“Guarded every single one of them?” Beorn snorted.
“High Lord,” the bald man said, “Bladesinger Bartolo, he got it back up. The call went out. He went to check on the station at Wondhip Pass, and he sent me here.”
“Scratch it,” Beorn muttered. “All this time, wasted.”
Miro sighed. He didn’t have support from the Louans, from the Veznans, from the Petryans, Hazarans, Toraks, or Tingarans. The Buchalanti had done their part, and the Veldrins; now it was left to Altura and Halaran to hold back the tide alone.
“High Lord, may I fight?” the bald man said.
Miro tried to smile. “We won’t turn you down. What’s your name?”
“Fergus.”
“Fergus,” Miro said; the name was familiar. “Go and find a sergeant: one of the officers with a double-striped raj hada. Tell him to give you weapons and armor. Good to have you.”
“Thank you, High Lord.”
Fergus departed, but he’d only been gone a moment when High Lord Tiesto of Halaran entered.
“Miro, our scouts have been watching from the coast, and the dirigible pilot confirmed it. They’re going to commence landing at dawn.”
“Where?” Beorn asked.
“The beaches west of Schalberg,” Tiesto said, coming forward to point at the place on the map Beorn had previously marked. “These defenses aren’t exactly hidden. They’ll make their landing far from here.”
Miro’s gaze returned to the map. If he could hold them at the beaches, they might still emerge relatively unscathed.
“Is there anything you need?” Miro asked Tiesto.
“Are you still going to be in the sky? I won’t have your vantage, and once the battle starts . . .”
Miro nodded. “I’ll be up in the dirigible. We’ll coordinate, and I’ll signal you if need be.”
“I don’t know how you can stand being up in that thing,” Beorn said.
“I’d rather be up there than down here wondering what’s going on,” Miro said.
“Don’t worry, Miro,” Tiesto said. “If I can, I’ll stop them.”
Miro was pensive for a moment. “All right,” he finally said. “We all know the plan. Tiesto, you have the command. Stop as many as you can on the beaches. Be ready to fall back to our strength here. We’ll be ready for you.”
“I’ll leave now,” Tiesto said.
“Good luck,” Miro said.
“And you.”
29
Ella waited with the forward guard as the rising sun revealed an empty beach. The only sounds were the crashing of waves and cries of gulls. Nervous, she dug her nails into her palms as she waited.
And then the sea was empty no more.
Ella felt a shiver of fear, her heart racing as tiny sails filled the horizon. The surviving ships of the enemy fleet faced no opposition as they carefully approached their chosen landing site; there was nothing any of the waiting defenders on the beach could do about it.
“Could at least be foul weather,” Ella muttered.
“If you want me to respond, you should talk so I can hear you,” Layla said.
Crouched beside Ella, the small Dunfolk healer was a comforting presence. Ella had chosen to wait with Layla rather than with Tiesto, who at any rate was preoccupied with his animators and constructs.
Layla scowled at Ella, her ruddy features crinkling. “Well? Are you in the habit of talking to yourself?”
“I said the weather is beautiful,” Ella said. “I wish it wasn’t. It’ll make their landing easier.”
“Clear skies help us see too,” Layla said. “Would you rather it was raining and foggy, so you couldn’t tell which of the men in front of you was a foe or a friend?”
Ella smiled. “You’re right. Lord of the Sky, I’m scared.”
Layla put her arm around Ella and squeezed her, the grip surprisingly firm. “I will always be with you,” she said.
Ella let out a breath as she watched the ships grow larger in her vision, creeping inevitably closer to the coast. She could understand how Miro must feel; was any amount of preparation enough to face this? It felt like a doomed effort from the start, and they had yet to face Sentar himself.
A big warship, the foremost vessel at the point of a wedge of cruisers and motley barges, grew ever larger, and Ella fought to control her fear. She tried to tell herself she’d fought terrible enemies before.
“Remember, the plan is to wait until the landing begins in earnest, and to engage the enemy as they move through the water. We want to hold a line about knee deep. The drag of the water on the enemy should help us. We need our archers to pin them back while our swordsmen take their heads. Archers should concentrate their fire on the necromancers above all. We must stop as many in the water as we can.”
“Ella,” Layla said. “I know.”