The Storm's Own Son (Book 2) by Anthony Gillis Read Free Book Online Page B

followed down their own towers.
    The next level had another sturdy door. Warm, almost hot air filtered up through the small gap at its base. Talaos readied, kicked the door open, and drew back as the arrows came. He then went leaping high, his back almost scraping along the thick beams of the ceiling, and over the next volley of arrows. As he flew, he saw a mixed body of soldiers on either side of the door, and archers beyond.  He landed in the midst of the bowmen with scything blades.
    The men on either side of the door, waiting to ambush, had glanced up as Talaos flew past. Next through the door was Firio, low and unseen on the ground. He darted right and cut a soldier's tendons, then leaped away as others turned to attack him with swords and axes.
    Next through the door was Vulkas, who moved his mattock into motion even as he did. He spun left and brought the mattock like a hammer against the anvil of the wall on the left. The closest enemy had the misfortune of being in between. Then more men poured through, and bloody fighting began all round.
    Talaos stood in the center of the slaughtered archers. He surveyed the floor, his battlefield, before him. There were small openings above and below at the front and back, where the huge chains of the gates ran.  On the floor in the center of the room, there was a rectangular grid of much larger openings: square hatches with iron grates.
    On either side of that grid was an area where sturdy beams crossed the floor, with metal mountings for pots of boiling water or oil. At the back of the room was an area of brick flooring and brick furnaces to boil the water, with chimneys out. Men had been working the fires, and with protective clothing, carried pots by means of iron rods to the mountings, where boiling water would be poured on unfortunate invaders below.
    However, with the arrival of Talaos and his men, all work had stopped.  The two doors on the far side looked to have been braced with spare iron rods and stopped with heavy iron pots. There was banging as Talaos's men tried to smash through the doors. More enemy soldiers, ready for the ambush, stood watch on that side. A pair of officers near the center were shouting orders.
    Then, as Talaos watched, his men poured past him and into the enemy. As they advanced, slaying, they hurled some of the defenders over their own iron gratings. Blood dripped through to the gate causeway below. The other doors smashed open at last. The remaining Madmen and their soldiers poured through, and it was soon over.
    A great grinding noise filled the chamber as both gates began to open.  This floor had arrow slits as well. Talaos walked to one of them as the rest of his men poured down the stairs and gathered, awaiting his command. He took a look.
    Down below, outside the walls, was a scene of combat, as ladders raised and men fought. The wind still roared and the rain came down in sheets. In that, arrows were useless, and all would be decided steel to steel. He listened to the creaking of the gate mechanism and looked to the field before those gates, where Kurvan waited with a thousand men.
    The gates seem to have opened far enough, for Kurvan bellowed, audible even in the storm, and his men roared with him. Then howling madly, Kurvan charged with a colossal axe in his hands and his thousand men at his back.
    Talaos turned to his own men.
    He spoke in a deep voice that echoed like distant thunder, "Men, there will be archers in a room on each side of that causeway on the floor below. We'll clear them, then we'll help Kurvan at the gate. After that, we're going to the center of Avrosa, where that fire was burning. You will follow me and go nowhere else unless I order it. You will slay anyone under arms who opposes us, and you will slay any I order you to, without question, but no one else!"
    There were looks of surprise from among the grim volunteers.
    "I command it!" roared Talaos, voice like a thunderclap.
    "We obey!" came the shouted