There were the bows. There were the drawings of battering rams. These looked much like the one the Green Towers had used in their attack. There were scaling ladders three and four stories high. And there were siege engines-not just drawings, but catapults and large ballistae that could throw two hundred pound stones several blocks. These machines squatted on the roofs of half the buildings on the outer edges of the enclave. Their crews slept just below, and tons of rock had been laboriously hauled up the stairs and piled ready for use as ammunition.
There was more than stones for them to throw. Malud, Yekran, and Erlik almost glowed with pride as they showed Blade the fireballs. These were large masses of dried thistle stalks woven or tied together and then dipped in a solution of marconite dissolved in one of the chemicals from the life-support systems. A pinch of marconite added to the chemical would make it easy to ignite and almost impossible to approach or put out, so fiercely did it burn. «We have not tried these out either,» said Yekran with a savage grin. «But we shall be happy to do so when the right time comes.»
Only a week later the right time came. Krog attacked.
Chapter Eighteen
The attack came by night, but it was no surprise to Blade or the Dreamers. Blade had done his best to make sure that it wouldn't be. There were watchers on top of every building on the outer edges of the enclave and patrols roaming through the streets that led to the Waker towers. The patrols spotted the advance guard of the Wakers when they were still miles away and sent messengers dashing up nearby towers with marconite lights to signal the news to the enclave.
Blade was asleep when Yekran pounded on the door of his chamber. But he awoke almost instantly when the man burst in with a savage grin on his face. «They are coming, Blade, they are coming. The word just came from the sentinels.»
Blade stood up, drew a blanket over the half-asleep Narlena, and began pulling on his clothes. «How many?»
«Many hundreds, perhaps a thousand.» Yekran almost licked his lips. «They are all coming at us together. Krog must have done what you said he would do-form an alliance with all the gangs against us.»
«Yes,» said Blade shortly. «And if he has, we are in more danger than you seem to think. They will outnumber us four or five to one in fighters. And most of the gangs do not care about Krog's plan for rebuilding Pura. They only want to kill and enslave Dreamers and loot vaults. If they break into the enclave, it will be a bloody mess!»
«Then we shall make sure that they do not break in,» replied Yekran calmly. «Shall we go up to the roof?»
Blade nodded, kissed Narlena, and then followed Yekran out of the chamber. He shook his head irritably. He wished that Krog had attacked at some other time. The Dreamers in the enclave were so over-confident of their new fighting skills and weapons that they might become careless. And when fighting Krog, you could not afford to be careless. Up on the roof they searched the city spread out below them in the darkness. There was only a quarter moon, and it often slipped behind wandering clouds. Faint blue lights from other towers to the north flickered in the blackness-the Dreamer sentinels on distant roofs were signaling the advance of the Waker army. Blade leaned over the heavy metal railing and stared north along the dark streets looking for any sign of the Wakers.
Then he saw it-a ghost-faint flicker of movement along the edges of a wide street half a mile to the north. He waited, eyes fixed on that spot, until a momentary glimmer of moonlight showed a dark mass flowing forward across the street. Unmistakably the moonlight sparked off polished metal.
«I see one column,» he said to Yekran. «Crossing Rona Avenue»
«Good,» said Yekran. «The watchers reported three, though.»
«One of them will certainly come along the riverbank,» said Blade. «They will want to cut us off from retreating into the open country. They won't want to let a thousand slaves get away.»
Yekran's jaw hardened. «We don't want to retreat. We want to stay here and kill those-«His voice trailed off. Apparently he couldn't think of a word nasty enough to describe the Wakers. They stood in silence for five minutes. A sentinel in a tower overlooking the riverbank signaled that one of the columns was on the move there. A few minutes later the third column also came into sight. It was moving in on the east side of the enclave with scouts out in front.
«The east column will be Krog's, almost certainly,» said Blade. «I don't think any of the other gangs know anything about throwing out scouts, unless Krog taught them.»
«I would like to meet this man Krog,» said Yekran slowly. «I hope we do not have to kill him.» Then, briskly, «Well, Blade, I think we know where they are now. Let us go down.»
Below, at street level, the frantic bustle and confusion of the first alert was fading as people reached their stations and peered into the darkness. About half the trained fighters and two thirds of the partly trained ones were manning the walls. Blade had the rest organized into a reserve that he could move to wherever the attack was strongest. Everybody who was too young, too old, or too weak to fight had other jobs-carrying water and extra weapons to the fighters, carrying away the dead and wounded. Except for the Waker prisoners, who were locked up in vaults, everybody in the enclave had something to do. The Wakers would be attacking a whole people, not just the fighters. Blade hoped that fact would give the Dreamers the edge they needed-especially with the new weapons. He hoped those weapons worked as well in battle as they had in the tests.
Time crept on. Blade wondered if the Wakers were going to delay their attack until daylight. He doubted that Krog could have persuaded all the other gangs to fight by day. But if he had, things would go badly for the Dreamers. The new weapons would lose half their terror value in daylight.
A figure came out of the darkness and up to Blade. «A message from the commander of the war machines, Captain Blade. The column on the riverbank is within range now. Can we open fire?» The man wore an expression like a small boy asking if he can open his Christmas presents.
Blade shook his head. «Wait until the eastern column is within range. Then concentrate on them.» The man nodded and dashed off.
The People of the Blue Eye would be hardest to scare with the new weapons. But they would also be the most dangerous if they got over the walls. The farther away they could be hit, the better.
The eastern column must have been at very close range when the messenger arrived. Only minutes later one of the catapults went twonggg. Blade dimly saw something soar through the air and drop down out of sight. He could clearly hear the crash as the stone landed, and he thought he heard faint screams and shouts. He swore to himself in frustration. Up on the roofs he could see but not command; down here he could command but not see. He realized he was in the same maddening situation as every general in history who has wanted to see what was going on.
The siege machines went on firing, and the stones went on crashing down into the streets to the east. The fireballs were being saved for a surprise at close range. Blade heard no more screams from the east, however. If the People of the Blue Eye were out there. Krog had probably ordered them to scatter. A minute later another messenger ran up, confirming Blade's suspicions. The eastern column had disappeared, but the other two were still moving in.
Blade grinned. Possibly Krog was going to play the same game he had accused Blade of wishing to play with him. He would get his rivals' fighters killed off and spare his own by delaying his own attack and letting the others go in first. Then Narlena ran up with a message. The column from the riverbank was in sight and coming up the street fast.