Page 106 (1/2)

"You want me to move the men out?" Barak asked Garion, his voice tense with excitement

"Let's wait until the whole wall co up the hill with all those building stones falling on top of the toward the last, toppling section of the wall

"Start theover his shoulder for the great sword strapped to his back

Barak drew in a deep breath "Charge!" he roared in a vast voice

With a concerted shout, the Rivans and their Nadrak allies plunged up through the slush andover the fallen ruins of the north wall and on into the city, "Let's go!" Barak shouted "We'llif we don't hurry!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The fight was short and in ly Each elehly briefed by Javelin and his niece, and they had all been given specific assignh the snowy, firelit streets to occupy designated houses Other elees of the breach in the north wall, circled the defensive perimeter Javelin had drawn on Liselle's map to pull down the houses and fill the streets with obstructing rubbleThe first counterattack cay furs swarmed out of the narrow streets beyond the perimeter to swarm up over the rubble of the collapsed houses, only to run directly into a withering rain of arrows from the rooftops and upper s After dreadful losses, they fell back

As dawn broke pale and gray along the snowy eastern horizon, the last few pockets of resistance inside the perimeter crumbled, and the north quarter of Rheon was secure

Garion stood so the cleared area that marked the outer limits of that part of the town that was under his control The bodies of the cultists who had rotesque heaps, already lightly dusted with snow

"Not a bad little fight," Barak declared, co into the room with his blood-stained sword still in his hand He dropped his dented shield in a corner and came over to the

"I didn't careat the windrows of the dead lying below "Killing people is a very poor way of changing their minds"

"They started this war, Garion You didn't"

"No," Garion corrected "Ulfgar started it He's the one I actually want"

"Then we'll have to go get hi his sith a bit of tattered cloth

During the course of the day, there were several more furious counterattacks from inside the city, but the results were much the same as had been the case with the first Garion's positions were too secure and too well covered by archers to fall to these sporadic sorties

"They don't actually fight well in groups, do they?" Durnik said froe point of the upper story of that half-ruined house

"They don't have that kind of discipline," Silk replied The little man was sprawled on a broken couch in one corner of the roo an apple with a small, sharp knife "Individually, they're as brave as lions, but the concept of unified action hasn't quite seeped into their heads yet"