Perhaps two hind past the fall of darkness I led the Midanna from the forest, afoot, across an open expanse, and to the walls of the city. The walls of Bellinard contained two gates, one through which males and their slave-females entered the city, and the other, a goodly distance away, through which no others save the males in leather and metal rode. This second gate, beside the immense dwelling called the palace of the High Seat, was of special interest to me, and yet those who entered through the first gate must needs face the greater hazard of traversing the entire city before reaching the dwelling of the High Seat. The groups of armed males making their rounds throughout the city must be seen to before our descent upon the palace, therefore must a portion of our strength enter the first gate; I felt it needful that I lead them through the city ways, and yet I wished to be beside those who entered so near the main objective of our attack. Rilas had laughed at my quandary, suggesting that I pray to Mida to be allowed to exist in two places at the same moment, and yet the matter was not amusing. How is a war leader to lead if she must be in some place other than before her warriors?
Of necessity, the matter was decided by need rather than desire. It was my desire to “accompany those at the second gate, yet was it needful that I lead the way through the city. Tilim, war leader of the Happa, and Rogon, war leader off the Hirga, were chosen to accompany me with five hands of warriors from each of their clans, a large enough force to do that which must be done, and yet small enough to move undetected. The other war leaders disliked having to wait at the farther gate, and yet, as I stood in the downpour beside the darkened city wall, seeing them and their warriors slip away into the darkness to seek the place of the second gate, I felt they would obey me and make no attempt to take the glory of victory before our arrival. They well knew my personal reasons for wishing the city to be ours, and knew also that I would have their hearts should they disclose our presence before the proper moment. Mida would be greatly angered at such foolish behavior, yet I and my sword stood a good deal closer to them.
With the departure of those making for the second gate, I directed the throwing of climbing leather to the metal points atop the wall the balance of us stood beside. Fully five hands of warriors threw the weighted, knotted leather, and yet no more than three lines had to be cast a second time. With all lines secure the warriors scaled the wall quickly yet carefully, for the tears of Mida, however welcome, made the ascent slippery and treacherous. I, myself, waited with the others, sunk in a foul humor yet unable to do aught for it. I had fully intended to accompany those warriors who scaled the wall and faced the males who guarded the gate, yet had there been firm protests from Tilim and Rogon. What would become of our attack should the sole warrior with knowledge of the city and its ways fall prey to some foolish mishap in the wetness, they asked. Jalav might lead nine clans, twenty hands of warriors and more to each clan, yet was she forbidden to lead a mere five hands of warriors to take the males beyond the gate. The two who spoke so did not shrink back from my expression at being told such a thing, yet surely was it a near thing. I spoke no words of my own, recognizing the wisdom of their council even while I reviled the need for such care, and the matter was decided. I stood, the safety of a slave-female forced upon me, foul-humored yet unarguing, awaiting the time my sword might drink of enemy blood with none to deny me.
Few sounds were to be heard through the thickness of the wall and gate, yet even had they not been there, the silence would surely have remained near complete. The warriors ascending the wall had been warned to walk upon feet of clouds as they slew the gate guards with swords of swiftness and silence, and this they did. Within moments of their dropping within the wall, the sound came of the gate bar being drawn back, and then the gate itself, ponderous in its movement yet not impossible, opened to admit us. I, astand where the gate halves met, was first within, yet little was left to be done where the males were concerned.
Beside the gate, to either side of it, stood two small dwellings wherein the males of the gate, males of leather and metal, took their rest the while they remained to guard the gate. As I had thought would be the case, the entire number of males had been found within these dwellings, sheltering themselves from damp discomfort rather than keeping watch for intruders. My warriors had sent them to an eternal watch in Mida’s chains, their bloody, lifeless bodies giving full testimony to the destination they had already reached. I complimented the warriors upon their doing, designated those who would keep watch from the shadows for the approach of other males, then led the rest to the first of the city’s ways.
The city lay in deep darkness, allowing the warriors who prowled behind me no sight of the tall, close, strangely decorated dwellings which lined the ways we trod. With the number of armed males the city boasted, my force was none too large, and yet to move stealthily with so many in one’s wake would surely have proved impossible to any save Midanna. From shadow to shadow did we move, seeking to avoid rousing those males who, though armed, were not of the set of leather and metal. To rouse them would have been more than foolish, for their numbers were considerably greater than ours, great enough to cause our defeat should their appearance cause us delay in facing those others who were indeed of the leather and metal ilk. We, as one with the shadows we moved through, avoiding those few sheltered torches upon dwellings remaining lit in the downpour, moved on through the city ways, grateful that the usual stink seemed washed away beneath the tears of Mida, the slime covering the stones of those ways gone from beneath our feet. They who followed disliked the ways we trod, yet I, who knew them from another time, felt savage pleasure at the manner of my return. Once before had I been taken through these ways, bound in leather, stumbling to the snarling push of males, forced to the darkness beneath the dwelling of the High Seat, chained there and left to rot till it was their pleasure to release me—to the further chains of slavery. Aye, there was much pleasure in Jalav at her return, much pleasure and much anticipation.
There was no battle as we moved through the city ways, for battle necessitates face-to-face, blade-to-blade encounters. Slaughter there was aplenty, of each set of males in leather and metal which we came upon, they knowing naught of our presence till our daggers sank into their throats. I find such slaughter distasteful, even of males such as those, and yet was this slaughter necessary to our purpose. We moved between the dwellings, across the broad expanse at city’s center which no longer held tents of many colors, beyond further dwellings to the broad, stoned way which led past solitary dwellings, flowing through shadow and rain and approaching each set of males about these solitary dwellings and doing for them that which must be done. It was necessary to leave no living enemy behind us, yet was I greatly pleased when we had approached the immense dwelling of the High Seat as closely as possible and the necessity for slaughter was left behind.