The defenders held the tips of their arrows to the torches until they caught light.
‘Nock!’
They loaded their bows.
‘Draw!’
Eda took aim at the wagon directly in front of her, then, knowing she could not reach her target, lifted her bow.
‘Loose!’
It was a beautiful sight, the sky exploding with orange flames, but many of the arrows went out mid-air, and none made the distance.
Shapur watched them land forty to fifty yards short, and his mouth set in a firm line. He did not reprimand them because he knew he was asking the impossible.
As if their enemy had been waiting for that exact moment, they gathered around the wagons and untied the canvases covering them. It was time for the big reveal.
‘Shit,’ Blackmane said as the canvases were pulled back.
Eda looked from him to the enormous structures. While she might not have known exactly what they were, she knew fear was the correct response. ‘What do they do?’
‘They’re catapults. They turn walls to rubble.’
Shapur rushed to the other side of the wall, shouting, ‘Get some horses out there now! I want those things burning in the next few minutes.’
The gate cranked below them, and hooves pounded the muddy earth. Eda watched through the embrasure as teams of soldiers worked together to prepare the catapults, loading each with a rock the size of a small child.
A hand grabbed Eda’s arm, spinning her. She came face to face with Shapur Wright.
‘This is your one and only chance to get off this wall. I won’t offer again.’
He was giving her an out. She could leave. The problem was Blackmane could not leave, or Hadewaye, or any of the other defenders standing atop the wall. ‘I’ll stay, sir.’
He nodded, then marched off without saying another word.
‘You should’ve left,’ Blackmane said when she returned to his side. ‘Staying here to die isn’t brave, it’s stupid.’
She watched Chadorian horses gallop out into the open below, their riders armed with burning arrows. ‘Would you have left?’
Blackmane stared ahead, not responding.
‘That’s what I thought.’
The defenders did manage to set two of the catapults alight before they were shot dead, but the flames were extinguished by ready soldiers. A moment later, the catapults sprang into action, hoisting boulders into the air.
‘Take cover!’
That was the warden behind them, prompting every man atop the wall to drop down. Eda pressed her eyes shut and braced for impact. The first boulder hit farther along the wall, an explosion of rock and dust flying in all directions. Blackmane’s arm went across her body, pinning her to the wall. The second hit nearby, the noise deafening and the dust choking them. Eda heard the next one, the whistle of rock cutting through air at high speed. She dropped her bow and covered her ears.
But she never saw it land.
* * *
Roul ran into Harlan at the nobility gate. He was on horseback headed in the same direction. He glanced down at the weapons Roul had collected from the armoury.
‘Staying for the fun, I see.’
‘You know how I love a fight where we’re completely outnumbered.’
