bring your brothers. It's time to get aboard that ship.'
