The morning mist was steeped in blood.
The battlements of Lys's outer wall had lost all trace of their original color. Dark red, brownish black, and fresh scarlet coated the stone in layers, thick enough to stick to the soles of boots.
The air reeked of rust, excrement, and charred flesh.
Carl knelt on one knee behind a damaged battlement. The bandage on her left arm had long since soaked through with blood and hardened into a black shell. Every beat of her pulse brought an agony like a blunt hammer striking bone.
"On your left!" Henry's hoarse shout exploded beside her ear.
Carl instinctively rolled right. A long blade grazed her scalp and struck the stone, scattering sparks.
Before the enemy soldier could fall, she drove her chipped sword into the side of his neck with a backhand thrust. Hot blood sprayed across her face, warm and rank.
Henry had just used his battered Oak Shield to knock another Tyroshi soldier off the wall. The man screamed as he fell twenty meters, landing on his comrades' shields below with a dull sound like a pumpkin bursting.
Henry's own shield shattered completely. He staggered back to Carl, his face smeared with blood and sweat.
"The outer wall..." Carl's voice was ragged. She did not need to look to know that fewer than three in ten defenders were still standing. The bodies of civilian conscripts filled the wall walk, piled so high in places that they could serve as steps.
Below the wall, the Tyroshi's second wave of Siege Towers was already closing in.
"We hold even if we can't!" Henry roared, but his voice trembled too, a final bluff before exhaustion swallowed him. "His Highness entrusted the city to us..."
BOOM!!!
A tremendous crash came from the direction of the