You just need one lucky break.
Mihlos Sedona had not yet realized that he was not immortal. He ventured too close to the enemy. Then we all learned how Mogaba had profited from disaster.
A fireball ripped through the darkness. The boy escaped the worst of it by hurling himself to one side. The fireball struck him a glancing blow, which, however, was enough to knock him off his post.
General Chu ignored my shout and went after Sedona. And actually managed to get close enough to get a hold on his post. As fireballs streaked in from half a dozen sources.
One struck Chu's post dead solid.
The explosion of that post was violent enough to set off the other. And the two in concert were violent enough to smash in an acre of Palace like an invisible giant's foot stomping on eggshells.
More Palace continued to cave in around the initial collapse.
A wicked wind flung me around like a rogue dandelion seed. Once again I lost my grip and fell off my steed. While dangling I caught rolling glimpses of flames beginning to peek through cracks in the rubble, of panic beginning to prowl amongst the soldiers atop the palace.
111
Taglios: Sleepy Flew
We're going to start strapping you down, Pop," Arkana told me as she towed me into camp. She had been on a routine patrol kite-clearing when the explosion happened. In rushing to see the results she almost got knocked out of the sky by a daredevil swinging from a flying fence post.
"Just get me down. Fast. Preferably right in front of the Captain's tent." Sleepy had to know. Now. And somebody needed to go watch the Palace. If the whole damned thing caved in... If Mogaba and his henchmen died in the disaster... . If the Khadidas and the Daughter of Night escaped in the resulting chaos... .
Some hearty fires were burning over there now. A strong glow silhouetted the city wall now.
I kept having to explain as more notables reached the Captain's tent. And I kept urging Sleepy to make whatever move she was considering making right away. Never again would the other side be as confused and disordered as they must be now. She agreed but pointed out that our bunch were not terribly well organized right now, either.
The Captain dealt with the problem of interruptions in the most amazing fashion I could imagine. After delegating Suvrin to begin preparing an attack, she told me, "Take me up there. Show me what's happened."
"You?"
"Me. I'll keep my eyes closed until there's something to see. Before we leave I'll throw an old blanket over my seat so I won't get your post all wet."
I shook my head, disconsolate. "I wish Swan was still around. A straight line like that shouldn't go to waste. Let's do it."
"Wait. Suvrin." She issued more instructions. So he would have something to do in his spare time.
Her absence would slow nothing down.
"Tie yourself on good," I told Sleepy. "I might decide to do a few loops while we're up there."
She growled like a whole pack of angry rats. Made it clear that if she fell off I might as well just keep on going.
"All right. But coming home hanging underneath like a carp on a stringer is a lot better than the alternative."
"If you don't mind a little embarrassment."
"I don't mind at all if I'm alive to get red in the face." Something you learn as you get older. Or, at least, you should.
We were passing over the gateway complex when I realized that I had gone right back up without having paused to check on my wife.
Was I not a little old to feel guilty about everything? She would not be going anywhere any time soon.
It was not possible to get dangerously close to the Palace. The fires were huge now. The heat was intense, even through the Voroshk clothing. And the higher you flew the more turbulent the air became. There were no kites anywhere nearby anymore.
I figured Mogaba would give up on the kites soon. They were not doing us any harm.
Sleepy clung to the post with white knuckles. I wondered if we would need a chisel to break her grip once we got back on the ground. But she did manage to keep her voice sounding normal. "What in the world is burning? That place isn't anything but a big old stone pile."
The flames were not limited to the Palace now. Several fires were burning nearby. The entire area was crawling with people, most being gawkers who just got in the way of the soldiers, officials and volunteers actually trying to accomplish something.
"Somebody's still thinking," I told Sleepy. "They've put troops around the place." I dropped lower and moved close enough to spot Aridatha Singh out working two thin lines of soldiers, one facing outward, holding the mobs back, the other, stronger, facing inward. The latter were more heavily armed. Anyone leaving the palace was going to get a good hard look. "I hope they got those guys in place before the Khadidas and the girl got away."
"Back to the gate. If we're ever going to invade this city, now is the time."
"You found enough boats yet?"
She tensed up. She did not answer for a moment. "You figured it out."
"Logic suggests that it makes no sense to storm those walls with no more men than we have. Particularly when Taglios has almost no defenses on the river side." A point which would have occurred to the Great General, too.
"There is no easy way in," Sleepy told me. "The defenses on the river side just aren't as obvious." She proceeded to explain about log booms and chains that controlled traffic, forcing it into narrow channels well-ranged by massed artillery ashore. A barge loaded with attackers could be pounded into driftwood and fish food in minutes.
I said, "I see where this is going."
"Do you really? Will I attack by day or by night?"
"It's dark now but by the time you can get anybody to the point of attack the sun will be up."
"Take me back. I have to get things moving faster."
112
Taglios: Under Siege
Ghopal Singh looked terrible. He had been close enough to the fire to have had his beard singed. He had blisters on both face and hands. His turban was gone. The rest of him was rags and smoke smell.
"You'll never pass inspection," Mogaba told him.
Singh's sense of humor was moribund. "We've got it controlled inside. It'll burn itself out. Out there in the city... Pray for unseasonable rain."
"Good luck doesn't always work out, does it?"
Grudgingly, Singh said, "No way we could know what would happen if a fireball hit one of those flying things."
"No. Of course not. Here comes Aridatha. Like a crow. There'll be more bad news." Mogaba glanced eastward. Not even close to dawn yet. Why was this night stretching out so long? "You've got a spot of ash on your right trouser leg, Aridatha."
The commander of the City Battalions actually paused to deal with the matter before he realized that the Great General was teasing him. More or less. Aridatha said, "They're trying to take advantage of the confusion. I'm getting reports about ghosts and terrors at work around the South Gate and the river forts."
"They're really coming?" Ghopal Singh could not believe the enemy would assault Taglios with so few soldiers. He had expected them to just sit tight in hopes they could forge alliances with disaffected elements inside the wall. "Where?"
"The river," Mogaba predicted. "They've had time to scout. That's where we're the weakest."
"Maybe they just want us to think... "
"They can't get a strong force into place for a while yet. When they attack from the air we'll know they're on their way and where they think they can get through."
Minutes later word came that enemy commandos were atop the wall half a mile west of the South Gate, ferried there by flying carpet. They were being reinforced rapidly. Neither the City Battalions nor the Greys had much strength in that area. The bulk of the Second Territorial was on the waterfront. The garrison of the barbican was responding to the threat as best it could.