Gwaynn then turned to Tarina Grace. “Contact me if our friends outside decide to visit uninvited,” he said, giving the simple order in a manner that said he was used to being obeyed.
The Tarina nodded but said nothing more.
“Very well,” N’dori said and almost instantly a bridge appeared before her. The students around her gasped though they’d witnessed such power from Tar Nev when he’d created the bridge from Noble. Gwaynn on the other hand, frowned. The bridge had opened quickly but Gwaynn had no sense that the Tarina had altered time in any way. He took a moment to mentally reach out and test her power. Instantly she was aware of his presence and turned to look at him. She smiled for the first time.
“After you Sire,” she added. Gwaynn tipped his head slightly and stepped through the bridge. The others followed and immediately found themselves in the middle of the Massi camp which was bustling with early morning activity.
Tarina Monde, Jess na Gall and Lonogan Bock all waited for them in the center of camp.
Lonogan stepped forward and grasped Gwaynn’s hand. “Welcome, welcome,” he said with a wide smile full of excitement and relief.
ǂ
Almost exactly one hour after Gwaynn and his party departed from Manse the Temple Knights moved forward to attack. The alarm rang out across the town and Tar Grace rushed to the walls of the levee to see the nature of the threat. She was soon joined on the wall by Captain Huntley, who was barking orders farther to the west, near the gates. To the Tar’s surprise Samantha, Gwaynn’s woman, also climbed the ladder to the ramparts. She negotiated the climb rather quickly despite having to use the crook of her elbow on her bad arm for support.
“You should be in the hospital tent,” Grace said blandly to Samantha as she approached.
“I’ll be all right,” Samantha answered, slightly intimidated by the elder Tar. “I can still run if the walls are breeched…my legs are fine. But I’m here to see that it doesn’t happen.”
Tarina Marissa Grace studied the girl for a brief moment then together they turned back and watched as the constructed causeways of the Temple Knights slowly rolled toward the protective ditch of the levee. At the moment, the causeways were still well out of arrow range, but at the pace they were coming they would soon be close enough.
Samantha turned. “Sergeant…prepare to fire on my order,” she yelled to the host of archers set back from the walls, most of which were hiding in their own protective shelters against the possibility of any return fire, though as far as Samantha could tell there were no mass of archers among the Knights.
Tarina Grace could feel the nervous excitement running through the men and women who manned the walls.
“Steady,” she said confidently and her demeanor, plus the fact that she was a Tarina from Noble, served to calm the nerves of those near her position. She walked slowly along the wall toward the west and the only gate that marred the strong fortifications of the levee.
“Steady,” she repeated, always keeping a very close eye on the progress of the enemy. They were coming slowly but steadily. The heavy tall causeways, though built onto a wheeled base, were ungainly and apparently hard to move. The Tarina smiled to herself. ‘The Knights are not suited for siege warfare,’ she thought with satisfaction. ‘It plays against their strengths…as does fighting on foot.’
“Have the oil ready,” she shouted to those defenders near her, vaguely aware of Samantha shouting orders to the east and Captain Huntley doing the same closer to the gates. She wondered if three women had ever led the defense of a city before…she thought not, but wouldn’t have bet against it.
Tarina Marissa Grace watched as an elderly man picked up a clay pot filled with oil. The pot was about the size of a child’s head and sealed carefully with a plug of beeswax. General Bock had the townspeople fill hundreds of such pots in anticipation of an attack. The Tarina admired such preparations. It would make her job much easier.
Grace was surprised at the relative calm of the city’s defenders, most of who looked to be civilians and many appeared far too old or young to be in the fight. But they watched the vaunted Temple Knights steady approach with surprising composure, as if they didn’t truly believe the enemy wished to breach their walls and kill everyone inside.
The Knights and their siege weapons were still over a hundred yards away when arrows began to streak by overhead. They flew over the walls in flaming waves, attempting to engulf the oncoming siege weapons or any men they hit in fire. Tarina Grace was impressed; the archers were well coordinated and accurate. Unfortunately however, the Knights were very heavily armored and all carried light weight but solid shields. The arrows had little effect, but the Tarina did see a small number of the enemy fall. But as the Knights drew closer the arrows flew at them with considerably less warning and more fell. The airborne missiles became more effective the closer the enemy moved, but still the Tarina doubted they would have a major impact on the battle.
“Prepare the oil!” Tarina Grace yelled and the order was echoed by Captain Huntley and Samantha. The causeways, over twenty of them, were very close and seemed to grow taller as they drew nearer, then suddenly and with little warning they began to drop. They fell haphazardly, not all together, each plummeting to earth as they reached the edge of the protective ditch. Cheers erupted from the Knights as the makeshift bridges slammed into place. They spanned the ditch easily, though Grace noted that one was lowered too early and came up short of the far bank, its end lost in the slowly moving water of the channel. Another, farther to the east, actually banged loudly against the wall and stuck, sloping up at a relatively steep angle.
Once the causeways were in place, the tempo of the Knight’s attack increased dramatically…as did the pulse of the defenders.
When the causeways were down the Knights began to stream across, screaming in defiance. Unperturbed, the defenders on the walls began to fling their clay pots filled with oil almost immediately. The aim and courage of the townspeople surprised Tarina Grace, though their ability to throw the pots was unimpeded by any enemy archers at the moment. Only a few hundred soldiers among the Knights sported bows and their arrows did little to give the Massi defenders pause. They hurled the pots with abandon and only a few missed their targets. Most of the pots hit and shattered, drenching the thick wooden bridges and the men who were crossing them with light, but highly flammable oil, which was quickly ignited by a shower of flaming arrows. The battle field was soon covered with thick, black smoke and the sounds of screaming, burning men.
Tarina Grace’s view of the action was soon impeded by the thick smoke but it was easy enough to tell that the causeways in her vicinity were now impassable. Already in her area many of the enemy soldiers that attempted to carry ladders across the causeways during the initial moments of the attack were either dead or seriously wounded, so she moved quickly along the wall farther to the west toward the main gate. She’d not gone very far before she came upon a mass of men and women in a panic, fleeing in every direction. From what she could gather someone dropped a pot of oil at the base of the wall, and now the entire area was awash with flames. A couple of men had already attempted to quench the flames with water but to their surprise found that this only enlarged the fire.
“Dirt!” The Tarina yelled over the noise of the confusion. “You must use dirt!” She grabbed the nearest man who she seemed to be in charge of the group and repeated the orders to him.
“You must hurry,” Grace said, but the man shook his head.