Corum's ears rang with the roar and the clash of battle. He must have taken a score of lives, yet he was hardly aware of it. His mail was torn in a dozen places, he was bleeding from several minor wounds, but he did not notice that, either.
More flame arrows crossed the walls and the women and children came with buckets to douse the fires that started.
Behind the defenders was a thin haze of smoke. Before them was a mass of stinking barbarian warriors. And everywhere was the hysteria of battle. Blood splashed all surfaces. Human guts smeared the walls. Broken weapons littered the ground and corpses were piled several deep on the battlements in a vain attempt to raise the walls and stem the attack.
Below them, at the gates, barbarians used tree-trunks to try to split the iron-shod wood, but so far they had held.
Corum, only distantly aware of the noise and the sights of battle, knew that his fight with Prince Gaynor had been worthwhile. There was no doubt that Gaynor's hell-creatures and Gaynor's tactics would have taken the city by now.
But how much time was there? When would Arkyn return with the substances needed by King Yurette? And did the City in the Pyramid still stand.
Corum smiled grimly then. Xiombarg would know by now that he had slain her servant, Prince Gaynor. Her anger would be that much greater, her sense of impotence the stronger. Perhaps this would lessen the fury of her attack upon Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys?
Or perhaps it would strengthen it?
Corum strove to banish the speculations from his mind. There was no use in them. He picked up a spear, hurled by a barbarian, and flung it back so that it pierced the stomach of a Mabden attacker who clutched the shaft and swayed on the wall for a moment before toppling head over heels to join the other corpses on the ground below.
Then, soon after noon, the barbarians began to retreat, dragging their dead with them.
Corum saw King Lyr and King Cronekyn conferring. Perhaps they were wondering whether to bring up the Army of the Dog and the Army of the Bear. Were they considering a new strategy which would not waste so many of their men? Perhaps they did not care about the men they wasted?
A boy found Corum on the wall. 'Prince Corum, a message. Will you join Aleryon there?'
On aching legs Corum left the battlements and got into a chariot, driving it slowly through the streets to the temple.
And now the temple was packed with wounded both within and without. Corum met Aleryon at the entrance.
'Is Arkyn returned?'
'He is, prince.'
Corum strode in, looking questioningly at the prone bodies on the floor.
'They are dying,' said Aleryon quietly. 'They are hardly aware of anything. There is no need for discretion with these poor lads.'
Arkyn stepped again from the shadows. For all he was a god and the form he assumed was not his true form, he looked tired. 'Here,' he said, handing Corum a small box of plain, dull metal. 'Do not open it for the substances are very powerful and their radiance can kill you. Take it to the messenger from Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys and tell him to go back through the Wall Between the Realms in his Sky Ship…'
'But he has not the power to return?' Corum argued.
'I will manufacture an opening for him - or at least I hope I will, for I am close to exhaustion. Xiombarg is working against me in subtle ways. I am not sure I will be able to find an opening near to his city, but I will try. If it is far from his city he may be in danger trying to get back there, but it will be the best I can do.'
Corum nodded and took the box. 'Let us pray that Gwlгs-cor-Gwrys still stands.'
Arkyn gave a sardonic smile. 'Do not pray to me, then,' he said. 'For I know no better than you.'
Corum hurried from the temple with the box under his arm. It was heavy and throbbed. He climbed into his chariot, whipped up the horses and raced through the miserable avenues until he came at last to King Onald's palace. Up the steps he rushed until he came to the roof where the Sky Ship awaited him. He handed the box to the steersman and told him what Lord Arkyn had said. The steersman looked dubious but took the box and placed it carefully in a locker in the wheel-house.
'Farewell, Bwydyth-a-Horn,' Corum said earnestly. 'May you find your City in the Pyramid and may you bring it back to this Realm in time.'
Bwydyth saluted him as he took the ship into the air. Suddenly a ragged gap appeared in the sky. It was unstable. It quivered and it sparked. Beyond it a vivid golden sky could be seen, scarred with purple and orange light which shouted.
Through the gap went the Sky Ship. It was swallowed suddenly and the gap shrank behind it until there was no gap there at all.
Corum stood watching the sky for a moment before he heard a great roar suddenly go up from the walls.
A new attack must be beginning.
He ran down the steps, back through the palace, out into the street. And then he saw the women. They were on their knees. They were weeping. A board was being borne on the shoulders of four tall warriors. On the board was something covered by a cloak.
'What is it?' Corum asked one of the warriors. 'Who is dead?'
'They have slain our King Onald,' said the warrior sorrowfully. 'And they have sent the Armies of the Dog and the Horned Bear against us. Destruction comes to Halwyg, Prince Corum. Now nothing can stop it!'
CHAPTER FIVE
The Fury of Queen Xiombarg
Savagely Corum whipped the horses back through the streets to the wall. A silence had fallen upon the citizens of Halwyg-nan-Vake and now, it seemed, they waited passively for the death which the victorious barbarians would bring them. Already two women had committed suicide as he passed, hurling themselves from the roofs of their houses. Perhaps they were wise, he thought.
He jumped from the chariot and ran up the steps to the wall where Rhalina and Jhary-a-Conel stood together. He did not need to listen to what they told him, for he could see what was coming.
The great dogs, eyes glaring, tongues lolling, were loping swiftly towards the city, towering over the barbarians who ran beside them. And behind the dogs came the gigantic bears with their clubs and their shields and with black horns curling from their heads, lumbering on their hind legs.
Corum knew that the dogs could leap the walls and that the bears would batter down the gates with their clubs and he reached a decision.
'To the palace!' he shouted. 'All warriors to the palace. All civilians find what cover they can!'
'You are abandoning the citizens?' Rhalina asked him, shivering when she saw that his single eye burned black and gold.
'I am doing what I can for them, hoping that our retreat will bring us a little time. From the palace we shall be able to defend ourselves better. Hurry!' he shouted. 'Hurry!'
Some of the warriors moved swiftly, in relief, but others were reluctant.
Corum stayed on the walls, watching as the soldiers straggled back towards the distant palace, herding the citizens with them, carrying the wounded.
Soon only he, Rhalina and Jhary remained on the walls, watching the dogs lope nearer, watching the bears come closer.
Then the three companions descended to the streets and began to run through the ruined, deserted avenues, past burned bushes and crushed flowers and corpses, until they arrived at the palace and supervised the barricading of windows and doors.
The howls of the dogs and the bears, the yells of the triumphant barbarians could now be heard in the distance.
A kind of peace fell over the waiting palace as the three companions climbed to the roof and stood watching.
'How long!' Rhalina whispered. 'How long, Corum, before they come?'
'The beasts? Some minutes before they reach the walls.'
'And then?'