Now they fell back along the western side, the cliff-facing wall of the house long since fallen, what remained of the stately building now a mass of flaming masonry and pancaked floors. Attackers darted through the gaps between defenders as they retreated, only to fall to crossbow fire from behind. Some of the house staff tried desperately to reload those few crossbows-not a preferred weapon of Saalshen, though its relative simplicity meant several of the staff could use it. The attackers were now not quite so suicidal in their charges, yet they pressed hard, thrusting and jabbing with spears, hook-poles, halberds and other long weapons, forcing the four remaining serrin on this side back step after step. Others with lesser weapons tried for the gaps that opened up. Rhillian knew that if the defence was pushed back past the end of the burning house, and into the open rear garden, all was lost.
Terel knew it too, and risked a spin past a thrusting spear to fell its owner and took the arm of another in retreating. But more took their places. One threw a spear at Rhillian, and she ducked aside just in time. She went low beneath a halberd swing, took that man's legs, and slashed open another who came at her side. A spear thrust grazed her ribs as she danced back. She saw a scythe come swinging, and cut it in two.
Terel made another forward dance, killed a pole wielder, yet caught a spear thrust to the arm. One-armed, he parried hard, but a blow sent him off balance. Rhillian leaped to his defence, but an axeman cut at her with a hack she had no choice but to duck, and then Terel was surrounded. He killed another, but a blow from a club sent him to a knee, and a flashing blade sent blood spurting. They fell on him like seagulls on rotten bread, stabbing and screaming. A gap opened in the line and then they came pouring through.
Suddenly, Rhillian was no longer being attacked. Men ran past her instead, howling at the top of their lungs. She saw the staff wielding crossbows go down beneath the surging mob. She saw Carla, the funny girl with the slow speech and a cheeky grin, trying to defend herself with her crossbow as the blows and thrusts came raining down. The mob poured over paved paths and gardens, leapt the little rocky steam, and sprinted at the pitiful little circle on the fountain courtyard, where terrified men and women who had no business in any fight made a futile defence about the wounded.
Even through the horror, Rhillian spotted something beyond the far wall. Smoke, rising above the Vailor residence. It came from the far side, where the Vailor gate opened onto another road. Vailor too was under attack. A tiny, faint hope dawned. She sprinted into the rear garden, leapt down to a paved path, beheaded a man who got in her way, and thrashed through a flower garden onto the main courtyard. Pick one, she thought. You'll only get one chance. Choose well, or there's no hope at all.
Deani was holding his own with his sword. Elesa the cook swung a blade with less assurance, pivoting on her one good leg. Big Anton the doorman had the smarts of an ox, but swung his halberd in huge arcs, felling several and sending others scampering sideways. But none could serve. Rhillian saw Teri, also swinging his sword. Teri was a dark-haired lad of fifteen, quick as a mouse and deaf as a stone. But he weighed little, he was fast, and he was quick-witted.
She ran for him like an arrow, cutting an arm off Deani's opponent in passing and hurdling several wounded. Teri was backing away from the courtyard, confronted by three attackers. Rhillian killed two fast from behind, danced aside the slash of the axe-wielding third, then sent his head bouncing across the lawn. She grabbed the terrified Teri by the arm. “Run!” she yelled into his face.
Teri ran, Rhillian clutching his arm, past the garden benches and through the lush bushes before the rear wall. The ladder was still there. Rhillian urged him up it. “Don't go over!” she insisted, making him look at her. His frightened eyes watched her lips. “Wait for me, don't go over yet!”
Teri nodded quickly, then scampered up the ladder. Rhillian dashed back, but over the bushes she could see the courtyard was a seething mass of armed men. She saw Deani, falling, then impaled by a scythe as he lay on the ground. She saw Elesa the cook pinned by several men, who began hacking off her limbs, while she screamed. She saw big Anton with a man on his back and another hanging to his arm, thrashing and punching whilst spears and blades sliced through his legs, his stomach and back. She saw their wounded hacked to pieces where they lay on the ground and a severed head stuck on the end of a spear, and thrust into the air. She saw many armed men running her way. Ahead of them, she saw Kiel, bloodied and limping. He was yelling at her and waving for her to go.
She backed up, waving Kiel past her. He got up the ladder fast enough, despite a bloody leg, and Rhillian followed. She leapt for the top of the wall just as armed men reached the ladder below. Kiel kicked the ladder away as Rhillian pulled herself up. Teri lay atop the wall alongside the spikes.
Rhillian squeezed between several spikes, eyeing a soft patch of dirt on the other side…movement caught the corner of her eye, and she saw a Vailor man with a crossbow, barely fifteen paces away, aiming straight at her. She dived, clutching a spike to avoid falling, and the bolt whizzed overhead…and hit Teri, who was just rising.
He fell forward. Rhillian thrust herself back between two spikes, catching at him desperately. Teri hit the top of the wall and slipped from the edge. Diving forward, Rhillian caught his flailing arm and grabbed it with both hands. Teri hung there, staring up at her in disbelief. The bolt protruded from his side, beneath the ribs. Below him, the men who had chased them now came running to the spot beneath his dangling feet.
“Kiel!” Rhillian begged, hauling with all her strength. “Help me!” Teri was only a lad, but her arms were tired, and even the svaalverd could not disguise a woman's disadvantages here. Kiel crawled along the wall and reached down for Teri's other hand. Grabbed, and began pulling. Rhillian strained until her arms seemed nearly to dislodge from their sockets, finding no leverage in their position. But the boy rose and Kiel grabbed his collar with one hand.
A huge baling hook atop a long pole swung up from below and tore into Teri's shoulder. The boy had enough time to meet Rhillian's eyes one last time, and show her his astonishment. The pole pulled, and Teri was torn from their grasp.
“NO!” Rhillian screamed, and would have hurled herself off the wall had not Kiel grabbed her by the hair. Somewhere in the fight, her hat had come off.
“Rhillian!” Kiel yelled at her. “Live! LIVE, Rhillian!” She did not have her blade, she realised. It had fallen on the Vailor side of the wall. Beneath them, Teri was impaled by spear, then sword, then knife, again and again. There was blood everywhere.
Rhillian slid back, then jumped onto the Vailor side. She hit the dirt hard and rolled, then scrambled for her fallen sword. The crossbowman was still struggling to reload, that being rather the problem, with crossbows. Rhillian came out of the bushes and he tried to defend himself with his crossbow, but Rhillian took his hand off at the wrist. Then she pulled her second knife, just to make it personal, and thrust it hard up beneath the man's jaw. The horror in his eyes, the gurgling in his throat, the sticky blood that gushed over her hand, all were an intoxication. She'd never known herself so savage. She'd never known it would feel so good.
Rhillian remembered only a little of what came next. She and Kiel crept through the bushes against the walls, encountering several more guards with fatal consequences. The attack on the front of Vailor House seemed ferocious, and had drawn most of their defenders that way. Kiel and Rhillian had climbed onto a rear balcony, then onto the roof. From there, they watched the attack on Vailor's front wall, as thousands of rioters tried to storm the property, probably to attack Palopy from behind, and make sure none escaped. But the road on this side was narrow-only a few attackers could assault the wall at any time and there was no room for artillery.