Ed Gentry - Neversfall

Taennen peered through to the other side to find two of the enemy archers had fallen to bowshots from the defenders, but sprawled about the courtyard at least three times that many Maquar and Durpari were dead or injured. Taennen stood flat against the wall again and forced a deep breath. His eyes came to rest at the top of the northern wall where he saw Loraica positioning Maquar archers. He made hand signs indicating that he would try to make it to the western wall to muster more fire power from there. Loraica nodded at this communication and turned her attention back to the men with her.

"Get to the eastern wall. I'll head for the western," Taennen said to Adeenya.

Adeenya nodded. She patted his shoulder and ran east, leaving the safe cover of the structure. He watched her dash across the courtyard, arrows thunking into the dirt behind her as though she were dropping them as she ran to make a trail she could follow back.

Loraica's archers loosed enough arrows to cover Taennen as he made his move to the western wall. He breathed a sigh of relief as his foot made the bottom step of the northwest stairwell. He scanned the area for ally troops and saw a pair of Durpari soldiers running toward him. Taennen waved the men on and ordered the two to follow him up the stairs.

When they reached the top of the wall, they found that more of the enemy bowmen had fallen, but over half a dozen still remained. Taennen ran along the wall, the Durpari soldiers following him. He stopped at a point from where the two soldiers with him would have clean shots to the center of the courtyard and barked the order for them to attack. Farther down the wall, several Maquar were already loosing their weapons at the invaders.

At least ten Durpari and Maquar soldiers were dead in the courtyard, having attempted to charge the enemy archers. An arrow sailed high toward the wall, and Taennen shouted for the two Durpari men to lie flat. The missile flew wide of its target and bounced off the wall behind him. The Durpari men found their feet, offering their thanks for his intervention, and set about firing at the invaders.

Two more enemies fell. Their attack would have to end soon. One of the invaders made a noise, an unintelligible shout to the others. Two of the archers shouted back and pulled arrows from their boots, firing the missiles perhaps twenty paces from their position, straight into the ground. The courtyard suddenly filled with an unnatural darkness, which covered a large portion of the interior of the fortress from the ground to halfway up the walls. The citadel defenders stopped firing, no longer able to see their targets within.

Many tense moments passed before the uncanny darkness dissipated. Taennen loosed a breath and felt his shoulders relax, though only a little. He looked to the two men with him. "That was excellent work, men. Well done," Taennen said.

"Thank you, sir," they said in unison.

Taennen took in the scene around him and shouted to all within the sound of his voice, "Hold the wall! Keep your eyes alert both inside and outside the citadel. We cannot be surprised again."

Returned shouts of "Aye, sir!" came to him and he headed to the courtyard, offering more complimentary words to those he passed. Adeenya and Loraica were headed toward the courtyard from their perspective places on the wall as well, and each offered him a nod as they approached.

All around him in the courtyard were the bodies of his comrades and those left alive tending to them. He walked to where the attackers had been cloaked in their darkness and crouched to examine the ground.

"That was damned effective," Loraica said, standing next to him.

"How in the hells are they doing this?" Adeenya asked. "The darkness is no real feat. Any arcanist worth his salt can do that. But how do they enter so easily?" Her voice dropped. "Do you think someone is letting them in?"

"Twice they've hit us here in the supposed security of our citadel," Taennen said as he stood. He noticed a few other soldiers standing nearby had heard him and listened to his words. He raised his voice for more to hear. "Twice, they've invaded our safety. They will surely come again," he said.

One of the nearby Durpari blurted out, "No! We can't let that happen."

Taennen nodded at the man. "He's right. We can't let them do that. We can't do that to ourselves. We will figure this out. We will stop them," he said.

Several heads nodded but a few muttered amongst themselves, their reservations clear.

"There is nothing we cannot do if we stay united, if we stand up to what appears to be hopeless," Taennen said. "Trust in me and I will trust in you, friends. That trust will be a wall that these heathens will not break, will not pierce. They will assault it and be turned away by its strength."

Subdued cheers came in response and more heads nodded. That was the most he could hope for The coming night would be a long one as the dead were identified and sorted out. Hope would be important.

"Make sure shifts are changed every six bells. I can't have anyone missing something because they're exhausted," Loraica said to a subordinate soldier as they both looked over a duty roster. Several more names had been crossed out.

The man affirmed her orders and left for the wall.

"What have you learned?" Jhoqo said from behind her.

Loraica turned to face Jhoqo, reminded of the last time he had sneaked up on her. His face was plain, his gaze locked onto hers. His stealth wasalways disconcerting no matter how long she'd known the man.

"Sir, I have important news from the battle. I was just coming to see you."

"First, what have you learned about the orir?" Jhoqo said.

"Sir, before the attack, I saw Taennen and the orir talking extensively," she said. "After they separated, the orir approached me and told me of a plan to lure out a possible traitor that might have killed Khatib. She wants to spread word through the ranks that one of the formians witnessed the killer-one of our own-entering the tower during the fight."

"That would be pointless. There was no traitor," Jhoqo said, resting against the wall. "That doesn't make any sense."

Loraica agreed. "Yes, sir, but the orir thought it worth a chance in case there really was a traitor, and she said that if there wasn't one, then there would be no harm done. And an item was stolen from her during the battle."

"What item?" Jhoqo said.

"A magical trinket used to contact her commanders," Loraica said.

"Hmmm. That's unfortunate, but I don't see how that figures into these attacks," Jhoqo said.

"Sir, she thinks it might mean that someone knew about her device, and might have betrayed us," Loraica said.

"Nonsense. They're wildmen. They just saw something shiny and valuable and took it," Jhoqo said.

Loraica nodded. Jhoqo might have been right, but Loraica found all of the pieces of the puzzle harder to deny than he did. She decided to think on it further and said, "Sir, I think the orir just needs to feel useful, to be honest with you."

"You've done well, Loraica. You're a fine terir," the man said.

"Thank you, sir."

"Does Taennen know of this plan?" Jhoqo asked.

Loraica shook her head and said, "I do not believe so, sir." Her guts wrenched, and in that moment she knew why. She wanted to tell Taennen, to let him know that she hadn't gone over his head by approaching Jhoqo directly, that she wasn't excluding him over his mistakes. She tried to comfort herself with assurances that she had done so on a direct order from her commanding officer.

"Let's keep it that way for now. I'll approach him with this," Jhoqo said. "This mission has been a struggle for him. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes, sir," Loraica replied.

"You also understand that this plan of the Durpari woman is unnecessary, don't you?" he said.