“Forward!” Hadjar shouted, and the warriors took a step forward.
The gods fell beneath them, screaming. In their eyes shone the horror of knowing that they, though they’d only been wounded, would end up trampled to death by mortals. And so it was.
With each new ‘forward’ command that echoed over the heads of the soldiers, Hadjar and Lathea’s troops squeezed the enemy vanguard tighter, forcing the defenders to crowd against the barbican. Arrows flew from the embrasures, but the cannon atop the wall directly above them had fallen silent, and the fortress had transformed from shelter into a trap for the defenders of the Emerald City.
When they had finally squeezed in so tightly that there was almost no space between them, Hadjar stepped back behind the ranks of his soldiers and issued a ne
