"Reckon I'll stay here, too," Hoist said, with a casual salute to the female captain. She saw that he had picked up a shield from somewhere. It relieved her somewhat to have the capable old Hylar standing in the shield wall. "At least I can keep an eye on my shipyard," he added with a growl, as the dark dwarves began to spread across the waterfront.

The Daergar wore black armor adorned with spikes, blades, and images of bestial faces. Full helmets protected their heads, each with faceplate down and locked. The dark dwarves swarmed across the dockyard by the hundreds, scattering among the barrels and bales of what had once been a prosperous waterfront. Now they howled in outrage as they saw that virtually everything of value had been cleared away. From their positions on the stairways and ramparts the Hylar hooted jeers and derision, and a small group of infuriated Daergar rushed impetuously at the shield wall which blocked their passage up the stairs.

"Steady there, wait!" roared Farran, in the voice of a natural sergeant. The Hylar line had formed across the sixth stair so that the enemy would have to climb to reach them. The rank was three dwarves thick and now Belicia could only hope that it would hold. It had to hold.

The first of the dark dwarves scrambled up the steps, many of the attackers stumbling before they even reached their enemy. The others were quickly cut down, their bodies left to bleed on the stairs and create an additional obstacle for the much larger number following.

On the docks, the bulk of the Daergar were now forming into companies. Still harassed by the arrows showering them, they cursed and howled at the defenders, promising slow deaths and worse when they had won the fight. Bristling with axe and spear and sword, the teeming mass charged the stairway, scrambling over the corpses of their comrades. Scores of fanatical dark dwarves smashed with full force into the desperate Hylar's thin line.

"You archers, shoot double time," bellowed Belicia. "Let them have it!"

The young dwarves along the parapet showered their missiles down from the ramparts. Nearly every arrow found a target in the tight-packed army of dark dwarves, though many of the well-armored attackers were protected from serious wounds by their shoulder plates and steel helms. Still, the darts caused many wounds and added to the general confusion of the infuriated, battle-crazed Daergar.

No matter how many of the enemy rushed forward, only a small number of them could reach the shield wall of Hylar. The clash of sword and shield rang across the waterfront as the charging mob funneled onto the stairway and met the firmly standing line. Anchored by the rear ranks of their comrades and benefitting from holding the higher position, the Hylar shield wall did not waver from the shock of the first clash. From her position still higher above, Belicia saw that Hoist had taken on the role of anchoring the right end of the line while Farran displayed the poise and confidence of a veteran as he shouted encouragement to his troops.

Quickly the attack bogged down. Some dark dwarves at the foot of the stairway hacked at the backs of their own comrades out of sheer frustration. Despite the attackers' best efforts, the shield wall held. The enraged Daergar fanned out across the wide dockyard, large companies spreading to the right and left as they sought another route up to the plaza from where the archers continued their barrage. Roaring with fury, the Daergar hastened along the waterfront and Belicia knew it would only be a matter of minutes before they pressed the attack against the other stairways.

The Hylar captain stopped long enough to take stock of the archers who had been posted on the ramparts all along the market. Arrows still showered upon the attackers. Fortus Silkseller had taken command of one of these detachments and stopped shooting long enough to answer her questions. She urged the troops keep shooting, but to make sure that the archers were taking careful aim.

"Make each shot count!" she shouted, and the wielders of the dwarven short bows nodded in understanding.

The roar of battle filled the air, rising to the upper levels of the Life-Tree. From the balconies of the Third Level which overhung the waterfront by a significant distance, a shower of garbage, stones, and occasionally a flask or two of fiery oil fell upon the attackers. Small blazes sprang up here and there, and the Daergar howled, infuriated as much by the flaring brightness as they were by the heat and flame.

Belicia checked her reserve detachment, sixty dwarves under the command of a one-eyed veteran named Tenor Ironwood. He was anxious to bring his dwarves into the fray, but growled in grudging acquiescence when she explained the need to keep his warriors ready for the crisis that would inevitably come.

Finally Belicia hurried to the western staircase and saw that the shield wall was standing firm. She cautioned them that the Daergar were on the way, then headed back to the east to find the battle already joined. Here, too, the Hylar on the stairway held firm and the dark dwarves suffered under the arrows from the ramparts. The crowding forced their vast numbers into a narrow and deadly channel. A peg-legged mercenary captain called Broadaxe was profanely exhorting the Hylar of his shield wall into a killing frenzy.

The sounds of battle echoed throughout Hybardin and carried far across the Urkhan Sea. The main thrust still came at the southern stairway. Belicia was proud to see that Farran's line had only backed up five or six steps and each foot of ground gained was costing the Daergar dozens upon dozens of warriors. The lines at the east and west stairs, facing less pressure from the attack, had not been forced to give any ground, and the Daergar made no effort to circle all the way around the island to attack from the north.

Belicia was pretty certain why they were leaving the last route alone and her suspicions were confirmed an hour later by the shouts of lookouts posted on Level Three. She raced across the plaza to see that the lake was obscured by an unnatural bank of fog. The mist seethed across the black waters like a living thing, rolling steadily closer to the Hybardin waterfront. She was not surprised to see the Theiwar fleet appear. A long rank of slender hulls slid forward from the fog to the north and west.

The boats emerged from a barrier of mist far thicker than the shadows of the underground sea. She shivered at this first evidence of Theiwar magic. The vaporous barrier had concealed their approach until the dark dwarves were already well within bow range, and now the defenders had time for only a single, lashing volley. Still, a hundred crossbows snapped and a barrage of silvery arrows darted into the Theiwar mass.

But most of the missiles fizzled into ashes before they reached their targets as Theiwar magic again shimmered in the air, robbing the volley of most of its strength. The attackers hooted and jeered as the harmless dust fizzled into the sea, and the boats swept forward quickly. Belicia had no choice but to order her defenders onto the stairs, the Hylar abandoning the docks to make their defense at the bottleneck of the approach to Level Two.

She heard strange words, weird chants that seemed to writhe and twist across the waterfront, and then a barrage of flaming balls sparked outward from the boats. The dots of flame drifted easily across the docks, settling among the crates and barrels abandoned by the archers. In another second the entire area was obscured by fire, crackling sheets of flame that erupted from the deceptively gentle balls to seethe among the wooden obstacles.

Theiwar warriors, staring horridly with their wide, milky eyes, quickly swarmed the waterfront and rushed to the base of the north stairway where Belicia's last detachment soon had carved a bloody battle line.