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"Why are we doing this, Lord?" el Senoussi wanted to know. "Why aren't we escaping? Towns are traps."
Haroun did not answer for a while. He did not know how to put it into words. "There's a duty, Shadek. A responsibility. How can I explain? You imply an argument, and the sense of it is inconstestable. Radetic would have commended you. Mine is purely emotional. Maybe it's the hand of fate that moves me. But I do have a feeling this Ragnarson might be critical to my future. To all our futures."
"You're the King, Lord."
Haroun laughed. It was a weak, drained gesture. "I love your enthusiasm, Shadek. You're like an oasis after six days of hard desert. You shelter me from the sandstorms of tomorrow."
El Senoussi chuckled. "Thank you, Lord."
Moments later, Beloul said, "Something's wrong, Lord. They're not pushing us as hard as they should be."
"I've noticed. We must be doing what they want."
"I told you, Lord," said el Senoussi.
Daylight arrived. And Haroun learned why the Invincibles had relaxed. He had come back to Alperin.
"Damn! He's outfoxed us again." There was fierce fighting at the town gate. "He let the Guildsmen get there so he could catch them with their gates open."
"Would that we had such a plotter in our ranks, Lord," said el Senoussi.
"Be patient, Shadek. He's teaching me."
"Indeed, Lord. What now?"
"What about our friends back there? In no hurry, eh? Unless we try to break away? Let's see if we can get up on yon hill and watch for a while. Our friends might get so interested they'll give us a chance to get away."
He spoke lightly, as if unconcerned, but he was sure this was the last day of his life.
The Invincibles allowed them the hilltop and did not offer battle immediately. The Scourge of God seemed content to delay his gratification while he dealt with the Guildsmen.
"That's the end of some brave boys," Beloul said gently.
Haroun glanced at the town gate. Fanatics in white were flooding through. "Yes. A pity."
"That Nassef is one crafty bastard," Haaken told Bragi as the Alteans defending the gate collapsed. They had made a valiant stand. Their task had been hopeless, but they had held long enough.
"He thought on his feet," Bragi replied. "He outguessed us. We've got to pay the price. Let's just hope this trick is something he's not expecting. Come on, Reskird!" he shouted. "Quit screwing around over there. They're coming." He could see most of the curved street ru
Alperin was typical of towns that spent centuries constrained within walls. It had had to grow upward and together instead of spreading. Its streets were narrow and twisted. Its buildings stood three, four and sometimes five storeys high, often overhanging the cobbled streets.
It was a bad place for horsemen to engage bowmen who had taken to the rooftops.
Arrows swarmed down onto the Invincibles and their animals. The desert warriors tried fighting back with their saddle bows, but could find few targets. The Guildsmen exposed themselves only long enough to loose their shafts.
The Invincibles still entering the town kept forcing their fellows into the deadly streets.
"Keep it up! Keep it up!" Bragi screamed. He scuttled across a steep slate roof. "We're going to do it, Haaken! We're going to do it! They don't know what's happening."
He was right. The Invincibles, absolutely certain of victory and unable, because of the twisting streets, to see that the slaughter was not localized, kept driving into the killing rain.
"Haaken, I'm going to find that Altean captain. What was his name?"
"Karathel."
"Yeah. Maybe he can rally his men and grab the gates again. We can trap them in here and murder them all."
"Bragi."
"What?"
"Don't push your luck. Things can change. They still outnumber us a skillion to one. We should just worry about getting out alive. Just make them back off."
"Yeah. Okay." But Bragi was not listening. He was too excited to accept the possibility of disaster. He had thought on his feet too. He had turned Nassef s trap into a counter-trap. He was flying high. "Be back in a few minutes."
He scrambled from roof to roof, moving toward the wall, parallel to the street. He paused occasionally to loose an arrow. He had told his men to concentrate on leaders. Confused followers could be dispatched later.
Nowhere did he see anything to warrant Haaken's pessimism. The streets were filled with dead men. It was a target shoot.
His trip proved needless. Karathel's thinking paralleled his own. His was counterattacking when Bragi arrived. The Invincibles at the gate were hard pressed. Then more Invincibles attacked from outside. They overran the Alteans while Bragi watched, feeling completely helpless.
"Damn!" he snarled. "Damn! Damn! Damn! We had it in the palm of our hand."
Haaken's warning came back. Nassef had thousands of men in Altea. If they kept converging nothing could prevent their victory.
He could see Haroun's men on their hill, watching, unable to help. He sighed. "Just not enough people."
Below, the new wave of Invincibles surged into the deathtrap streets. It was time to rejoin Haaken. If this was the end, they should go down together.
He found his path barred. Some not too bright Invincible had fired a building in hopes of driving the Guildsmen off its roof. He had overlooked the fact that the fire would be as hard on the men in the narrow street. Bragi decided to descend and circle round the burning house. He dropped into a tight alleyway lying behind a long row of shops and houses. He had taken no more than a dozen steps when horsemen overtook him
He whirled, let an arrow fly. A man groaned. He loosed a second shaft into the flesh under a man's chin as a horse reared over his head. He fumbled for a third arrow, dropped it, clawed at his sword. The certainty of death nearly paralyzed him.
The third rider let out a strangled wail and fled, though he had been in perfect position to split Bragi's head with his saber.
Bragi stood there a moment, stu
"What the hell?" Bragi said again. Then he shrugged. "Why look the old gift horse in the mouth?" He ran while the ru
"Something's happened," Haaken said when Bragi finally found him. "Look how they're howling and carrying on. And hardly fighting back."
Regnarson looked into the street. He loosed an arrow. "Looks like they've gone crazy. I don't get it. But keep hitting them."
"We won't be able to much longer. We're about out of arrows."
"Use them all. We'll worry about what to do next when we have to."
The arrow shortage never mattered. Within minutes those Invincibles who could were flying out the gate, where Haroun's men took advantage of their confusion and despair to hurt them further.
Haroun rode into the jubilant town an hour later. "Look at his face," Bragi whispered to Kildragon. "He's glowing. I never saw anybody look like that."
"I don't know how you did it, my friend," Haroun said softly, awed. "I don't even care. But today will live in memory ever green."
"What? Come on. We didn't... We survived, that's all."
"No. You did more. Much more. Today El Murid lost his war. The Invincibles have been broken. Now it's only a matter of time till the Disciple has been destroyed."
"What the hell are you raving about? So we finally won one. It didn't amount to that much. And the rest of them will be after us in a day or two."
Bin Yousif considered him momentarily. "You really don't know, do you? I forget, you don't speak my language well. Listen, my friend. Outside. That's a death song the Invincibles are singing. And inside, that's a victory song by my people. They're not singing for today, but for the war. You did two things. You destroyed the biggest band of Invincibles El Murid had left. And you slew the Scourge of God. You. Yourself."