פּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּ

Chapter Twenty: Honor, Valor, and Liberty

Diest Arcanum shielded his eyes with a hand, and called up towards the top of the siege trebuchet, "How's she holding up?"

"The hoists had been reinforced, General," Captain Nosi replied as he eased off the ladder that crept up the tall side of Honor, "I thought she was going to fold for a moment there."

In mid-arc, the giant trebuchet had snapped some of the rope supports nailed to the ground. The wooden structure had teetered on the edge of falling, threatening to crush everyone beneath and throwing off those who were perched upon it. It just managed to stabilize as the engineers managed to sever its load. The boulder had misfired, but thank the Creator and Caldazar, had plowed harmlessly away from Thunder legion. Nosi's corps had immediately sprang into action and seemed to have corrected the problem.

The other two Idylls were still firing away, boulders arching across Thakan'dar, just ahead of the Band's position. Arcanum could not see any aspects of the battles of Bekkar, due to the Black Miasma, and had to rely blindly on messengers to relay the positions of the men, one of whom was now arriving.

The messenger skirted the perimeter lines and halted upon seeing the general.

"What of those creatures, the Jumara?" Arcanum called.

"Your volley did much damage, as did the courage of many soldiers." The messenger took a deep drink from his canteen and wiped the sweat from his face, "They have turned against their owners, and we have broken their lines. The first van is about two leagues forward, the flanking vans right behind. The Marshall-General estimates we will recover for that delay. The first wave of the wounded will arrive here soon. Cathon asks that the Gates of Night be down by the time the first van wipes its feet on the doormat."

"You shall have your opening." Arcanum waved for a remount.

An attendant quickly arrived with a fresh horse for the messenger and led off the exhausted steed. The messenger gave a salute to Arcanum and galloped back down into Thakan'dar, immediately swallowed up by the fog.

"HIT THE GATES WITH ALL YOU HAVE!" Arcanum shouted. He was answered by Valor who sent her missiles curving towards the black fortress. Arcanum squinted at its progress, then pulled out his new watch-glass, recently refurbished by Nosi. He peered through and nodded agreeably.

The boulders smashed into the high arched gate, which Arcanum presumed to be the entrance. They crumbled upon collision with the foreboding iron, spraying the ground with a shower of rocks. An explosion of sound announced Liberty's shot which slammed into a black tower some distances above the gates. The black stone yielded to the barrage, and the tower crumpled down, leaving an angry wound. The hit seemed to have stirred up clouds of thick dust that seemed to hang in the air.

And still hang in the air. And rapidly was growing larger. A black cloud driving rapidly over the valley towards the hill where the Idylls approached, thick with fluttering black creatures.

"Ravens!" Arcanum realized, "Entire flocks of them!"

Arcanum was quite familiar with the sight of shadoweyes, for the aftermath of a battlefield was completely infested with the black scavengers. But, he had never seen as many as the ones approaching now. There had to be millions upon millions.

"Nosi! Are there any more reserve naph or even pitch?"

"Last drops burned away at Burning Rivers. How many birds are we talking about?" Nosi exclaimed.

"Enough to coat the sun with black vengeance." Arcanum knew the damage a flock of shadoweyes this large could do. Sharp beaks that could pluck out eyeballs and draw skin and flesh from the bones.

"Should we maintain our positions?" Nosi asked, studying the approaching cloud objectively.

"Get your men off the Idylls. They'll be helpless targets up there." Arcanum began bellowing, "ALL ARCHERS FORM FRONT. NOW!"

"We have some visored helmets in our armory, perhaps enough for this legion." Nosi noted.

"Get them," Arcanum replied. Archers raced forward from their perimeter positions, crouching at the front of the Idylls. The earth shook as the engineers on Liberty unhitched its load, dropping the boulders down below. Men began to scurry down the massive trebuchets as fast as they could.

Arcanum moved toward the archery lines. He was flanked by a squad of Arbalest-bearing guards, or Arbies, as the men had taken to calling it. But the Arbie bolts would not fare well against the small, agile shadoweyes, and would only prove cumbersome. Yet, with the ravens bunched so close, it would be nearly impossible to miss. As the general studied the lines, he knew that there were not enough archers to keep the flocks at bay. He doubted all the archers in the Grand-Legion could even dent that black cloud. He had only placed footmen and archers in one Banner of the Thunder Legion as an afterthought, just enough to protect his precious siege engines. The legion may pay for that oversight now.

Arcanum brought his steel visor down, leaving a slit of visibility. He hated having his vision hindered, but he would probably hate having his eyeball torn out even more. Spare helmets found their ways through the ranks, and the soldiers quickly donned them, as the thick cloud of shadoweyes descended.

The ravens blocked out the sun, casting a black shadow over the soldiers. Arrows took flight and avian bodies tumbled downwards. Then the ravens dove, and everything dissolved into chaos. Arcanum drew his sword as the world around him descended into sharp beaks and fluttering wings. He sliced at his attackers, but they surrounded him, attaching to his arms and torsos with sharp talons. Beaks drew blood, snapping at any exposed skin. As Arcanum flailed blindly at his assailants, he ruefully reflected that perhaps the visor didn't hinder his vision, since they were truly nothing to see but blackness. Then he felt more than saw the hesitations of the ravens, which after their initial strike, began to avoid Arcanum, fluttering away and colliding with their brethrens. Arcanum clutched the Shell hanging from his neck, thrusting it out and the ravens shrieked away as if it was a blinding torch.

His steel breastplate and hard leather absorbed most of the meager shadoweyes' strikes, but he knew the lightly-armored archers would not be lucky. He could feel resistance to his sword sporadically as swung, hewing through wings and hollow-boned bodies. But, he could see nothing and hear nothing, as the air was saturated with the piercing calls of the shadoweyes.

Then a sudden rise in heat drew beads of sweat on Arcanum's face. A bright flash scoured the air, and the air was filled with burning feathers. Hot objects struck Arcanum from above, and he realized they were the still burning corpses of the ravens. When he felt no more attacks by sharp beaks, Arcanum raised his visor and gazed around amazedly.

The ground was littered with layers upon layers of charred avian corpses, emanating a sour-burnt stench that filled the generals' nostrils. The soldiers were also gazing at the ground in surprise, then glancing at their arms, blood streaming down from their wounds and slashes. Corpses of men also laid sporadically, so mutilated that Arcanum felt his gorge rising. A body nearby belonged to someone who had not received a helmet, and needless to say, much of his face was stripped of flesh, exposing the macabre grin of the skull.

The surviving ravens fluttered above, confused and dazed, still enough to blanket the sun. Then they found renewed courage, believing the worst was over, and the creatures shrieked back down. Intense ropes of fire flayed up and burning feathers drifted down.

The remaining unscorched ravens hung hesitantly in the sky, when suddenly they were set upon by an opposing swarm of deadly birds. Arcanum recognized peregrine falcons and red-tailed hawks, solo hunters that would never be found flocking, let alone so deep in the Blasted Lands. Against the deadly claws of the sky raptors, the shadoweyes might as well be fat, blind pigeons, dissolving instantly in the ruthless onslaught. The unlikely assortment of avian predators disappeared as quickly as they appeared, leaving the sky clear once more except for a haze of drifting feathers.

Confused at the spectacle but relieved nonetheless, Arcanum looked to the source of the flames, to see the swaying figure of Airena Sedai who had arrived on scene. Then she gasped and crumpled. Warder flowed forward, and caught the sagging Aes Sedai in his arms. Arcanum raced forward, burnt corpses crunching underneath his steps. Her face was pale, and her small frame spasmed slightly, but her eyes were open and seeing.

"The pain..." She murmured, "Backlash..."

Warder silently lifted her into his arms and raised his visored head to Arcanum, "She will be unable to fight today."

A helmeted soldier with the band of a healer studied her ashen face, "She is in shock. She will need rest."

"Take good care of her, Warder. She saved all our bloody lives today." Arcanum said. The Warder nodded slowly and removed something from Airena's slack fingers. It looked to the General to be a glass figurine of a pair of doves in flight. Then Warder carried her delicately towards her tent.

"We will set the healing stations here." The medic removed his dented helmet and tossed it to the ground. The wounded soldiers began to pour in, either limping with the aid of comrades or carried in on make-shift stretchers.

"Amazing, how such tiny creatures can do such great harm." Nosi remarked, staring down at his own helmet, which showed scratches and even dents from the assault. His left arm was completely bound by bandages, which already were stained by blood. A dark red wound graced near his nose from a lucky peck through the visor, barely an inch away from his left eye.

"Can your men return to duty?" Arcanum glanced down at his own arm. The Shell had seemingly protected him from grievous wounds. But much of his hard leather was pitted with holes, and he could feel stings of thousands of lacerations on his arms and legs. He could feel a dull pain in his left hand and had difficulty flexing his ring finger. A raven must have severed a tendon.

"They have already returned." Nosi replied, and his words were punctuated by the CRACK of Valor's counter-balance slamming down, sending its load forward.

"It is bloody lucky that the Aes Sedai stayed with us instead of joining the main force." Also lucky that they had some unlikely friends in the sky. Arcanum's mind flashed to the glass figurine in the Aes Sedai's hand. He shook his head and pulled out his watch-glass to follow the trajectory of Valor's missile. The glass was broken.

After waiting for Arcanum to finish his curses, Nosi replied, "Yes, but it seems that even this close to the Dark Lord's domain, she cannot use the One Power without terrible pain. And with her out of commission, we will be unable to withstand another attack like that. "

"Then we'd better pray that's the last of them. Or else we will be forced to set an Idyll on fire."

CRACK!

"General!" A soldier called out, drawing Arcanum's attention.

A man, who would be the right age for Arcanum's son if he had had one, approached, carrying an unconscious form in his arms.

"We found this soldier near the southern perimeter. His horse was dead of exhaustion. And I suspect he's falling to the same fate. He's been calling for the Marshall General." The soldier explained, setting his burden gently on the ground.

"Bring water." Arcanum kneeled beside the prostate figure. The soldier nodded and ran off.

Arcanum brushed aside the long dark tresses that covered the face, and saw the mixture of dried blood and sweat carving rivers through the caked dirt. Blood also stained much of the soldier's black-red cloak, not a cloak of the Band of Red Hand. The uniform was frayed, but Arcanum immediately recognized it. The dark red cloak and armor, an accoutrement he had not seen in a very long time. He startled, and then studied the face.

CRACK!

The soldier returned with a filled canteen. Arcanum took the leather skin and slowly dribbled water into the slack and cracked mouth.

"Is it...?" Nosi leaned over, his eyes opening in recognition.

"Yes, our friend here is a she. Valdar Cuebiyari. A Heart Guard. Aemon's personal guardians." Arcanum agreed. The woman coughed, and her eyes fluttered open slowly.

"My squad…last of my squad." The woman did not see the soldiers leaning over her, her clear blue eyes staring at the sky, "Manetheren. Manetheren calls…"

She raised one arm, reaching for a leather-pack she wore on her belt. Her bare sun-scorched hand wavered, then fell. Her eyes saw nothing. Not even the sky.

Arcanum gently closed her eyes with two gentle fingers and poured the rest of the water on her face, washing clear the blood and sweat of her last journey for her King. It was a pretty face, but a worn face. He slowly opened the pouch and pulled out a single sheath of paper, crumpled and spotted with blood. He stood up, and the soldier who had brought her covered her body with the silver-edged cloak of the Heart Guard.

CRACK!

"Blood of Manetheren forever. May Caldazar carry you on its back to the Land of your fathers. Land of Arad. You have done your duty for the Waters of the Mountain Home. Return in peace. Aetern." Arcanum whispered.

CRACK!

Then a roaring cheer came from the soldiers by the Three Idyll. And Arcanum knew. The Gates of Night had fallen to the onslaught of Honor, Valor, and Liberty. The way was open for the Band of Red Hand. The destruction of the Fortress of Shayol Ghul was nigh.

Arcanum stood, silent and brooding. He studied the paper slowly. He read it twice. He glanced at the seal of the Red Eagle. The signature. The crest. Yes, it was genuine. He felt both numbness and pain flowing through his body, as if a hand had encircled his heart and squeezed.

"General, the hinges of the Gates have been knocked free, and the corrupted iron now hangs wide! What are your orders?" A voice called from the direction of the Trebuchets.

Arcanum closed his eyes and ignored the question. Finally, he turned to the young soldier who stood reverie over the Heart Guard, "Get all of our messengers. Call back the Generals. Tell them to return now."

"Sir?"

"You will tell them that Manetheren is under attack."

פּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּפּצּ