Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(217)

Somehow, he and the First Spear managed to get a solid block of men together in front of the last wall upon the bridge itself, while Crassus's exhausted Knights Aeris lined the low city wall behind them. Tavi had furniture taken from the town behind them piled into two massive mounds, doused them in liquor, and had Max set them aflame to provide light for the legionares-and to keep it burning with firecrafting. The Knights sent a gale of wind into the faces of the Canim, both shielding the fires and blinding their enemies in the down-pouring rain, and a roaring charge led by the First Spear hammered into the Canim advance. Tavi watched from the wall as legionares and warriors locked in desperate, grinding battle, but in the close confines of the bridge, once the Canim's momentum was checked and the darkness broken by the bonfires, the advantage fell to the tightly coordinated, disciplined-and desperate-legionares. Step by bloody step, they drove the Canim back, until the inhuman foe leapt back over the wall to take up defensive positions of their own.

Tavi ordered the legionares back to the last wall on the bridge, fearing that they would be cut down by Canim marksmen if they remained in the open.

And for the space of an hour, the battle ceased.

Tavi sagged to the ground behind their last wall and sat there for a moment. He stripped off his helmet and tilted his head up to the sky to drink falling rain. The rainfall had been growing slowly if steadily lighter over the past hours. It made the cool evening positively uncomfortable, and spasms of shivering came and went every minute or so.

"Captain?" Ehren said quietly. Tavi hadn't heard him approach. "You all right?"

"Tired, is all," Tavi replied.

"You should get out of the rain. Get some hot food into you."

"No time," Tavi said. "They can see in the dark. We can't. They'll hit us again before dawn. I need Tribune Cymnea to round up every furylamp she can find, any wood that will burn, and every drop of liquor in the whole town. We'll need it to start fires so that the men can see. Valiar Marcus is taking a head count. Ask Foss for the count on deaths and casualties, and relay it to the First Spear."

Ehren frowned, but nodded. "All right. But after that..."

"After that," Tavi said, "take the two fastest horses you can find and get out."

Ehren fell silent.

"It's your duty," Tavi said quietly. "The First Lord needs to know about what the ritualists can do. And about those bolt throwers the Canim are using. And..." He shook his head. "Tell him that we're going to find a way to take down the bridge. Somehow. Convey my apologies that I couldn't keep it intact."

There was another silent moment. Then Ehren said, "I can't just walk away from my friends."

"Don't walk. Run. As fast as you can." Tavi rose and slipped his helmet back on. Then he put a hand on Ehren's shoulder and met his eyes. "If Gaius doesn't at least hear about it, it was all for nothing. Don't let that happen."

Rain plastered the little Cursor's hair to his scalp. Then he bowed his head and nodded. "All right."

Tavi squeezed his shoulder, grateful. At least he'd get one friend out of this mess alive. "Get a move on."

Ehren gave him a weak smile and a sloppy salute, then turned and hurried away.

Max said quietly, from the darkness nearby, "He's right, you know."

Tavi jumped, startled, and glared in the direction of Max's voice. "Crows, Max. You just scared me out of ten years of life."

Max snorted and said, "Sounds to me like you don't think you'll be using it anyway."