Within the machine-like workings of the inner Wall, Tiger Corps soldiers were busily moving rows and rows of blade carts into position. As levers were pulled and slits opened in the Wall, so each cart was pushed forward until the sharp, broad blade mounted on the front slid neatly through the slit and into the open air on the outside of the Wall.
“Blades ready!” Commander Wu barked, his order being relayed up and down the line. “Left! Right!”
Like a highly trained rowing team, Tiger Corps soldiers began to work oar-like levers rapidly back and forth, causing the lethal blades to slash from side to side. Several ascending Tao Tei, caught between the huge blades, were instantly hacked to pieces, their dismembered parts, trailing green blood, spinning down through the fog to land with assorted thuds on the desert sand below. Those Tao Tei climbing the Wall that were still beneath the level of the blades were now unable to continue, their route blocked by the lethal, constantly moving barrier.
With the blade barrier erected and operational, more Tiger Corps soldiers now began to once again load the trebuchet chutes with spiked cannon balls dripping with boiling oil. As before, the balls were set alight just before being released. Within moments the trebuchets were launching fiery balls of death through the fog-shrouded air at the thousands of Tao Tei milling on the desert sand. Although the Tao Tei had drawn first blood in this particular battle, the Nameless Order were now fighting back.
William, poised on the stone exit ramp that led down to the nearest guard tower, was in an agony of indecision. Thick fog was swirling around him, hampering his vision, reducing the action on this part of the Wall into a kind of hazy chaos. Mingled with the ever-present pounding of drums were yells and screams as soldiers desperately fought those creatures that had managed to breach the parapet before the blade barrier had stymied their advance. But among the sounds of conflict William could also hear the rumbling of iron wheels and the clanking of heavy chains as the harpoon ballistas were wheeled into position. To attempt to capture a Tao Tei had been his idea, and there was a part of him that was desperately anxious to see it come to fruition.
On the other hand, this moment right now, while the Nameless Order were fully occupied with the Tao Tei attack, was the perfect opportunity to do what they had come to do—steal the black powder and make their escape.
What should he do? Stay or go?
As William hovered, unable to decide, he glimpsed a flash of blue armour through the fog to his right.
Lin Mae, in the thick of the action, her green-smeared sword clutched in her hand, ran forward to the edge of the parapet and peered over the Wall. She was satisfied to see that the blades had done their work, stemming the Tao Tei advance—for now at least.
As the huge harpoon ballistas were hauled into position, she turned and yelled, “Raise the harpoons! Prepare to fire!”
Her orders were relayed up and down the length of the Wall, Commander Chen running the line to check that everything was in order. Eagle Corps soldiers were manning the huge crossbows, swinging them into position on their pivots. Behind them, Tiger Corps soldiers were loosening the winches with a jangle of heavy chains. As the harpoons, coated with yellow paste, were angled downwards into the fog, Strategist Wang, perched atop one of the command towers, shouted, “Make it count! Aim for the body!”
All they needed was one harpoon to find its target.
One captured Tao Tei on which to test their theories.
Pero strode towards the sounds of battle, Ballard at his heels, snapping like a vicious dog.
“Do you possess even a shadow notion of what it means to carry out an endeavor this challenging? What I’ve put into it? What I’ve endured? Or is that beyond your miniature, animal powers of conception?”
Pero swung round on him, hand moving instinctively to the sword at his belt. Ballard scuttled back, eyeing him with a mixture of outrage and wariness. For a moment Pero glared at the smaller man, whose eyes seemed to glint redly in the gloomy, fog-greyed corridor. Then he turned and strode on.
Lin Mae, still standing at the edge of the parapet, looked up and down the line as crossbow strings on the huge harpoon ballistas were pulled taut, creaking with tension. The metal harpoons, attached to chains, were arrowed down into the sea of fog.
“Fire at will!” she yelled.
The noise as multiple bolts trailing iron chains were released—ZZZPPPTTTT!—rang through her head and vibrated in her jaw, making her teeth tingle. Perched on what felt like the edge of the world, she watched as the harpoons looped out and down, bypassing the barrier of hacking blades, before disappearing into the fog. Some of the harpoons simply paid out the full length of their chains and then hung there, having encountered no resistance. Others thudded into what she could only assume was Tao Tei flesh, judging from the screeches of pain that rose up from the fog below.
As each harpoon came to a halt, whether because it had hit its mark or missed it, Tiger Corps soldiers immediately began to crank the winches, tightening the chains and hauling the harpoons back up.
“Put your backs into it!” Commander Chen shouted, though his order was unnecessary. Utterly devoted to the cause, the warriors manning the ballistas were working as hard as they could.
Suddenly Lin Mae jumped back with a cry as one of the taut chains snapped and flew back up and over the Wall at great speed, like a striking metal snake. The soldiers manning the ballista scattered as the chain lashed towards them. But Lin Mae had barely registered that when another chain snapped—and then another!
Moving back to the parapet, and leaning over to peer down through the fog, Lin Mae could see nothing at first. Then a section of fog thinned, broke apart, and blurrily, beyond the blade barrier, she saw a cluster of Tao Tei clinging to the Wall, their bodies punctured by harpoons. They were thrashing and writhing, trying to dislodge the metal bolts by tearing at their own flesh, causing the chains to whip wildly from side to side even as the men working the winches tried to pull them taut. Then she saw one of the Tao Tei, a harpoon sticking out of its belly, lean forward and bite the bolt in half, causing the chain to snap and whip upwards with lightning speed.
She ducked again—and then again as another chain snapped. Their plan was failing. The Tao Tei were chewing through the bolts before Wang’s sedative, powerful though it was, could take effect.
A few ballistas away to her right, however, the chain was still taut, the soldiers there straining every sinew to winch it and its cargo in. Keeping her head low to avoid being decapitated by a flying chain, she ran across to help, arriving at the ballista at the same time as Commander Chen. Together the two of them helped haul on the winches, the clanking of the chain increasing as it rose a little faster. Then other soldiers were there—big, hefty Bear Corps warriors, who had abandoned their own failed ballistas—and Lin Mae moved aside, deferring to their greater physical strength. As the soldiers hauled the harpoon and its weighty cargo in, she rushed to the parapet and peered into the fog below. On the end of the chain, its abdomen impaled by a harpoon, was the vast green bulk of a Tao Tei, still struggling, but only weakly now as the sedative took effect.
Perhaps due to the fog, it hadn’t been noticed by its fellow creatures, hadn’t been torn or bitten free from the hooked barb in its flesh. She watched with trepidation as it rose higher with excruciating slowness, half-expecting at any moment for a gaping maw to rise up out of the fog and bite through the chain.