Her knees found a figure down on all fours. As she struggled to step over him, she looked down. Unwounded by any weapon but terror itself. The realization triggered a surge of fury. She halted and twisted round. ‘Get up, you worthless pile of shit! They’re dying up there! For you! On your feet!’ And this time she managed to prise her hand loose from the boy’s. Reaching down, she took the man by the hair. ‘Stand up! You’re with me – let’s go!’
Those close by were watching. Staring. She saw things harden in their eyes and wondered what that was about. ‘Lead on, lad! Front line, quick! You, soldier, don’t even think of pullin’ back!’
Listen to me! Like I know what I’m doing. Like I done this before.
She heard voices around her now.
‘Look, Captain’s here—’
‘Cap’n Pithy – see her? There—’
‘She choked a coward—’
‘Killed him!’
‘Pithy killed a coward – right in front of my eyes!’
‘Gods below,’ she muttered. The boy glanced back at her as he struggled to push between two Letherii men. His eyes were suddenly bright.
And then, all at once, she could see spear points, flashing as they rocked up from impacts with shields, lashing out, clashing with swords and Andiian pikes. For the first time, she caught a glimpse of a Liosan face. Long, narrow, stretched – but – Errant! They look like the Andii! They look just like them!
White-skinned instead of black-skinned. Is that it? Is that the only fucking difference?
Those eyes locked on her own, pale blue and frighteningly young, above the struggling press between them. And she saw his fear. His terrible, horrifying fear. ‘No,’ she murmured. Don’t do this. Go back. Please—
An axe blade slammed into the side of the Liosan’s head. Bones folded in around sundered flesh. Blood sprayed from eye, nose and mouth. The lone visible eye still staring at her suddenly went blank, sightless, and he fell down, out of her sight.
Pithy moaned. Tears rose inside her. Her sinuses closed up, forcing her breaths to her mouth – she couldn’t get enough air. She could barely see through the blur. And the light was pouring down, mottled by shadows. Pouring down and down—
A Letherii woman reached back and closed a bloody grip on her wrist. Pulling her forward. ‘Corporal Nithe said he’d be back soon, sir.’
Was this going to be a conversation? She could see the fighting – right there, almost within reach. Where had the boy gone? Nowhere in sight. Her coward? There, suddenly in the front line and screaming as he brought a shield round to block a savage thrust. ‘What happened to him?’
‘Captain?’
‘Nithe! What happened to him?’
‘Got a hand cut off, sir. Went to get it scabbed – said he’d be back soon.’ The woman faced front again, raised her voice. ‘Captain Pithy’s in command!’
No one seemed to heed that announcement.
And then Pithy felt the air change, as if her ears had popped. Something seethed, up around her, and then outward. From nowhere and everywhere there came a roar, and the flank lurched, heaved into the face of the Liosan front.
As if caught in a current, Pithy was pulled forward.
She stepped on something that rolled underfoot. Looked down.
The boy stared up at her. But no, he was staring up at nothing. Around his gaping mouth, the sores were black with dirt.
No, clean those up—
And then the bodies underfoot were Liosan, twisted, curled round welters of blood and gaping wounds. Broken spear shafts, soiled clothing. Empty faces.
She could hear other roars, and she knew – she knew – that the entire Letherii line was driving forward, one section after another. Go back to your hole, you poor miserable dogs! ‘Go back!’ she shouted. ‘Back! This is ours! This is ours!’
And all at once, that cry was taken up.
She saw the Liosan reel before it, saw the enemy ranks buckling as the Letherii surged into them, again and again.
A sudden gap before her. A Liosan, settling on one knee, one shoulder sliced open, down through the joint, the arm hanging. Seeing her, he struggled to rise. He was old, his face lined, and the look in his eyes was bleak.
Pithy’s sword swing was awkward, but all of her strength was behind it. She clipped the edge of his jaw before the blade cut deep into his neck. Blood spurted, gushed all over her. Shocked by the hot deluge, she stepped back—
And that one step saved her life. A spear thrust caught her head, bit into her helm. She felt the blade edge cut into her scalp, grind along the bone of her skull – and then she was pulled away.
A burly man dragged her close. ‘Never mind that – y’still got your head, don’t you? Seen my sword?’ he asked. ‘I dropped the fucker – you’ll know it ’cause it’s still in my hand – never mind—’ He bent down and came up with a wood-cutter’s axe. ‘Errant’s horse-humped earhole, what the fuck is this? Never mind – to the back line with you, Captain Pithy. I started this and I mean to finish it up.’
Nithe? Never Mind Nithe? Is that what they call you?
‘This is ours!’ The chant went on and on.
Hands took hold of her. She was being pulled out. Her first engagement against the Liosan. Her first taste – of everything. The slaughter. The hurt. The anger. The falling light. All of it. All of it. Oh, gods, all of it!
Suddenly she stumbled clear.
Winced at the blinding glare of the strand, as tendrils of agonizing light writhed overhead. Down, on to her knees. Down, on to her side. Sword and helmet away. Sounds, dimming, fading …
Someone drove a pair of knees against her left hip. Blinking, she looked up at Skwish, saw the knife in the witch’s gore-drenched left hand. ‘Don’t even think it,’ Pithy said in a growl.
The witch grinned.
Then was gone.
The last end of the rout, a scattering of Liosan, converging as they dragged wounded comrades back through the breach, vanishing into blinding light. Yedan Derryg’s sword was unaccountably heavy in his hand, so he let the tip crunch down into the soaked strand.
‘Prince!’
‘Address that front line, Sergeant – get our wounded and dead out of there.’ He glared at the breach. The blackened, weeping mar in Lightfall. Too damaged to do anything as miraculous as heal before his eyes, but the first probe of the enemy had been denied.
The Liosan had taken as many of their dead and dying with them as they could, but there were still scores and scores, bodies heaped up at the base of the first berm. ‘Get a crew to start piling them up, against the breach. Make a wall, but tell them to be careful – make sure the fallen are actually dead or near enough as to make no difference.’
‘Yes, sir.’
He lifted his gaze as a shadow crossed the Lightfall, just above the wound. Bared his teeth.
A new voice spoke beside him. ‘That was closer than I liked, Prince.’
He turned. ‘Bedac. Was it you behind that last push?’
‘Far right flank,’ the woman said.
‘Nithe? Could’ve sworn that was a woman’s shout.’
‘Nithe got his hand chopped off. Didn’t bleed out, thankfully. Captain Pithy took that flank command, sire. Nithe made it back in time to drive a wood-axe into the skull of one of the last Liosan on that side. Hard enough to break the handle.’
Yedan frowned. ‘What’s a wood-axe doing in our ranks? My orders on weapon choices were clear enough. That reminds me – Sergeant! Collect up the better Liosan weapons, will you?’