Across the Face of the World (73 page)

Now the guards on the wall had seen the Company, and Leith's heart rose even further. Surely they would do something. They will prepare a sortie to drive these Widuz away. It will take only a fraction of their number. The Company would escape.

'Close the gates!' came the cry. 'Close the gates! Bring everyone inside!'

'No!' cried a stunned Leith. 'You can't do that! They'll be trapped between the Widuz and the wall!' But his words were lost in the sudden swell of noise and commotion as people rushed for the safety of the gate. When everyone was safely inside, the huge wooden gates were slowly drawn together, slamming shut like a hollow death-knell. Boom. With tears in his eyes, Leith watched the faces of the Company change as the realisation dawned on them that they were trapped.

'Keep going!' Kurr urged. 'Perhaps they will let us in when we are close to the gates!' But his voice carried no conviction, and all knew they had been pointlessly betrayed at the last. Now the Widuz gained on them, as despair robbed the Company of strength.

On the battlements Leith turned to the nearest guard; by chance, it was the man he had spoken to the previous afternoon. 'This is my family!' he screamed. 'Please let them in!'

The man spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. 'I'm sorry, we've had orders. Nothing is to threaten the safety of the inhabi¬tants of the city. If I were you, I would keep quiet about knowing them. Others, less kindly than I, might see in that sufficient reason to put you outside the gate also.'

'Now, see here—' Phemanderac began, but the guard had turned his back on them and begun to walk down the stairs. 'There are hundreds of guards in this cursed city! Why can you not rescue those trapped outside?' But he was wasting his breath.

The Company stumbled on across the bridge. With a last supreme effort, coming at the end of weeks of exhaustion, it seemed as though they would make it to the far end before the Widuz caught them. Then it would be touch and go as to whether they could attain the gates unmolested. But the gates were closed...

'I can't stand it any longer!' Leith shouted, then turned and ran recklessly down the stone stairway, taking three steps at a time.

'Leith! Come back!' Phemanderac called.

Below, Mahnum heard the cry, and distinguished his son's name. He looked up to the battlements, but his son was not among the ghouls who had assembled to watch their grisly deaths. The Company clattered over the last of the wooden boards that made up Longbridge, then ran on to the grass strip between the bridge and the gate.

A hundred yards behind them, Tala the brother of Talon laughed. The gate was closed. No assistance would be coming from the cowardly city of Instruere. They could take their time, sword of Jethart or not, and make these fools pay for what had been done to his brother.

Leith rushed along the inside of the wall. May the words of the guard be proved right! he thought frantically. Where are these lesser gates? This is taking too much time!

Eventually he found one, but his heart sank when he saw a broad-shouldered guard stationed in front of it. There was no time to think. He took a water jug from the side of the narrow lane, climbed up the nearest stairway to the battlements, then posi¬tioned himself above the unfortunate guard. A second later the jug, empty but still deadly, hurtled towards its target. At the last moment the guard looked up, but could not prevent the missile crashing down on top of him.

Seconds later, Leith was working the huge bolt of the gate, then swinging it open. I only hope no one closes it again behind me, he thought as he stepped through into the tunnel under the wall. There was a second gate at the far end of the tunnel! For a heart-sinking moment Leith gave up hope. It was locked.

It had been a thousand years since Instruere had fallen to the Bhrudwans and the walls had been built; in all that time, they had not had to withstand further attack from any source.

Instruere's establishment as the financial and political capital of Faltha had guaranteed it a safety that no wall could enhance. Knowing this, the inhabitants of the great city had reduced their army to a largely ceremonial guard. They had also neglected the maintenance of their walls.

In frustration, Leith hurled himself at the outer gate, and was immediately rewarded when the rotten wood around the bolt cracked. He took a longer run this time; the wood split further, but the bolt held stubbornly. Come on, 1 don't have time for this, he thought desperately as his fingers worked unsuccessfully at the bolt. With a yell of frustration he flung himself at the door a third time, and it gave way before him. He landed painfully on his side, the rusted bolt underneath him.

'Let us in!' Kurr cried to those on the battlements above the gate. 'We claim sanctuary in the city of Instruere!'

There was no reply. Farr was certain he heard laughter from the walls - or perhaps the sound came from behind them. The Widuz were almost at the end of the bridge.

Then two unexpected things happened simultaneously. From the right, at the base of the city wall, came a shout. Wonder of wonders, it was Leith.

'This way!' he cried. 'This way!'

At that moment Parlevaag snatched the sword from the hand of Perdu, and sprang towards the bridge. The adopted Fenni leapt after her.

'What are you doing?' he cried.

Parlevaag ran to hold the bridge for them, having seen that the open door Leith offered them was too far away to reach without being overtaken by their enemy. Kurr grabbed Perdu's arm, crying, 'There is nothing we can do! Come quickly!'

'Come on!' Leith shouted urgently.

From his place high on the battlements, Phemanderac watched the drama unfold below him.

The Company sprinted desperately towards safety; though he could not see Leith, he could hear the youth exhorting them on. But his eyes were drawn to the approaches to Longbridge, where the woman from the Company stood alone, holding the bridge against the Widuz.

The members of the Company drew up to Leith and the open gate. To Leith's relief, no one had closed the gate from the inside. 'Quickly!' he encouraged them. One after another they ran down the tunnel and into the city: Farr, Perdu, Kurr, Hal - leading a Bhrudwan warrior -

Mahnum and Stella. Leith's heart lodged in his throat as she ran past, her wide scared eyes staring straight ahead.

Indrett was the last through the tunnel. At its entrance, she turned and looked back to the bridge. Above them many eyes watched along with her as Parlevaag calmly took her sword and struck at the closest of the Widuz, who went down with the blow.

'Parlevaag! This way! Quickly!' Indrett cried, but the Fenni woman did not turn. Mahnum took the hand of his wife, attempting to lead her through the tunnel, but she resisted him impatiently. At the end of the bridge, another Widuz warrior stepped up, and with a blow struck Parlevaag's sword from her hand. Still she did not flinch, even when the warrior raised,his sword for a final blow. Time stood still; then the blade flashed down and Parlevaag crumpled silently to the ground.

Indrett screamed, but resisted no longer as Mahnum pulled her to safety and bolted the inner gate firmly closed behind her. Though the members of the Company had finally realised their seemingly unattainable goal of Instruere, they looked at each other not with joy but with sorrow - some stunned, some weeping openly, all exhausted beyond explanation. Indrett reached out for her son and clasped Leith to her, sobs racking her thin frame, the image of her friend and fellow-sufferer forever seared on her memory.

From the battlements Phemanderac watched the Widuz, unmo¬lested by the cowardly guards of the city, step over Parlevaag and draw close to the walls.

'We have revenge!' Their leader spat out the words as though the common tongue were poison to him. Then, piling horror on horror, he turned and buried his sword contemptuously in the defenceless body at his feet, crying out with a fierce joy. Phemanderac could watch no longer.

Incensed with the inaction of the Instruian Guard and enraged at the insult offered to the body of one so brave, he stormed down the stone stairway away from the sordid scene, and set out to find Leith and the Company.

To be continued in

IN THE EARTH ABIDES THE FLAME

Fire of Heaven Book Two

And concludes in

THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD

Fire of Heaven Book Three

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