The first arrow hit the stone two feet from Kelser's head.
No one gave a speech. No one shouted a nice phrase. The battle has only just begun.
The noise is the worst part. No one ever tells you that. It's not the clatter of swords. It's the cry. Thousands of people screaming all at the same time. You can't hear anything. He can't think. After five minutes your ear starts beeping and you don't even notice it anymore.
Kelser ran to the front of the wall. He drew his sword. He cut off the first man who came over the wall. Hot blood hit his face.
He tried to use the domain. It froze ten men at once. And then he coughed up blood. His rib was still broken. He had not yet healed. He had forgotten.
An arrow hit him in the shoulder. He didn't even notice.
He saw Jian jump on top of a man. The two fell into the mud. They struggled on the ground like two drunks, punching and kicking, for almost thirty seconds before Jian managed to thrust the dagger into his ribs. He got up all covered in mud, spat out a tooth, and shouted something that no one heard.
He saw the baker. The old man who made cinnamon bread every Saturday. He hit a soldier in the head with his wooden stick. The man fell dead. And the baker stood there, shaking all over, staring at the cock in his hand, as if he had no idea how he got there. No one stopped to help him. No one had time.
A large stone hit the gate. The wood cracked.
They began to retreat.
One step. Two steps. Nobody said anything. Everyone was just tired. Everyone just wanted to stop. Kelser looked back and saw that half the people had already turned their backs.
He thought about that moment. He thought I'm going to have to do this. I'm going to have to open the way Asura. I'm going to have to do the thing I swore I was never going to do.
And then he heard the scream.
It was old Dona Mara. The seventy-year-old woman with the scissors.
She had climbed the wall behind an enemy captain. She grabbed his hair. She pulled his head back. And she slit his throat with the sewing scissors.
And then she screamed. Not a rallying cry. An ugly, loud scream of anger.
"GET OUT OF MY CITY SON OF A BITCH"
And for some reason that no one will ever explain, everyone screamed back.
They stopped retreating. They rushed forward again.
Kelser remembers nothing of the next forty minutes. It's all a red blur. He cut it. He froze. He coughed up blood. Once he fell and a man stood on top of him with a sword, and then the fourteen-year-old boy with the bow hit him in the eye.
And then suddenly the noise stopped.
The trumpets blew there on the hill. The enemy soldiers retreated.
Silence.
No one moved for long. Everyone just stood there, breathing hard, looking at each other, as if they didn't believe they were still alive.
Kelser leaned on his sword. And he threw up.
Nobody saw it. Or if they saw it, no one said anything.
He wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his coat. He looked around. The wall was red. The floor was wet. Bodies everywhere. On both sides.
Jian apareceu. Ele tem um olho completamente roxo. Um corte na boca. Ele estava comendo um pedaço de pão que ele tinha achado no bolso de um homem morto.
"Voce parece uma merda", ele disse.
"Voce também", Kelser disse.
Ele finalmente percebeu a flecha no ombro.
"Ah", ele disse. "Eu to baleado."
"Sim", Jian disse. "Eu vi. Eu achei que voce sabia."
Mina has arrived. She wiped her dagger on a dead man's clothing. She has a deep cut on her cheek.
"Count," she said. "We lost two hundred and seventy-eight. Mostly old men. No children."
She stopped.
"They lost nineteen hundred and twelve."
Kelser nodded. He felt no joy. He felt no sadness. He didn't feel anything. Just tiredness. Such a fatigue that he thought he was going to fall right there.
"They come again," Mina said. "In one hour, maybe two. Next wave is twice the size. Tian will send the veterans this time."
Kelser looked up at the hill. At the top they were already forming again. New lines. New spears.
He pulled the arrow from his shoulder. It hurt. He bled a lot. He didn't care.
He spat blood on the floor.
"Good," he said. "I'm still here."
The sun was quite high now. Hot. The smell of death was already starting to grow strong.
Nobody said anything else.
Tomorrow it would be worse.