this sacrifice you are willing to make for us tonight. Tonight you will join with the Mother,‖
Raum said quietly, then lifted his head and cried to the assembly. ―Witness this sacrifice freely
given by friend Stag to the sun, to enable the sun to waken at the end of this long night, to give it
the strength it will need to strengthen towards spring. Friend Sun, accept this gift!‖
And he dug the knife into the Stag‘s throat as hard as he could. A dark spurt of blood
arched through the air and the Stag groaned, collapsing onto the ground. As the blood spurted
free StarDrifter began to sing again, a high exultant note in his voice, and he threw the burning
brand he had been holding spinning into the sky.
Instantly the great circle of stone about the Earth Tree burst into flame.
Axis paced along the wall, his face tight with apprehension. As the wind had died, so too
had the snow stopped. Now the frightful mist that heralded the arrival of Skraelings was
thickening about the walls. Dark had fallen, and the night increased the mist‘s impenetrability.
Belial watched Axis as he paced back and forth along the wall, pausing now and again to peer
uselessly into the night. Sentries in both town and fort had lit torches along the walls, but even
the thin tracery of light could do nothing to allay the growing fear. All were tense and ready,
some soldiers climbing the ladders to the parapets of the walls, others hefting weapons in their hands. Others stood scattered about in defensive positions throughout the town in case the walls
should fail and the survivors be forced to retreat through the town‘s twisted streets towards the
fort.
Axis slapped the wall with a gloved fist in frustration. What was out there? What? He
recalled the night Gorgrael had rolled his cloud of fear over the Axe-Wielders and imagined he
could hear the beat of great wings deep within the mist. He quickly scanned the sky. What if
Gorgrael gave more of his creatures wings? The idea of Skraelings dropping from the sky made
Axis‘ skin crawl.
What was Gorgrael doing? Why was he waiting?
Frustrated by his inability to see what was going on, and seized by a sudden impulse,
Axis snatched one of the burning torches from its bracket and heaved it spinning high into the
mist. Thousands of wraiths suddenly became visible as they fled the flaming brand spinning
down towards the earth, their silver eyes throbbing in panic, their whispery voices wailing and
weeping.
Then, as the light sputtered and died in the soft snow, Gorgrael‘s forces launched their
attack.
Azhure‘s attention was caught by the spinning torch and the sudden conflagration of the
stone circle and for critical instants she did not realise the Earth Tree Grove was under attack.
Screams and shouts reached her ears, but it wasn‘t until Pease grabbed her arm and screamed
with a strange guttural sound that Azhure abruptly realised something was dreadfully wrong.
Two creatures, Skraeling wraiths, had hooked their clawed hands into Pease‘s upper body—their
frightful jaws working at her neck and shoulders. Pease gripped Azhure‘s arm convulsively even
as her body jerked. Her eyes pleaded for help; blood dribbled from her nose and mouth.
Azhure tore her arm from Pease‘s death grip, too terrified to scream herself. She slowly
backed away, step by step, her eyes riveted by Pease‘s death agony, horrified by the nightmare
creatures that tore convulsively at Pease‘s flesh. Pease‘s eyes rolled up into her eye sockets and
her body began to collapse backwards, her hand still extended in appeal. One of the creatures
lifted its head and hiccupped, its eyes on Azhure.
Finally, her terrified trance broken, Azhure turned and ran.
She ran into a landscape of chaos and terror, blood and frenzied feeding. As the stone
circle had burst into fire the three SkraeBolds in charge of the assault on the Yuletide rites
launched thousands of Skraelings into the Earth Tree Grove. The first the Avar and Icarii knew
of the attack was the shocking sight of the sentries‘ bodies hurtling down from the cliff face
above them, their dead bodies breaking the bones and wings of the living in a sudden, frightful
crackling of pain. As Avar and Icarii screamed and milled in confusion the Skraelings massed
out of the tree line and down the cliff face into the assembly.
It took vital minutes for the Crest-Leaders to rally the Strike Force to their calls, vital
minutes when the countless Skraelings literally ate their way through the crowd towards the
stone circle, intent on reaching the Enchanters and Banes in the centre of the grove, and then the
Earth Tree itself.
FarSight CutSpur screamed in anger and frustration as his Strike Force lifted into the sky
in pitiful dribs and drabs. He fitted an arrow into his bow, but then screamed again in
frustration—how could he fire into the crowd and not kill his own? The scene below him was
one of complete chaos, everywhere the Avar and Icarii were snarled with the Skraelings. Some of the Icarii were lifting out of the death below him, many with grievous wounds and torn wings,
but the Avar were being massacred.
The SkraeBolds howled in delight. Every now and again they turned to strike down one
of the Icarii who had managed to lift out of the tangled mess, their clawed hands and feet ripping
wings to shreds in instants. They had a mission here this night, and it was not simply to disrupt
the Yuletide rite. They flapped lazily towards the burning circle, keeping a prudent distance from
the flames. They were angry now as their silver eyes searched the crowd below them. They had
thought to disrupt the rite before it got this far, before the circle burned, but StarDrifter had
hurled the flaming brand before they had a chance to act.
The Banes and Enchanters were as helpless as the Crest-Leaders and the tattered
remnants of the Strike Force hovering impotently above. Even their wards of protection would
do little against this savage attack. For long minutes StarDrifter stood with his fellows, encircled
by dying Icarii and Avar, watching the grey mist-like wave of wraiths creep closer and closer to
them. Then, before they had time to act, in whatever way they could imagine, the SkraeBolds
struck.
The Skraelings rushed the walls in a massed attack, hooking their talons into the minute
cracks in the masonry and gradually clawing their way towards the battlements, their silver eyes
gleaming obscenely in the dim light that the torches threw down. Axis leaned over the
battlements, his eyes and mouth grim, watching the creatures as they howled and whispered their
way to the top of the walls. If anything they had become even more solid since he had last
encountered them on patrol, flesh extended down to their shoulders and through most of their
thin, stick-like arms and legs. Only their torsos were still misty, insubstantial. But their teeth,
hanging sharp in their oversized loose jaws, looked real enough. Too real.
Axis strode along the battlements. ―Stand fast!‖ he called. ―They will be easy prey, my
friends. They cannot clamber over in large numbers and we will stick their eyes before they
manage to gain a hold on the battlements. Stand fast!‖
Men responded and rallied as Axis strode among them.
―Are you ready?‖ Axis shouted above the increasing whisperings of the Skraelings.
―We hear your voice and we are ready, BattleAxe!‖ the men nearest him responded, and
gradually the cry spread along the walls of Gorkentown. ―BattleAxe! We hear your voice and we
are ready!‖
Then the killing began. The Skraelings clambered over the top of the battlements in wave
after wave, almost overwhelming the thousands of men who lined the walls ready to meet them.
But they were prepared, they had their BattleAxe among them, and they had been drilled
repeatedly about what they must do. Hands grasped Skraeling hair before the creatures could
grasp them, and swords, knives and lances were thrust time and time again into their plump
silver eyes. Wraiths screamed and lost their grip as their eyes burst, their disintegrating bodies
plummeting down to the snow below as their lives bled away.
But men screamed also. Scores fell, Skraelings clinging to their faces and necks, their
teeth sunk deep into the sweet flesh of the manlings, almost delirious with joy as they tasted their
flesh. Axis and Belial seemed everywhere at once. When one section of the wall looked set to
fall to the Skraelings, then one or the other, and sometimes both, were there to plunge into the
fray, rallying the spirit of their men, driving the attack back over the walls once more.
―Use the fire!‖ Axis screamed above the noise of the battle. ―Use the fire!‖
Men standing in wait lifted containers of oil to the battlements, tipping it over the edge,