The woman stumbled back with a shout and a snarl, bright red blood already oozing around the razored head of the arrow. Thom and Thordin still weren’t moving—they still stood stock-still in the gap, weapons drawn, staring in blank shock.
“Gates!” I roared as Kellin gave one final hard yank on Phelan’s prone form to bring him safely within the boundaries of our wards.
Thom jerked at the sound of my voice and started to move, shaking his head hard as if coming out of a daze. He started to move again, eyes lighting on Phelan for only half a moment before he single-handedly slammed the gates closed. Carolyn helped him wrestle the bar into place.
“What the hell is happening?” she yelled up to me.
“Hell just broke loose,” I yelled back, then dropped from the wall on the inside of the wardings. Beyond, the screams were starting as the camazotzi hit their effective range and began to feel the effects of the power we’d dumped into our defenses.
Damned glad we buried that copper a few feet out rather than right under the wall foundations. I crouched next to Phelan, relieved to find him still breathing.
Then I kicked Thordin in the ankle until he jumped and swore at me.
“What in the nine—”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I demanded. “You just stood there.” I shifted my gaze so my glare included Thom. “You too. What the hell?”
Thordin looked shaken and Thom was maybe a little frightened. Thordin glanced toward the sound of screams beyond our walls and swallowed.
“Who was out there?” he asked, lips barely moving.
“Menhit,” I said. “That’s what Cariocecus called her.”
Thordin swore softly. “That’s why.” His nostrils flared as he sucked in a deep breath, then another. “Men touched by true love are powerless in the face of…of…”
“Of what?”
“Of her power,” he murmured. “Until someone snaps them out of it—usually a woman—they’re powerless. Can’t move. Can’t do anything. One of her monsters could have walked right up and carved my heart out and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it as long as they were in her power—and so was I.”
That sent shivers down my spine, my eyes meeting Thom’s. A muscle in his jaw twitched.
“Where’s Jacqueline?” he finally asked.
“Right here.” She crashed to her knees next to Phelan and started to have a closer look at him, at the bloody, oozing rents on his cheeks and jaw, at his shallow, painful breathing. “I went to get his kit, too, when you guys went out to treat with the enemy,” she muttered.
“Marin!” Davon shouted from above us. “They’re starting to pile.”
Dammit. I looked away from Phelan, gaze sweeping up and down the walls. Most eyes were on me, or looking down at the ground beyond the walls, beyond safety. “Open fire!”
The report of shotguns spawned more screams below. Above it all, I could still hear our latest enemy laughing.
My teeth ground, my jaw starting to hurt from how tightly I’d clenched it. I’d seen her once and already, I hated her.
Or have you only seen her once? I brushed the errant, nagging thought aside and glanced at Jacqueline as I headed back to the wall.
“Take care of him,” I snapped.
“Duh,” she responded, giving me a flat look before she got back to work, Kellin there for an able assist.
I turned to go back to the wall. Thom grabbed my arm, looking between me and Thordin.
“What about women?” he asked.
Thordin snorted. “Last I checked, she only had that effect on men. We should be safe enough now. Touched once and broken free, it doesn’t usually happen again.”
“Nice for a one-shot, though.”
Thordin smiled grimly. “That’s usually all it takes.”
“Fantastic,” I said sarcastically. “Get yourselves ranged weapons and get your asses on the wall. The sooner we turn this tide, the sooner we’ll actually have time to figure out what the hell just happened out there.”
I pulled my arm from Thom’s grip and scrambled back up the wall to my perch beside the gates to get a good look at what we were dealing with.
What I’d initially taken for only a couple dozen camazotzi turned out to be at least double that number, enough to leave me more than a little shaken. Where were they all coming from?
Hell. Where did they all hide so we couldn’t find them?
Now there was an unsettling thought.
There’s at least fifty, if not more. Where are they coming from?
I was afraid we’d find out—too late to stem the tide from coming in.
If that was the case, we’d be well and truly screwed.
