A man in black robes ran forward, an alchemist by the emblem on his breast. He threw a flask into the midst of the revenant warriors and flame rolled forward in a searing red cloud. A revenant came from behind the alchemist and a sword suddenly protruded from the black robe, jutting out from the man's chest and then pulled out again, releasing a gush of blood.
Miro struggled, but still couldn't find the strength in his limbs to get up.
The horn blared, two long blasts coming from the soaring tower in the middle of the city. "Back to the next wall!" soldiers took up the cry. "Retreat to the next wall!"
The few soldiers Miro could see on the section of wall turned to flee but were cut down from behind. Miro turned his head to watch the Gokani falling back. Some brave men at one of the cannon posts stayed to the end, sending shot after shot at a distant target below. When the revenants arrived, a final explosion ensured they destroyed both the cannon and themselves rather than let it fall into their enemy's hands.
The retreat was now nearly complete. The enemy now held the thick outer walls, and some of the surviving cannon were turned and pointed back towards the city.
Miro froze when a steady stream of white-eyed warriors ran past the pile where he lay unable to move. He fought to give his eyes the steady look of death as revenant after revenant ran past.
Amber was inside the inner walls, while Miro was now on the outside of the remaining defences. He wondered what to do.
~
THE GATE posts were unmanned now, and Amber ran through the deserted residential district of Fairview, desperate to find Miro on the walls so they could flee this terrible place.
She passed through the gate leading to the area of merchant stalls, where the barricades had been set up to be one of the last defences against the enemy.
They were already fighting at the barricades.
Amber stopped running and put her hand to her mouth. A handful of Gokani soldiers held back an unstoppable tide of the enemy. At a mutual signal they turned and ran from a barricade to regroup and form a defence at the next. Soldiers were cut down as they fled, and now there were that many fewer defenders to man the next station.
High on the walls on both sides, archers shot arrow after arrow into the horde. Alchemists in black robes threw explosive flasks into the attackers' midst; these seemed to have a greater effect than the arrows.
As Amber watched transfixed, the defenders fell back to the next set of barricades, directly ahead.
"Miro," Amber whispered.
The tall outer walls had been overrun more quickly than she would have thought possible. Miro was one of the best swordsmen she'd ever seen. Surely he was all right? But swords couldn't stop cannon. Nor could they stop…
"Revenants," Amber breathed. "Lord of the Sky, no."
"What are you doing?" a soldier manning the final barricade cried at her. "Run!"
Amber drew the thin blade from her boot. She would have given anything for her green silk dress and an enchanted blade.
The soldier who told Amber to run was decapitated by a barbarian warrior; the revenant's decayed lips gave him a permanent grin.
With a surge the barricade was overrun, and with moan-like cries, the revenants swarmed ahead.
Amber turned. The gate she'd just passed through was behind her. She needed to close it, and give the defenders whatever chance she could.
She started to run, sensing the rushing attackers behind her, feeling their stench on her neck. The gate was fifty paces more, then forty. Amber turned to look back.
She wasn't going to make it.
A snarling woman was the first of the horde to reach Amber. The woman's throat had been sliced open, probably when she was first killed, for the cut was old and strips of skin were dry.
Amber held her stiletto in front of her, preparing to strike, noting her hand was shaking.
She thrust out, piercing the woman's breast, and the force of the revenant's momentum took her further onto the blade.
But the white-eyed woman displayed no reaction. Amber tried to withdraw the blade to strike again, when she felt a club strike the side of her head with a force that belied the woman's thin arms. Stars burst behind Amber's eyes.
Amber went down.
34
BY LATE afternoon the battle was won. Sentar Scythran had conquered the great city of Wengwai in a single day.
The defenders fought bravely from gate to gate, ring to ring, inflicting a heavy toll, with each defender fighting to his last breath. But the numbers of the indomitable revenants were too great, they were too hard to kill, and support from Veldria never came.
With one final gasp of defiance, the innermost circle of red stone where the Alchemists' Guild had their chapter exploded as it was overrun, taking thousands of revenants in the blast. The detonation filled the sky with smoke and thunder rolled across the plains below the city. The soaring tower called the Eye slowly leaned, and ponderously toppled, before coming crashing down on the city below, crushing still more of the enemy as it fell.