Many of his men were boarding the airship when disasterstruck.
A battle cry rose beyond the isolated Roman detachment,heralding the entrance of a new opponent: a new batch of Roman legionnaires,racing along the wall, weapons at the ready.
Amalia had not retreated toward the ship when the call hadcome, remaining instead at her position on the wall. She stood rooted bysurprise for a moment, then lifted her weapon, and the dance of death began inearnest.
Chalbys and Fustus cried out in alarm at thelegionnaires’ arrival. The situation had rapidly changed from one of playfullytoying with the surrounded Roman detachment to being suddenly outnumbered. Withmost of their men embarked, there were few men left to help their leader. Theair marines’ cordon was shrinking as they hastily converged on their onlyescape, leaving the three ringleaders out in the open.
Chalbys glanced at Fustus. “All is lost, but we cannot allowher to fall,” Chalbys offered. Fustus looked worried, his face etched withlines of concentration. They looked at Corbus.
Hard pressed to hold back the overwhelming tide of thelegionary force, Amalia was a blur whose touch left injury and death. Then,mobbed by at least ten different legionnaires, she went down. Those on thelanding platform about fifty yards away heard her cry out. With an involuntarygasp, Corbus stepped forward, only to see his mother’s opponents flying in alldirections. One hurtled off the wall into open space, plummeting toward thecity below. She fought to stand again, heavily favoring her right side.
Corbus pulled his swords out, but both of the other men wereone step ahead of him. For the first time in his life, Corbus felt himselfbeing manhandled, each man grasping an arm as they fought to prevent him fromthe suicide of charging into the enemy ranks. Despite Chalbys’s weakappearance, his grip was like an iron vise.
“We … can’t … lose … you … too. We’d have losteverything for no gain!” gasped Fustus as they wrestled the frantic assassintoward the safety of the ship.
As he fought to go to the aid of his mother, Corbus saw theremnants of the original Roman detachment finally regain their nerve andadvance on the airship, moving in good order. The last few air marines stoodnearby, one firing his crossbow at the legionnaires who had managed to get around Amalia’s human blockade. The man let out a scream as he fell,attracting more attention to the grounded ship. The Romans were getting closer,their feet pounding on the parapet.
“We can’t stay here, sir! You’ll just die like your mother,”Fustus growled.
Over the man’s shoulder, Corbus watched Amalia fighting likea cornered tiger. His face felt wet, and he realized he was crying. Hisso-called allies were dragging him away from helping his mother, theonly family member he had even known. “Come on, Mother!” he screamed, tryingdesperately to get her to leave with them.
Amalia turned to look at him. For a moment, their eyesconnected, and Corbus felt as though a huge weight had been transferred to hisshoulders. Her eyes were full of love and zeal, full of anger andprotectiveness. With that last glance, she turned to continue her defense,backing slowly toward the landing pad while keeping as many Imperials as busyas possible.
Chalbys and Fustus bundled Corbus onto the relative safetyof the airship. Behind them, the last marine leapt onto the deck and rang abell. The tone of the ship’s engines changed as it went buoyant and begangaining altitude.
Below them, the Romans who had nearly reached them threw avolley of plumbatae at the rapidly retreating ship, but most of themetal bolts clanked off the bottom of the decking. One came close enough forCorbus to hear its passage before it rebounded off a nearby post and back intospace, its warhead fizzling without exploding.
Chalbys and Fustus remained beside Corbus as he stood on thedeck, regardless of the assurances he had given them that he no longer wishedto take on half the Roman army single-handed. All he could do now was watch asthe Romans surrounded and overwhelmed his mother. His heart felt as though itwas being ripped out of his chest.
The figures on the landing platform shrank as the MidgardFlyer gained altitude. Claxons began to wail. Corbus was dimly aware ofanother airship approaching. His full attention remained on the fight. It wasas if he was watching a tragic drama from the cheap seats; heart pounding, theyoung man could do nothing but watch and see what happened as the red-coatedfigures surrounded the brown-coated one.
“Move forward! Quickly-we’ve got to reach that landingplatform and destroy that airship!” Constantine ordered.
His men continued to push against the solitary figureguarding the walkway. While they had managed to relieve the pressure on thesmall knot of surviving legionnaires, they had been unable to move past therebel Amazon. Behind her, Constantine could see that Centurion Caesar hadreestablished command and was moving to intercept the airship.
Constantine pushed through the ranks of his men. They werehanging back, having seen the damage the woman’s double-ended spear could do,even to an armored man. Constantine’s feet slipped in blood and gore. At onepoint he was fairly certain that he had stepped upon a dead soldier, his armsliced off. As he stepped into the front ranks, he lurched as his foot foundanother slick spot on the causeway. The stumble saved his life-the twirling figure’ssteel sliced right over his helmet, chopping off his officer’s plume, the forceof the glancing blow snapping the chinstrap on his helmet to rip it right offhis head.
Constantine sucked in a shaky breath, and exhaled in a gaspas he pulled his shield up in time to deflect another blow. I need tomaneuver more! His memories of private dueling and combat instructionclamored to be used. Yet he was shoulder to shoulder with his men, unable totruly maneuver other than forward or backward. Forward it was. There was nogoing back.
The ranks pressed forward under his shouted orders. The openspace of the landing platform was less than ten yards away now. Taking a quickpeek over his shield, Constantine saw that most of the enemy had boarded. A fewmen appeared to be watching the conflict with extreme interest. As thelegionnaires advanced, two of the men grasped a third and began hauling himback to the ship, as crewmembers on the ship fired crossbows, dealing lightdamage as they harried the Imperial attack.
The woman’s spear shattered the metal-wood composite shieldof the man beside Constantine and thrust into his organs, killing him horriblyin a split second. Seeing an opening, Constantine took it, stabbing out withhis spatha and cutting her leg. A solid hit; Duel Master Vusentiuswould be proud, he thought as his sword came back with blood on the blade.
Screaming in pain, the woman backed off a few steps torecover from the obviously painful wound. The startled legionnaires followedcautiously. As they chased her, the fire from the dirigible became moreaccurate. One legionnaire’s startled yell was quickly silenced as anothercrossbow bolt ripped out part of his neck.
Straining, the airship lifted off, unwilling to allow theImperials to get too close. Centurion Caesar ’s detachment peppered them withplumbata, even though the light missiles had little chance of harming such avessel. The plain warheads sounded like rain on a tin roof as they bounced offthe iron deck plating.
The devilish woman finally turned in the middle of thelanding platform to face her pursuers. Hatred burned in her eyes as she stareddown the dozens of men surrounding her.
Constantine looked around. “Julos! Get some men on thoseanti-airship weapons! I want that ship taken down, now!” he ordered. Asquad peeled off and ran toward the large anti-air scorpions and ballistae.
Shrieking her defiance, the woman charged at him. Guessthat order upset her, his mind observed as he raised his shield and leaptforward to attack.