Chương 66: The Outer Wall

We galloped after Lieutenant Owl, racing through the woods. Branches whipped past my face and chilly night air whistled in the corners of my lips. Burr trotted faster than she ever had under my command. The more I thought about it, the more Oschester reminded me of a donut. Or as if someone had pressed a massive donut onto the ground, flattening out a plane while leaving the central hill raised, and leaving another concentric circle of hills farther out.

We circled clockwise around the outer circle of hills, staying out of sight, but staying close enough to the edge of the woods to watch the distant city. When we reached the equivalent of ten o'clock, we stopped at a ridge and looked back the way we came. Lord Ceonwin and his forces had dismounted and rushed down the hill, on the open plains, moving toward the south gate. Orc arrows raced toward them, but they blocked the shots with their shields and continued on.

Some of them stopped to fire back, and orcs silently fell from the wall. No cries of pain or fear, nothing.

"They've left some defenders on the wall…" I said, hoping Owl would hear. The west side, where we approached, still glittered with torchlight, and I made out a few black specks patrolling along it. Not as many as before, but still some.

"They're being more disciplined than usual," Anchor added.

"There must be a Black Captain in the city," Owl said.

"Be on your guard. Sir Egric was a Steel. Something defeated him—and it was likely the Black Captain." I gulped.

"They'll see us coming," said one of the senior sappers who had come with us.

"We stay mounted. On my count," Owl said, raising his spear.

"We must still breach the wall, but we'll have to move faster than planned. Once you reach the wall, dismount and send your horses running." We all nodded. There were five squads of top trainees, which made twenty of us, plus eight senior sappers.

"Get your grapnels ready," Owl said. I reached into a pouch at the side of Burr's saddle and retrieved a grappling hook with a rope tied around it. On short notice, it was the best chance we had of scaling that wall. I wound the rope around my forearm loosely so it would unwind, then gripped the end of the rope in my hand.

"Now," Owl said.

"Go! Go!" I tightened my knees on Burr's flanks and clicked my tongue, and she bounded out from the woods, chasing after Owl. All twenty-nine of us descended the slope as quickly as we could, racing toward the wall at a gallop. Halfway across the plain, an orc on the wall shouted something, but it was too late. Anchor stuck an arrow in his forehead. A few more orcs—those who were still patrolling the side walls—turned to us and fired a volley.

An arrow struck one of the Dupes from a different squad in the eye, and he toppled off his horse, screaming. Another pierced a senior sapper's horse's flank, and he went down, tumbling in a burst of dirt. The sapper couldn't have been dead—he was a Titanium, after all—but it would slow him, and he'd be late to arrive. The closer we got, the higher the wall seemed. I wasn't sure if our grappling hooks would have enough range, but once we got closer, I threw it anyway, aiming for one of the wall's merlons.

I almost undershot it, but my hook latched onto the edge of the rampart. I gave it a tug and it held, so I jumped off Burr's back and landed in a crouch, then rushed closer to the wall so the orc archers couldn't get a good shot on me. Then I patted Burr's back and pointed to the woods.

"Go! Run! Get out of here!" She turned and raced away, rushing back to the forest. I turned my attention up to the wall high above. Already, a few orcs rushed to meet us, and they unhooked our grapnels from the wall.

"Anchor!" I shouted.

"Keep any orcs away from my hook! Once I'm up, I'll keep the ramparts clear long enough for you guys to join me!"

"Alone, brother?" Brawl asked.

"They're all Irons!" Anchor shouted.

"He'll be fine!"

"Brawl, cover Anchor!" I called.

"And Sage, keep Brawl alive!" They all nodded. I gripped onto the rope and scaled the wall. I tucked my chin, and it was for the best. An arrow clinked off my pauldron, and another bounced off the top of my helmet. As soon as I reached the ramparts, I threw my leg up and over. An orc tried to attack me, but Anchor shot the beast in the forehead, sending it tumbling back off the wall and into the city below. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Once I was up, I swung my spear side-to-side in wide arcs, keeping the orcs back and making sure they didn't touch my grappling hook. I stabbed one in the gut, then bashed another with my shield. Anchor climbed up next, scrambling up the rope as fast as he could. I pointed to a nearby tower and said, "There are archers up there, hiding behind the merlons. Get them!" He drew back his bow and fired a Presence-enhanced shot.

It pierced straight through the stone, and an orc flopped forward—the cover did nothing for him. Another tried to stand up to get a good shot, but Anchor took him down immediately. Brawl climbed up next, and he moved in front of me, protecting me with his shield while swiping his flail through a cluster of orcs. Sage used Morph to scale the wall. By the time we were all up, the orcs that had been positioned on this segment of the wall were gone.

Between my squad and the work of the other sappers, we'd cleared enough of a path.

"Get down to the city!" Lieutenant Owl ordered.

"Get out of sight, and move quickly—aim for the gate! We can't give the orcs time to make a defensive formation! If their Black Captain joins the fight and coordinates their forces, we'll be doomed." We raced to the nearest stairway and descended down to the streets. Most of the buildings within the walls were two-storey houses and shops, with cobblestone foundations and half-timber upper levels. Here, instead of thatched roofs, they had wooden shingles.

As I descended, I got my first good look of the situation inside the city walls. Most of the orcs were guarding prisoner camps, which had been set up in the ruins of burnt districts or old town squares. Captured civilians were tied together and led into fenced-off pens like livestock, and orcs shouted orders, sorting the strong and the weak, testing if any of them had arcane potential, and picking the best for breeding. My stomach churned at the sight of it, revulsion swelling, but I stayed focused.

We could worry about liberating them once we opened the front gates.

"Spread out," Owl ordered softly.

"Take the side streets and kill anything in your way. Whoever makes it to the gate first, break their lines and force it open."

"Yes, lieutenant!" I called, then said to the squad, "With me." We raced through the deserted side-streets of Oschester. There were narrow alleyways and wagon roads far from the main markets. A few orcs patrolled the streets, but most had rushed to the front gates, ready to intercept Lord Ceonwin's incoming force. We killed any orcs we found, and I harvested their Presences as quickly as I could.

Speed was important, but with what we were up against, we needed to improve ourselves as much as we could—and any little swell of presence was important. I hadn't gotten too much practice with my new shield, but it was easy enough to bash away orcs with. It was heavier than the training shields, though, and I could already feel it starting to wear on me. Every so often, I glanced over at the inner walls of the city, trying to judge if anyone had spotted us.

At the moment, most of the orcs were focussed on the fires we'd created and on Ceonwin's distraction. Just because they were more disciplined than usual didn't make them disciplined, and there were still a thousand of them (and likely more) scattered throughout the city. Soon, though, one of them was going to notice that the sentries on the western wall were missing. Me and my squad raced along the side streets until we reached the main thoroughfare.

We stopped at the corner of an alleyway, looking out into the city. Orcs ran along the thoroughfare, rushing to reinforce the main gate. The thoroughfare led up to a massive portcullis, which was currently closed. On the outside, through the lattice of the gate, Ceonwin's force drew the orcs' attentions, but it wouldn't last long. Eventually, someone would realize that the Ealdorman had brought no way of busting the gate down.

"We have to get into the gatehouse," I said, pointing to an archway on the backside of one of the towers. There was a stairway behind it, and I would've bet any money that it led up into the gatehouse—where we could control the portcullis. At the moment, I didn't see any of the other squads that had pierced the wall with us. Either we were first and the fastest, or we were the only ones who made it. I just hoped we were first.

That meant we wouldn't have any backup, and worse, between us and the archway was a pair of lumbering plains trolls, marching up to the wall with heavy clubs in their hands. Other orcs streamed to the wall, moving out of cover and rushing toward the ramparts. As soon as we left our cover, though, they'd spot us and attack.

"Can you kill one of those trolls?" I asked Anchor.

"I could," he said.

"I'll take the other one," I replied.

"We're going to need to be fast. Decisive. I need you to trust me and watch out for each other, or we're not going to make it over to the gate. You guys ready?" Brawl nodded.

"I am with you, brother."

"I will be right behind you," Sage said, and Morph chittered.

"I'm with you, Levi," Anchor said. I nodded.

"Formation one, then." We darted out of cover. An orc turned to face us, but I stabbed through him immediately and kept running, aiming for the wall and the stairway. Anchor blasted one of the plains trolls with an enhanced arrow, and I used a resonance Skill to stab through the second one, then continued on. We smashed through orcs. I took a slash to the leg, but Sage healed it right away, and the wound faded. When we reached the tower, we climbed.

Brawl moved to the back, keeping any orcs away from us, and I stayed in the front. We wound up a staircase, climbing as high as we could as quickly as we could, until we arrived at the top gatehouse. There was a door protecting it from attackers—or, the door would have protected them, if they'd closed it. The orcs had left it open. They couldn't even conceive of a surprise attack. Inside the gatehouse was a pair of winches and chains, and a slit in the floor to raise and lower a portcullis.

And worst of all, there was an ogre to manage the heavy machinery.