‘Erienne?’ asked Hirad.

‘We’re in trouble,’ she said. ‘The main force of Wesmen from the west of the city has changed direction and are heading this way. Denser thinks they are under the control of the commander and he’s guessed what’s going on. They’ll be here very soon. We’ve established the corridor back to the College but it’s under attack in a dozen places, street to street. This isn’t what Kard needs. His men are dying out here and he needs them on the walls.’

‘Right,’ said The Unknown. ‘Lallan, get talking. Now.’

Lallan nodded and faced the crowd who quietened on his first word.

‘My friends,’ he said, his arms aloft, palms outwards. ‘The Raven are here to organise rescue. It is hazardous and I beseech you, listen to what Ilkar has to say and let no doubt cloud your mind. Wesmen warriors are coming this way and we have to act decisively. This is our only chance. Ilkar.’

The Raven mage stepped forward. ‘Outside it is dark, with only wood and spell fires lighting the sky. The Wesmen are running Julatsa but we have this one opportunity to get you out of their immediate clutches. What we want you to do is this. On Lallan’s word, leave here and run as hard as you can through the southern market and, by the main streets, to the College. Don’t stop until you are well inside the walls. Anyone who can fight and finds a weapon on a dead Wesmen, take it; you might need it. The streets are, for now, secured by soldiers and men from Julatsa but they are under attack. Anyone who delays in the run is risking their lives.

‘There are two things I must tell you. First, you will be running into a College that will be under siege. It isn’t freedom, not yet, but if you are there, you can do your part to help us regain our city. Any who feel their chances are better elsewhere, are very welcome to choose another direction in which to run. But I should mention that The Raven will be standing on the College walls where the best chance lies.

‘Second, as you approach the College, you will see a terrible sight. The bodies of all of those taken from this grain store ring the walls, murdered by the Wesmen in an attempt to force surrender. They gave their lives to give you a chance. Don’t pause to mourn until you are inside or their deaths might end up being in vain. Lallan.’

Lallan addressed the crowd again, their silence broken by the odd shouted question and the murmur of shocked sob and sorrow. He raised his voice to quell the spread of the noise.

‘My friends, we don’t have time for questions. We have to run, as fast as we can, and pray the Gods and our soldiers will protect us. The strong must help the weak and carry the very young. We will run in our rotas, “A” through to “L”, and I hardly need to say that any mages should shield their comrades. Divide and organise now, I want “A” through to “E” in front of these doors immediately. Go.’

He clapped his hands and the hall dissolved into the noise of action. The drum of thousands of feet on the stone-flagged floor, the shouts and calls to organise and the clatter of timber as tables were shoved aside to create space by the main doors. Ilkar couldn’t keep a smile from his face and he turned to Hirad and The Unknown, both of whom were nodding their appreciation. The discipline of the Julatsans gave them a chance.

Denser landed again at the doors, his voice urgent. ‘Come on. They’re almost on the store, they’ll enter through the western entrance. We have to move now or they’ll overwhelm us.’ He held out his arms for Erienne and she ran into them. ‘HotRain, I think.’ She nodded and they took off.

The first of the rota letters were ready. Lallan, under the shadow of The Unknown Warrior, did not hesitate.

‘Go, go, go! Through the southern market, follow the corridor of soldiers. Take weapons where you find them. Run!’ His last was lost in the thunder of feet and the calls of encouragement that rang out and echoed in the grain store. The Wesmen’s Julatsan prisoners ran free, ran hard and ran straight.

Ilkar was joined to the left of the doors by The Unknown and Hirad, and the three Raven watched the Julatsans as they made their bid for brief freedom. Above them, and moving in a lazy arc while they watched the advancing Wesmen, were Denser and Erienne. Julatsa was alive with fighting, the clash of swords, the detonation of spells and the shouts and calls to action coming at them from all directions.

‘We had no right to expect this to go so well,’ said Ilkar.

‘I’m not so sure that it is,’ said The Unknown. ‘They’re moving too slowly. And look at Denser now.’

Ilkar could see what he meant. Despite the selective murder of the young and very old by the Wesmen, there were still a sizeable number still alive and the pace of the column of city people was slow, scared and stumbling, the elderly supported by and slowing the younger and quicker. Behind them, in the store, Lallan’s voice could be heard above the general hubbub, urging them on, exhorting them to greater effort and greater speed.

And now, moving determinedly west, Denser was tracking the Wesmen force as it neared the square.

Above the rooftops, Denser, his sight augmented, surveyed Julatsa and, more particularly, the immediate threat to The Raven. Along the secure corridor, the Julatsans were coming under increasing pressure from the waking, angry Wesmen. Pockets of fighting were continuing along its whole length as the occupying warriors directed themselves against the College defenders. Nowhere yet was the situation critical but east and west Denser could see Wesmen streaming in from their billets and camps, emerging from houses, offices and inns, belting on their weapons and hurrying to the fight, alarm bells sounding out across the city.

The weak points of the corridor were at either end and in the southern market where buildings gave way to cobbles and access to the defensive line was broader. Fortunately, the Wesmen hadn’t reached those points yet, halted by fierce flank defence in critical streets and the judicious use of fire as a barricade. The Julatsans were making their knowledge of the city streets work hard for them and, so far, neither grain store nor College was assailed.

But to the south and west of the grain store, the clearly organised fast march of well over three thousand Wesmen was nearing the square and would soon engulf The Raven and their charges. Too soon.

Below Denser, the freed Julatsans continued to stream out of the doors to the grain store, urged on by the gesturing arms of Hirad, The Unknown and Ilkar, the sound of their voices rising clear into the slowly lightening sky. Denser swooped down again, hovering over the moving line, apologising as some of those below him flinched or stumbled.

‘Hirad, any time now this square will be crawling with Wesmen bent on unpicking your entrails. They are barely a street away from the south and west entrances and we aren’t enough to stop them on open ground.’

Hirad shrugged and pointed at Erienne who rested in his arms, eyes closed, deep in concentration.

‘Delay them for us, then,’ he said. ‘We aren’t leaving until this hall is empty.’ He glanced back inside. ‘There are only a few hundred to go.’

‘Gods, you’re pushing it close,’ said Denser.

‘Too close if you don’t start laying down some fire,’ said Hirad. ‘So go and make yourself useful.’

Denser glowered and swept back into the sky, heading south-west.

‘Come on, hurry!’ Ilkar shouted, frustration edging his tone. There were only a couple of hundred left in the store and Hirad had to smile though he could hear the barking shouts of the approaching enemy.

‘Calm down, Ilks. We’ll be fine.’

‘Calm down? A Wesmen army is about to slaughter us as we stand at the back of a slow-moving line of infants and ancients and all you can do is stick the only man who can slow them up with little barbs from that great barbarian mouth of yours. Don’t tell me to calm down.’