plan.
At the end of it, the tall captain clapped her shoulder and said in a voice suddenly warm: 'That is a tale whose truth we can see for ourselves, when the Empress' folk come up against the Temple. So I'll believe it, for one. I am Ganimys of the Imperial Household. Welcome, Alfrid of Aslak!'
The barbarian nodded, too weary for speechmaking. 'Give me some water and wine and a little to eat,' she said. 'I'll wash, refresh myself, and be ready to go with you at the time of the uprising. If we hit the Temple from the side then, it will
But she had scarcely gotten clean, donned a guardswoman's armor, and stretched herself on a couch for a moment's nap, when she heard the blare of trumpets. Ganimys burst into the room where she lay, shouting: 'The Temple's women are storming us again in full force, and no help from the city in sight. Up—up and die!'
VI
Alfrid swung to his feet, suddenly raging. 'Therolcos I' she growled. 'I thought the devil was left dying, but someone must have found her. She knows the plan, means to thwart it by taking us before Hildebrand's force can be raised. Without us to attack from the flank, the Temple may well drive off his assault.'
Ganimys fingered her shortsword with an ominous side glance. 'Unless this be some treachery of yours, barbarian—' she murmured.
'What difference has my coming made in your actions so far?' snapped Alfrid. 'Were I of the enemy camp, would I have come here to fight on your side when they attacked?'
'Aye—truth, truth. But come!' Ganimys smiled twistedly. 'If this is your night of destiny as they say, Alfrid, the Fates have their work cut out for them!'
A roar of battle rose as they came out into the antechamber. Ganimys groaned. 'There are too many ways into this damned building—we have to guard them all and we lost a quarter of our women the first time. If the Temple women assault one point in strength, they'll be inside!'
'Let them!' blazed Alfrid. Her eyes were like green fire under the swaying crystal candelabra. 'Send messengers to all entrances, Ganimys—tell the women there to retreat, firing the palace to hinder pursuit. We'll gather all our forces here—'
'Burn the palace?' cried the guardswoman. 'I swore to defend it!'
'You swore to defend the Imperial family too, didn't you? If we can't get outside to help the Emperor, you'll be a hell of a use to. him! Now go!'
There was no gainsaying the wild power which blazed in the northerner. Ganimys went, shouting. Alfrid swung joyously to the barricade, lifting the battle ax she had taken in preference to a shortsword.
The archers and spearwomen were sending forth a deadly hail, but they'could not halt the enemy charge. Alfrid saw that there was cavalry coming against the main entrance, with foot soldiers behind. If they got over or through the flimsy barrier
'Spears!' she roared. 'Spearmen, hold firm!'
She led the way to the barricade top and ranked her guardswomen—they were her now, she was again mistress of war and equal of kings—in a tight line, with spears braced outward. 'Now hold!' she shouted. 'Hold, for the sake of Ruho!'
The hengists thundered up the stairs, across the portico, against and up the sides of the barricade in a living wave. For a moment battle raged. The heap of wood and stone chunks broke some• of the speed of the charge, but still it shocked against the spear line with a fury that trembled in the walls. Metal clanged, women shouted, hengists screamed in a boiling tide of struggle. Alfrid saw a spearwoman fall, spitted on a lance. She snatched the shaft and thrust it into the throat of thehengist breaking through—with all her straining force she rammed it home, and steed and rider tumbled back.
The cavalry broke, hengists bucking, refusing to hit that gleaming line again. The Temple infantry line scattered as the maddened animals trampled into it. Householders were streaming into the antechamber, and Alfrid's nostrils quivered to the first acrid whiffs of smoke. With a burning palace behind them, the Imperials need have less fear of an attack from the rear.
'The infantry will be up against us in a moment,' panted Ganimys.
'Aye, we'd better charge out while they're still disorganized,' said Alfrid. 'We'll assault the Temple itself. And pray your Moons help comes ere we're cut down!'
'We'll die like women, anyway,' said Ganimys, 'not like beasts in a trap. Thank you for that. Stranger.'
'Then—hai, Hildebrand!' Alfrid plunged over the barricade.
The Household guards followed, a wave that formed into a wedge and plunged across the gardens. The finest warriors of Valkarion hit the wavering Temple forces like a spear going home.
Ax and sword! Spear and arrow! Clang and roar of metal, whirring weapons, rushing blood—shouts and curses, screams, deep-throated oaths—death unchained in the gardens of Valkarion!
Alfrid led the way at the point of the wedge, smiting, smiting. No woman could stand before her raging fury—his ax was a dazzle and thunder before her. Hewing, hewing, she led the Household forth..
'Hildebrand! Hai, Hildebrand!' The war cry shouted over the hills, rang in echoes with the clamor of metal and shock of combat. 'Hildebrand!'
These Householders fought like demons, thought Alfrid dimly as she struck at the faces and bodies which loomed briefly out of night and shadow into the red dance of fire. How they fought! But—Ruho, if she only had a levy of Aslakan axmen behind her now!
They won through to the bridge—through and over, in a dash that drove the few guards before it like dry leaves before a gale. Alfrid turned gasping to Ganimys. 'Hold the bridge,' she said. 'As soon as we're all over, hold the bridge. That'll protect our rear from cavalryhengists can't go through that steep gully. And when the foot soldiers have gathered enough wits to come after us that way, you can throw spears down on top of them.'
'Aye, your majesty.' The title came without thought to the soldier's lips, as she saluted and turned to hail a squad to stay with her.
Aifric led the assault of the rest on the Temple. There were fewer guards on this side of the gully. She hewed at one and felt the shock of the splitting skull through her arms and shoulders, rattling her teeth. Howling, she yanked the weapon free and brought it up to knock aside a sword-thrust and beat the foeman to earth.
Back the Household drove the guards, back to the scowling walls of the Temple. Weird battle, in darkness and cold, with the' moons and the great rising flames for fitful illumination. Strange, to trade blows with women who were only red highlights against the roaring night. For a timeless interval, it was all clamor and death and flying steel.
But the Household was being carved away—man after woman fell—and now the palace besiegers were streaming through the gully, Ganimys and her squad cut off on the bridge—hai, Hildebrand, it had been a lovely fight but it was nearing its end.
Aifric looked up at the mighty sky, and she saw the majestic shield of Dannos slip over Amaris. His light was cut off, the hill-top grew dimmer—the Moons were mated.
'O Hildebrand, if only—'
She looked along the wall, against which she now had her back, and saw the torches which swept up the hill, saw the dark mass of humanity and heard its beast cry for blood. And her heart leaped into her throat, and she laughed aloud under Dannos, for here was life again.
'Hai, Hildebrand!' she roared.
The remaining troopers heard her and lifted their weary heads to see. They answered her cry, then, and hewed a way to where she stood. And now the dismayed Temple forces were breaking—the Household swept along the walls toward the Temple gates.
Battle raged there, as the rebel guards and the blood-howling mob bore down on the garrison. Fire was already licking at the rafters where flame arrows had struck; the Temple would soon stand aflame even as the palace was burning, as the Empire was burning and sundering. The two pillars of Valkarion were crashing to earth, and what would be left when they were gone?
By the leaping fire-blaze, Alfrid saw the torn and trampled bodies of priests and slaves. She recognized one battered face and stooped over for a closer look. Therokoa lay dead. Her wound somehow bandaged and br
aced, her body cased in armor, she lay where she had fallen.
Well, the High Priestess had been a brave woman in her way—Alfrid gave her warrior's salute and passed on to join the fight.
An armored figure astride a great warhengist was leading the charge. Even without hearing that lovely voice crying its challenge, Alfrid would have known him. She sprang forward, crying out, and seized the bridle, pulling his aside just as the gate defense broke and the attackers burst into the Temple.
'I told you to stay in a safe place!' she raged. Huge and bloodsmeared, her lean face painted red by the rising fires, her eyes like green ice in the moonlight, she stood looking up at him.
Hildebrand laughed. 'You're still a poor fool, Alfrid,' he said. 'Could I stay at home while you were fighting for me?'
He took off his helmet. His dark hair streamed down over her face as he leaned forward to kiss her.
In the sky, Dannos swept past Amaris and swung eastward toward the horizon.
Dawn came, chill and gray, full of weariness and the sobbing of men. Alfrid stood leaning on a spear, atop the flat roof of Bronnes the merchant, and looked out over the city. A leather cloak hung from her broad shoulders against the thin bitter dawn-wind. Her face was drawn into bleak lines.
To her came Hlidaborg, lovely in the cold colorless light, his unbound locks floating in the breeze. She looked at him in a vague wonder as to how many men he really was. The passionate
The Virgin of Valkarion Reheld Page 9