«Yes,» said Blade. «The guns throw their stones by setting fire to a strong powder. The Vodi can only have brought a certain amount of the powder across the sea with them, and they have been burning it rapidly. If they have burned it all, or if we can destroy what is left, their guns will be useless. Then we can fight them in the old ways, which we know so well.»

Blade was making an educated guess when he said that, and he hoped he'd guessed right. If not, he could be leading the two peoples who trusted his wisdom to their deaths.

«If all this is true,» said Paor, «then Blade has spoken wisely. We shall go west to aid the Torians.»

«We shall,» said Fudan and Loya together. All four of them rose from the table, stepped into a circle, and joined their hands together.

Chapter 24

A hundred-pound ball of stone plunged out of the sky, to crash into the corner of a house in the Street of the Tailors. Half of the house shivered, sagged, and crumbled in a swelling roar of falling masonry and a billowing cloud of dust. The rescue workers moved toward the ruins, their dust-coated faces drawn, their steps slow and shuffling. Not even the eyes of their queen upon them could make them move swiftly. The siege of Tordas had gone on too long.

Kayarna gentled her horse with one hand and brushed the dust from her face with the other. At least horses no longer bolted at the crash and thunder of the stone-belching Vodi smoke tubes. Many of them were so gaunt they could hardly have had the strength; fodder was running short. A few more days and none of the horses in the city would have the strength to charge. A few days after that, and it would be time to slaughter and eat them. By eating the horses that had once carried its fighting men proudly across the plains, Tordas might last another week or two-if the smoke tubes didn't batter it into ruins first.

Kayarna urged her horse forward. As she did, two riders came trotting out of the dust cloud filling the street ahead and reined in on either side of her. She recognized two of the captains who'd been among the boldest in getting messages in and out of the city.

«Your Majesty,» one of them gasped. «We are lost! The wagon people are advancing upon the city. Their army is in sight from the walls. In another hour they will be joining the Vodi, and then…»

Kayarna cut off the man's babblings with a sharp gesture, although a sickening feeling was rising in her too. If the wagon people had indeed come west to join the Vodi, Tordas had only a few more days to live. For a moment she thought she would be physically ill with despair.

Then she straightened in her saddle. Whatever this meant for Tor, she wanted to see it with her own eyes. «Let us go to the wall,» she said. She spurred her horse forward, and the two pale-faced messengers fell in with her escort to follow her.

Richard Blade climbed to the platform set on top of his command wagon and looked at the scene spread out before him. Visibility was nearly perfect, except where the siege guns belched smoke and their shot threw up clouds of dust. He could see every last detail of the situation in front of him.

On his right rose the battered walls of Tordas, the tops bristling with defenders. A thin line of Vodi mounted on captured Torian horses was thrown completely around the city. These men could watch the gates, intercept messengers, and warn of the Torians trying to come out. They were not strong enough to do much more.

In the center, the Vodi had a strong siege camp, where their heavy guns blazed away at Tordas from behind earthworks. The commanders and the supplies might be in that camp, but the earthworks could make it too tough a nut to crack-unless something was happening elsewhere at the same time, to distract the Vodi.

On the left more tents stretched away in an arc toward the beach, unprotected except by a light palisade of stakes. That was the main camp, where the soldiers lived.

Beyond the camps and camp defenses was the beach and the ships. Many boats and a number of the smaller ships were drawn right up on the shore. The rest were anchored in a ragged line stretching for several miles. The Vodi did not seem to be worrying much about an attack from the sea.

All of this was just as Blade had heard from the reports of his scouts. That was good. He'd made his plans on the basis of those reports, and now he wouldn't have to change anything. With an army like this one, enthusiastic but not well disciplined, the fewer changes of plan the better. Changes of plan also took time, and Tordas could not hold out much longer.

The Vodi didn't seem to be moving out to meet him, although his advanced guard was in plain sight. That was as he'd expected. The Vodi were infantry, and infantry fought cavalry by letting the cavalry come to them. That meant he had the initiative for the time being.

So a quick thrust with his own mounted men, to scatter the Vodi watching the gates. That would link up with the Torians, and perhaps draw the Vodi into a hasty move. Once the Torians and their new and unexpected allies had fought a battle side by side, it would be easier to arrange things for the next stage of the campaign. The Torian leaders would be much more willing to trust the Kargoi and listen to their High Baudz.

Blade scrambled down from the platform and leaped into the saddle of his captured Torian horse. He rode at a canter out in front of the mounted troops. There were about four hundred of them-half mounted like him, on captured horses, the other half mounted on drends. Blade waved an arm and heard the sound of horse hooves and drend hooves swell behind him as he galloped forward.

Queen Kayarna reached the top of the stairs and burst out into the daylight. She ran along the wall, ignoring the sentries, leaving her own guards behind, paying no attention to occasional enemy shots whistling past. She ran until she came to the corner of the wall that offered the best view toward the army of the new enemy.

A solid column of mounted men was moving out from that army. Some rode like the Vodi, on captured Torian horses, while others rode the great battle oxen of the wagon people. The horses were slowly drawing away from the oxen, although their captain was obviously trying to slow them down. He was easy to pick out-a huge dark man, riding a horse with almost arrogant skill and handling a Torian lance as if he'd been born with one in his hand. He could not be very wise, though, considering what he was doing. What sense was there in leading a wild charge against nothing but the walls of Tordas?

Kayarna laughed. Were the oxen going to butt down the walls with their heads and…?

Then she stopped, and her eyes and mouth both opened wide, as all around her the soldiers began shouting in wild amazement. The charge was sweeping over the mounted Vodi, and they were going down before it!

This was happening, or her eyes were betraying her beyond all reason. She saw the big captain ride at one of the Vodi and lift him from the saddle with a lance thrust. The man crashed to the ground and was trampled out of sight under fifty sets of hooves. The charge swept on.

Now the captain was thrusting through another of the Vodi, but this time his lance broke off. He dropped the butt, drew one of the wagon people's long swords, and began slashing in deadly arcs around him as he rode on. Behind him hundreds more of his men were coming on, and before them the Vodi were disappearing like morning dew sucked up by the sun.

Kayarna screamed out her triumph and joy, then turned and ran back for the stairs. She had to get into the saddle and ride out to meet this captain and his men. She had to ride out, to see these men sent by the gods themselves to save Tor!

Blade rode at one of the Vodi who was foolishly trying to swing a two-handed axe from the back of a skittish horse. His own sword slashed down, cutting off both the man's arms at once. The arms and the axe fell to the ground on one side of the horse, the man himself fell with a scream on the other side. Blade's horse shouldered the dead man's mount aside and he rode on.