The Crippled God

screamed, and those cries were so raw with terror that Sharl felt buffeted, battered by this instant of utter, horrifying vulnerability—
    Mother, weaving, stumbling down the road. Her clothes reeking, her breaths a wet rattle .
    The Shake cannot run from themselves .
    ‘Sharl!’
    She lifted the pike at the last moment. The warrior had not even noticed the weapon, or its deadly length. Even as he lifted his spear, the broad iron head took him just beneath his sternum.
    The impact rocked her back, thundered through her bones.
    The surprise in his face made her want to weep, so childlike, so helpless.
    His sagging weight pulled the pike down. She tore it free, her breaths coming so fast the world was spinning. He didn’t see it. How could he not have seen it?
    All at once there was fighting along the line, spreading out from the centre. The Liosan were trying to push them back. Their fury deafened her. They fought like rabid dogs. She stabbed out again and again with the pike. The point scored off shields, was batted aside by bronze-sheathed shafts. Liosan ducked past it, only to be met by the hacking swords of her brothers.
    Piss drenched the inside of her left thigh – shame, oh, shame!
    They yielded a step – the entire line – as if by command. But she heard nothing beyond the roar engulfing her, the clash of weapons, the grunts and gasps. This was a tide, driving them back, and like the sand beneath them the Shake were crumbling.
    The pike’s long shaft was slick with blood. The point was wrapped in gore.
    The muscles of her forearms and shoulders burning, she raised the weapon once more, saw a face, and stabbed into it. Edge grating past teeth, biting into the back of a mouth, the flaring flanges slicing through cheeks. Blood poured from the Liosan’s nose, misted up into his eyes. He snapped his head back, choking, dropping his weapons as he fell to his knees. His hands went to his shattered mouth, seeking to hold in place the dangling lower jaw, the flaps of tongue.
    Casel lunged low and pushed his sword’s point into the Liosan’s neck.
    And then her brother was falling. An animal cry came from his throat and he twisted as a Liosan advanced to stand over him, grinding her spear point down through Casel, who writhed like a pinned eel.
    Sharl swung the pike, and she screamed as the point slashed the Liosan just under her chin, opening her windpipe.
    Hands took Casel’s ankles and dragged him back. A stranger came up to take her brother’s place.
    No – not a stranger—
    A marled sword blade swung past her, caught a Liosan closing on her. Sliced through him from shoulder to hip. The backswing sent the top half of a head and helm spinning away. A third swing severed two hands gripping a spear. Three fallen Liosan, opening a gap.
    ‘Follow me,’ Yedan Derryg said, stepping forward.
    And around Sharl and Oruth, the Watch drew up, huge soldiers in heavy armour, blackened shields like an expanding wall, long-bladed swords lashing out.
    As they advanced, they carried Sharl and her brother with them.
    Into the face of the Liosan.
    Pithy reached Brevity. Her face was flushed, slick with sweat, and there was blood on her sword. Gasping, she said, ‘Two companies of Letherii, sister – to relieve the centre of the Shake line. They’ve been savaged.’
    ‘He’s pushing straight for the wound,’ Brevity said. ‘Is that right? That’s Yedan down there, isn’t it? Him and half his Watch – gods, it’s as if the Liosan are melting away.’
    ‘Two companies, Brev! We’re going to split the enemy on this side, but that means we need to push right up to the fuckin’ hole, right? And then hold it for as long as we need to cut ’em all down on the flanks.’
    Licking dry lips, Brevity nodded. ‘I’ll lead them.’
    ‘Yes, I’m relieving ya here, love – I’m ready to drop. So, what’re you waitin’ for? Go!’
    Pithy watched Brev lead a hundred Letherii down to the berm. Her heart was finally slowing its mad jackrabbit dance. Jamming the point of her sword in the sand, she turned to regard the remaining Letherii.
    Nods answered her. They were ready. They’d tasted it and they wanted to taste it again. Yes, I know. It terrifies us. It makes us sick inside. But it’s like painting the world in gold and diamonds .
    From the breach the roar was unceasing, savage as a storm against cliffs.
    Dear ocean, then, call my soul. I would swim the waters again. Let me swim the waters again .

CHAPTER