Sofarita returned to the ship, told Talaban to head for the bay, then journeyed again to Egaru.
When she returned less than half an hour later she found Ro and Talaban and Touchstone waiting. The Serpent was at anchor in the bay, and from here she could see the tall mountains to the south-west. ‘That is where we must go,’ she said. ‘The One-Eyed-Fox awaits us there.’
‘How many warriors does he have?’ asked Talaban.
‘Twenty.’
‘Did you see any Almecs?’
‘Hundreds,’ she said. Talaban swore softly.
‘I promised Rael to send the ship and its crew back to Egaru. But we will sorely need the ship’s twenty Avatar bowmen. Is there time for you to contact him and request them?’
‘No,’ she said, her voice hard. ‘But they will be neither needed, nor welcome, at Egaru. Use them as you will.’
‘What does that mean?’ he asked her.
‘I do not wish to speak of it yet. Let us get ashore.’
‘You think they are going to betray us?’ asked Pendar, as the 112 Avatars rode through the southern gates heading along the coastal road. Mejana leaned on the parapet and watched the riders. She did not answer. How fine they look in their silver armour, she thought, like heroes of legend. It was confusing to see them like this. These were the evil men who had dominated her people, extending their own lives by draining the life force of others. The same men who had taken her daughter, leaving her senile and spent. Yet now the sun glittered upon them, and they were riding to their deaths to save the cities. Mejana no longer knew what to think or feel. She had plotted their downfall for so long, so many lonely bitter years.
And here was the day.
There was no feeling of triumph in the air, no heady joy. This was not as she had imagined it.
‘They’ll make a pact with the Almecs,’ said Boru. ‘They cannot be trusted. We will all go to our deaths.’
‘You may be right,’ said Mejana, at last. ‘But I do not think so. Their wives and their children are dead, their power almost gone, their day over. We will follow the last orders of the Questor General.’
The area to the east of the city was still flooded, but to the south the ground rose and she could see Rael in his silver armour leading his riders up a low hill. Glancing back she looked down at the hundreds of militia men waiting nervously behind the gates. Some were armed with swords and spears, but most carried knives or rough-made clubs. They had no armour and there were few bowmen among them. She swung to Pendar.
‘Go now to the Third Gate. When Rael attacks lead out the army. The militia will follow.’
‘There will be fearful losses, grandmother,’ he warned her.
‘Try not to be among them,’ she said. Pendar bowed, then ran along the ramparts to where the Vagar soldiers were waiting. Turning to Boru she looked into his hard blue eyes. ‘You may stay here with me, or fight alongside the militia. Your choice,’ she told him.
‘Do you hate me?’ he asked her.
‘This is not a day for hate,’ she said. ‘This is a day for regret.’
Drawing his sword he gave a cold smile and walked back down the rampart steps to stand with the men there.
Out on the battlefield the Almecs had seen Rael’s troop moving across the hills and a column of soldiers marched out to intercept them.
Mejana was weary. She had spent the night helping to search for survivors in the ruined Library. They had found two people alive. One died as she was being lifted clear, the other had lost both legs and bled to death as they lifted the roof beam that had crushed her. The rescuers had removed scores of corpses.
Through that long night Mejana found her hatred of the Avatar evaporating. Whatever revenge she had planned seemed small and petty compared to the grand tragedy all around her. And she had wept when they discovered the children, their tiny bodies broken by falling rocks, their lives extinguished by fire and death from the skies.