Master of Iron (Bladesmith #2)(73)

“Bring the water!” Kymora shouts.

With padded gloves, a handful of our soldiers remove the boiling pots of water from the fires, replacing them with new ones, ready to be heated.

The first of the ladders is extended, the top reaching just above the wall’s edge. Kymora looks down her nose at it, watches a flurry of men begin to climb.

I feel my hands start to shake as I watch their progression, waiting for Kymora to do something.

It isn’t until the first soldier is nearly to the top that she steps aside and nods to the man holding the first pot.

He empties the scalding water onto the waiting soldiers below. More screams fill the air, followed by the sound of falling bodies crunching on impact with the ground.

When the ladder is emptied, Kymora grabs it by the top and casts it aside. The wood splinters once it falls, the whole thing now useless.

Skiro’s men follow the warlord’s lead, needing no prompting. When a ladder lands against the wall, they’re ready with more pots of boiling water.

It doesn’t take long for Ravis’s soldiers to pause with the ladders, his men too afraid of being burned to keep pressing on. They stick to sending more volleys of arrows our way.

For a while.

Soon they’re back, this time with the grappling hooks, likely hoping to overwhelm us with their sheer numbers. Twenty different ropes are thrown upward, the hooks catching on the wall’s edge. The enemy climb nimbly, despite the armor they wear.

“Oil!” Kymora shouts.

While some of Skiro’s soldiers saw at the ropes with knives, Kymora directs the others to pour oil down the line of ropes. With a torch, she walks past them one at a time, lighting them up.

More shouts rip through the air as the fire travels down, engulfing those who were unlucky enough to get coated in the oil. The ropes eventually snap from the tension at the spots where the flames eat away at the fibers.

More hooks and ladders replace the fallen equipment, twice as many as last time, and I wonder if the first two waves were just for Ravis to test out our defenses.

I take position at the top of one of the ladders nearby, leaving Kellyn to guard Kymora.

I bash in heads as they reach the top, sending men and women flailing back to the ground with caved in helmets. Some die upon impact; others find their feet and wander before collapsing.

I feel sick.

Sick to be killing.

Sick to know this is all because of Ravis’s greed.

Sick to think no one at all has to die.

The city folk are all in the castle now, at least, if not through the portal yet. Guards bring regular updates to Skiro.

And then some of Ravis’s men make it atop the wall.

At the farthest left end, where wall meets rock, a grappling hook caught on the wall, with no one to burn the rope or slice it off.

Five men rush this way, with more trying to climb the wall behind them.

“Kellyn!” I shout because he’s closer.

He sees them, takes one look at Kymora, and makes his decision.

What I see next is only snatches out of the corner of my eye. Kellyn raising his hand, unclenching his fist. Lady Killer sliding from his back sheath of its own volition, whipping into his hand faster than the eye can follow. The mercenary leaping over our men bent over the wall, where they pour more vats of hot water over the enemy below.

A sword point thrusts for my face from below; I get Echo between me and it just in time. The magical rebound sends the soldier sailing down the ladder, knocking each man on the rungs below him off along the way.

With the ladder free of the extra weight, I shove it away from the wall and watch it crash to the ground below.

When I look back up, Kellyn has dispatched the men on the wall. He attempts to saw through the rope with his sword, but I see that a new man will soon reach the top. The enemy pauses to draw his sword and takes a swipe at Kellyn, narrowly missing his neck. I don’t think before rushing forward to help.

With me bashing in heads and him sawing, the rope snaps in no time.

I spin back around as soon as I remember we left Kymora unguarded, but she’s still shouting out orders from atop the wall. I watch as she dodges an arrow without skipping a word.

She really is extraordinary. I just wish she were actually on our side.

Petrik casts his staff at the men below, trying to interrupt the flow of soldiers as best he can. One tries to grab ahold of the staff, but it slips through her fingers as if coated in oil and returns to Petrik without delay.

I feel a rush of pride to see my weapons doing just as I bade them.

At a noise farther down the right side of the wall, we all look up. An enemy soldier made it to the top. A large woman in light armor charges toward us. Men try to stop her, but she thrusts out a hammer and—

That’s my hammer!

Men go flying to the ground as she charges forward with the hammer Ravis stole from me. She tramples them underfoot as she comes bolting for the prince.

There is a small voice in my head, one that begs me to flee. To be safe and live. But in this one instance, the brave Ziva is overpowering. Because that is my hammer that I made, and she has it, and she’s hurting people, and I have to make it right.

I bypass Prince Skiro, veer around Kymora and Petrik, until no one and nothing is between me and the approaching soldier. She eyes me, eyes my own hammers, and grins. It makes my stomach turn over, but I hold my ground, thrusting out Echo, while the woman charges forward holding out my old hammer.