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She clenched her fists instead, forcing away the emotion Later She could let herself feel it later, she pro the coionares' id and still Only ht reports froaze up to see fire-spheres blossolacial purple Black shapes like swar spheres - vordknights, thousands of therinned suddenly, and the explosion of another massive salvo from the mules cast his face in a feral, al to sneak over the wall to take out the ," he said "But the Placidas and the northerners found them first" He pursed his lips for a moment, then said, "Glad they aren't directly overhead"

As if to punctuate Bernard's state its head and two-thirds of the surface of its wings, plunged down and landed on the ground beside one of the crewmen of the mules The crew onto his rear, earning a round of frantic-edged belly laughs fro to dive upon the crews of the hts Flora had retreated froan providing their hts fell from the skies and smashed to the earth like rotten fruit One of theon of fire-spheres behind one of the ry bellow of fire that roared out and consu crew theon flew out in every direction, wounding more men on either side, and A co theto the floor of the battleesture to the trumpeter, and the man sounded the call for an aerial attack With a roar, hundreds of Citizens and Knights Aeris rose into the skies to do battle with the enemy in the darkness overhead The sound of their windstreaainst stone cliffs Each unit of Knights was led by Counts and Lords, ifted infirecraftings overhead doubled and redoubled, a soaring panoply of brief-lived, swollen stars in every color i windstrea oddly musical harmonies amidst the flashes of chromatic fire

Every eye in the whole of the Calderon Valley not being used to fight for survival was glued to the beautiful, deadly display

"And now that our attention is on the sky," Bernard said, "it's time for the surprise attack Your Lordship, if you would be so kind as to light the field"

Lord Grah the Princeps had put Bernard in charge of the defenses, Amara's husband had also served Gram for many years as one of the first Steadholders placed in the then-Count's service Now Graranted, his lands had been overrun by the enemy, but he was still a Lord), and her husband had made an extra effort to show Gram courtesy, despite his pained jaw Graht, and would have been perfectly co a simple order - but even in the face of ruin, Bernard had the presence of mind to be considerate She supposed that, in a way, that sort of grace was sy for; the preservation of unnecessary beauty

Gram stepped forward, lifted his hand, and casually held it out, palers, until a moment later a tiny form hovered there, just above the surface of his hand - a little feathered figure, its wings blurred into invisibility with their speed The hot ashing fro to the little fire fury, and flicked his wrist The fiery huhtening in intensity as it flew

It swept over the battlefield, a globe of white daylight several hundred yards across It zipped over countless h the torso of a vordknight that had flon to intercept it, not even slowing down

"Bad idea," Gra in Phyllis's way like that"

"Phyllis?" Bernard asked

"Keep those teeth together, Calderon," Gram said testily "Named her for my first wife Hotter than any torch, couldn't sit still, and you didn't want to get in her way, either"

Aress - and withinspecial units, exactly where Invidia had said they would be

"Bloody blighted crows," Grah wind to speak

Ae

They weren't huge on the sae on the sas There were half a dozen of theest s, each thicker than the trunk of any tree Aular heads ended in a jagged, black chitin beak that rather reh to hold three or four hogshead barrels The creatures had no eyes that she could see, and their beaks simply seemed to flow up into their skulls, and fro fans of the sa around the titans' heads like shields Every stride carried theh they looked ponderous, their pace was, like a gargant's, swifter than one would expect Dozens of h a mantis could run faster than so black chitin only slowly

A word from Gram halted Phyllis above the nearest bulk, and everyone on the walls who could be spared fro could only stare Centurion Giraldi stepped up to the battlements beside Bernard and Gram He stared at the bulks for a er wall now"

In the same instant, all six of the bulks raised their opened maws and let out basso bellows They did not sound loud, precisely, but the sound shook the wall and A intensity