David Drake - Master of the Cauldron

"Certainly dead," Tenoctris said, bending forward to put her lips close to Sharina's right ear. "When we have leisure, I intend to dispose of his body beyond risk of anyone raising him again, but I don't think there's much risk of that happening regardless. As for their leader-"

They rode down a narrow alley, scattering children and driving adults back from their stoops. Washing hung on poles from second-story windows on both sides of the street. The spears of the leading horsemen hooked the clothing, setting off shouts and curses from both the owners and the tangled soldiers. The troop rode on. There'd be time to pay for damages later, if there was time for anything at all.

"-I don't believe they have a leader, dear," Tenoctris continued, bending to pluck a child's tunic from the right stirrup and toss it back toward where it'd been hanging. "They have a purpose, is all. They intend to capture Valles, then conquer Ornifal and finally all the Isles. Not for any reason, but because that was what they were directed to do. In that sense they're rather like a flung stone, but far, far more dangerous."

The troop rode into a plaza with four unequal sides and a well-curb in the center. Civilians, mostly women, shouted frightened questions from doorways. The standard-bearer at Rowning's side held his pole crosswise over his head.

"Hold up!" Ascor translated in a shout. More quietly he explained, "They didn't use the horn like usual because we're trying to surprise them. Your highness."

The Blood Eagles led Sharina to Captain Rowning's side. The plaza was too small to hold the whole troop on horseback, but it provided enough space for the leading section to form without being trampled by the men behind them.

"We'll round that corner…," Rowning said, pointing down one of the five streets joined in the plaza, "and be right on top of them. I want you to keep well back, your highness, until we've got the temple cleared."

"No," said Sharina before Tenoctris could speak. "The temple can't be cleared until Lady Tenoctris is there to block the portal. She and I will go in immediately with our escort-"

She nodded to Ascor.

"-and set to work. You and your men will keep the creatures who've already reached Valles from attacking from outside."

Rowning and Ascor looked at one another. Both grimaced.

"No help for it, then," Rowning muttered. To his cornicene he said, "Sound Charge, Sessir. They'll know we're coming in a heartbeat no matter what."

The cornicene's horn was curled around his body. He put his lips to the bone mouthpiece and blew a quick tune. The trained horses lurched into motion at the first touch of their riders' heels-Sharina's included, and much more suddenly that she was expecting. The signaller repeated his call as the troop charged down the cobblestone street and around the elbow that put the east side of the temple directly ahead of them.

A line of People marched two abreast from the entrance of the small temple toward where the Northeast Road left Valles. The column was several blocks long, moving at a measured pace. Neither the sounds of battle beyond the city wall nor the residents openly gaping from roofs, windows, and even the street itself seemed to affect them. The invaders' first priority was to destroy organized military resistance; that they were about to do.

Captain Rowning and half a dozen of his troopers were ahead of Sharina; the Blood Eagles hedged her to either side. They burst out of the narrow street and into the broader one which the temple faced. For a moment the People ignored them: then all the smooth bronze helmets turned at once. Their shields came up and their right hands drew the swords that they hadn't bothered to unsheathe before.

The mounted troopers rode through the straggling line, knocking down the invaders before they could form a shield wall. Horses won't charge home against a hedge of points, but trained cavalry mounts had no hesitation in using their weight and shoulders against individual men the way they'd have ridden through brush. Rowning reined his horse around to return to the temple, but many of his troopers continued their charge up the twisting street and out of sight.

The Blood Eagles dismounted at the temple steps and ran upward, hacking to death pairs of People as they met them. Sharina was a hair slower because she needed to hand Tenoctris to the ground. When she jumped down herself, the older woman was already climbing the steps, avoiding the sprawled, man-like bodies pouring their blood onto the worn marble.

Sharina curved her left arm around Tenoctris but didn't actually touch her. The support was there if the older woman stumbled, but at the moment Tenoctris appeared to be as vibrantly alert as Sharina herself. The Blood Eagles bunched briefly at the entrance, four of them trading strokes shield-to-shield with an equal number of People.

A Blood Eagle dropped dazed to his knees, his helmet falling to the temple porch, but then the People were thrashing in their death throes and the Blood Eagles were through into the sanctum. Sharina and Tenoctris followed. Behind them the sixth guard was wobbling forward again also though he'd forgotten to retrieve his helmet.

The interior was just as Sharina'd left it when she'd leaped to safety with Bolor and his fellow rebels. Stronghand's body, half-preserved by decades in a sealed coffin, sprawled hideously in Valgard's armor; Hani had decayed to a scattering of dust in his tunic and sandals. How old had the wizard really been before he roused the ghost of a vengeful warrior against him? she wondered.

Wilfus and Mogon lay on their backs, their eyes open and their faces distorted; both dead by Sharina's hand. The world was better off without them… but she'd pray to the Lady on their behalf if she survived this day, as she prayed for others already.

Two more People strode through the portal, swinging their swords at the Blood Eagles waiting for them. Both went down, but one had split Lires' shield from the rim to the boss. Lires stepped back, giving his place to a fellow, and traded his broken shield for the bronze buckler of a dead invader.

More movement through the portal. Swords and armor clashed, People went down. Eventually, though, the humans' blunted swords and tired arms would take their toll.

Tenoctris sat crosslegged and scooped the fallen ring from the dust of Hani's finger. She held it bezel-upward between her left thumb and forefinger while she rummaged in her satchel, still open beside the figure she'd drawn before Hani returned Sharina from the island.

Sharina drew the Pewle knife, as much for comfort as because she might need to use it. She glanced out into the street. Rowning's men had dismounted and formed an arc in front of the temple. They stood shield-to-shield, their horsehair-crested helmets a gay contrast to the People's smooth bronze.

A few humans were down, but for now the troop didn't seem seriously pressed by the People who'd turned to recapture the temple. The fact that the cavalry mounts were wandering loose, excited by the blood and clangor, showed how bad the situation really was, though: Rowning didn't think he could spare every fourth man as a horseholder.

Tenoctris began chanting. The figure she'd drawn in cinnabar on the floor had spun into a red smear when Hani opened the portal. Now it was spinning again, but this time sunwise. Wizardlight made spiteful blue crackles around the edges of the opening, but People continued to stride through and slash at the Blood Eagles before being cut down. The pile of leaking corpses grew, driving Sharina's guards back as invaders climbed over the tops of their dead fellows.

Ascor's foot slipped. He shouted a curse and went down. One of the People vaulted from the bulwark of corpses and stabbed him through the lower body. Lires hacked the invader from behind, knocking his helmet off but not felling him.