‘Pheone,’ said The Unknown.
‘Yes. Following that, we await the inevitable alarm from the watch-tower before mounting our attack.’
‘Why would you wait?’ asked Hirad.
‘Because every moment we can buy brings help that much closer. And without help we will surely lose this fight.’
‘But it’s still an error to wait for them,’ said The Unknown. ‘It leaves your people on edge and removes the total surprise that is so vital to you. Attack when you are ready. Obliterate the tower before they have a chance to sound their alarms and get your men out into the streets right behind the first spell assault, assuming that’s what you were intending to do.’
‘But—’ began Kard.
‘Your ideas are sound, General, and the Dordovans do need to be given the maximum time to arrive, but think of the effect on the Wesmen. Before they even know the Shroud is gone, they are being killed where they sleep and around their camp fires. And before they can mount a meaningful resistance, we are back inside the walls waiting for them. And then what?’ The Unknown invited Kard to speak.
The General nodded. ‘I can see the sense in it. Then we keep them back as long as possible with spells, stop them mounting a serious assault.’
‘Exactly, but make sure you hit them hard to begin with. Make them scared to approach,’ said The Unknown. ‘Keep your mages moving after first strike. Don’t let the Wesmen know where the magic is coming from next.’
‘All right,’ said Kard, looking a little hurt. ‘But we’ll have to clear the wall run.’
‘That’s fine because you can have warriors standing down all around the walls until they’re called. Though you might want to keep archers behind the battlements,’ said Hirad. ‘Remember, if the flash attack into the streets is a success, the Wesmen will already be disorganised and demoralised. It’ll take them several hours to organise for siege and attack. If you can damage them as they approach the walls, you can delay them still further. But you have to use the mages right.’
The Unknown smiled and reached out a hand to grip Kard’s upper arm briefly. ‘General, we’re not questioning your skill or authority, just adding our experience. How many sieges have you been involved in?’
‘This is my first,’ admitted Kard, his face cracking and his eyes lighting up. He chuckled.
‘Then you have done a phenomenal job so far,’ said The Unknown. ‘We’ve spent a good part of our ten years fighting within or without castle walls.’
‘In that case, I am glad of your advice,’ said Kard.
‘It will help us all to live longer,’ said Hirad.
‘There’s one more thing.’ Kard drained his coffee. ‘Senedai, the Wesmen Lord, has Julatsan prisoners, probably thousands of them. He promised to kill them should we double-cross him, which is exactly what we are planning to do.’
‘You don’t think he’ll be too busy with the trouble you cause to worry about them?’ asked Hirad.
‘That’s what I told the Council but frankly I doubt it,’ replied Kard. ‘He’s got at least fifteen thousand warriors out there. I feel sure he can spare some to slaughter a potential problem.’
‘Any mages among the prisoners?’ The Unknown was frowning.
‘I’m sure there are but they’ll be keeping very quiet,’ said Kard. ‘Senedai would have killed them otherwise. He’s ruthless as he’s proved by all the sacrifices in the Shroud.’
‘Is any Communion directed at them? Where will they be being held?’ The Unknown asked, seeing Hirad framing the same questions and coming to the same conclusion.
‘In the south of the city, probably at the grain store. It’s the only building big enough for the number of people I think Senedai’s probably captured; and it’s a secure structure, for obvious reasons. As for Communion, we can’t risk it. Not just because we don’t know if any mages are alive there but because we don’t want the prisoners or the Wesmen getting a sniff of our plans before we attack.’
The Unknown exchanged a brief glance with Hirad, who raised his eyebrows and nodded.
‘We’ll free them,’ said the big man. ‘But it’ll require a slight change to your plans.’
‘How?’ asked Kard.
‘Just leave it to The Raven,’ said Hirad. ‘We know what we’re doing.’
Kard nodded. ‘It’s your party if you want it.’
The Communion had proved promising. Pheone, the mage already contacted by The Raven, was with a group of two hundred Julatsans including eleven other mages. They were picking their way towards where they suspected the Dordovans were camped and could strike at the Wesmen encircling the city in a day.
The Dordovans too had been found. Two and a half thousand foot, five hundred cavalry and fifty mages, who had been on the point of returning to Dordover because of the strength of the Wesmen massing at Understone, had been given the order to march instead to Julatsa.
Three other disparate groups of soldiers, city folk and a handful of mages, perhaps one hundred and fifty in all, had been found and advised of the siege plans. Whether they joined the effort or not depended largely on their intercepting the Dordovan force.
That left the Julatsans plus The Raven with at least one day to hold off the might of the Wesmen, who outnumbered them so comprehensively. Kard believed they could do it. It was down to troop morale, effective use of mages and, critically for the survival of the spirit within the College, The Raven liberating the prisoners assumed to be in the grain store.
The College had enjoyed its first run of good fortune since the fall of Julatsa. The news of the mysterious but very welcome arrival of The Raven had spread like bushfire through the College, bringing smiles to faces and the quoting of good omens. The Raven were also credited with the blindness that appeared to have afflicted the Wesmen in the watch-tower who, an hour after the Shroud’s dispersal, had still not realised the vulnerability of those they watched. For them, it would soon be too late.
A group of six mages walked from the base of the Tower. Dawn was coming though it was still full dark. The courtyard was quiet but for the cloth-muffled sounds of pans clashing in the kitchens, of cook-fires being gently stoked, and of the muted protestations of the freshly greased well-chain as water was hauled from the underground course. In so many ways it was, as Kard demanded, an entirely ordinary yet artificially governed preamble to dawn.
But from behind every door, a Captain or Lieutenant watched, their men primed and ready to race for their designated gate. The spotter mages prepared ShadowWings and The Raven, already hidden in shadow by the South Gate, waited. Hirad and The Unknown Warrior hefted weapons, Ilkar and Erienne prepared HardShield and HotRain respectively and Denser, ShadowWings of his own. He would navigate. It was the best way to avoid unwanted confrontation.
The six mages walked casually across the courtyard, their bodies relaxed but their minds taut with spell preparation. For all the steel cladding on the lower levels of the Wesmen’s tower, the watch-platform was still open, though netted against arrows. There was no warning. One moment they were walking, the next they stopped and a dozen FlameOrbs were flashing across the sky, the extra preparation time adding speed and accuracy to the casting.
The sudden light flared harshly across the courtyard as it moved swiftly towards the helpless Wesmen guards. Shadow followed orange light in hypnotic sequence and the briefest of hushes fell on the College before the Orbs struck home.
The Julatsan night lit up as orange fire deluged the platform, igniting wood and flesh and consuming both with equal voracity. Flames leapt upwards, boiling off the roof of the tower, while on the platform itself the burning Wesmen shrieked and thrashed in their agony, one plunging through the torn netting to fall, trailing smoke and flame as he went. And as the single desperate toll of an alarm bell rang mournfully out into the night, joined by the screams of the dying, the College courtyard sprang to life.