"What sort of intelligence do we have on the Horde?" asked Johnny Chee.
Richard Wallace looked up from his charts and answered, "Lieutenant Benton led a team behind their lines, but we haven't heard from them since early this morning. If I could spare a man I'd send a runner.
"Do we have anyone who can coordinate things here?" Johnny asked.
"Certainly! Kylar here's pretty sharp," Wallace said, indicating the Borial officer.
"Great! Get someone in charge, and grab your gear. Let's go meet Benton and see what we can do to the Horde!" Johnny exclaimed.
Benton looked at Sitto and Francesca. The three of them were crouched in their little hideout behind the Horde lines. They had just decided to attack the enemy siege towers.
Benton quietly sprang out of the ditch and the others followed suit. Trying to maintain the element of surprise as long as they could, they sprinted for the nearest Horde tower. It was near the base of the cliffs at the southern end of the city near the main gates.
Benton could see it more clearly now. It was a massive wood and steel construction, towering an impossible 150 in the air. An intricate network of scaffolding led from its wheeled base to the small platform at the pinnacle. For a moment, Benton wondered how such a colossal structure could be wheeled about, then guessed it was probably done with the sweat of hundreds of Aody slaves.
At the top of the war machine was a large trebuchet-like contraption, and Benton could see plumes of smoke wafting upward. He decided he definitely didn't like the look of that. Smoke meant fire, and fire meant the Horde had something unpleasant planned. Several Horde engineers could be seen working on and around the trebuchet, turning and aligning it so that it pointed into the city.
Dozens of Horde warriors milled at the base of the siege tower. Just then a loud snap and twang sound came from the top of the tower. Benton looked upward in time to see a black cylindrical object lofting through the sky to land somewhere behind the city walls. An orange fireball mushroomed upward, and a muffled explosion boomed in his ears.
"They've rediscovered gunpowder!" exclaimed Benton, horrified at the implications. Noran doesn't stand a chance against an attack like that!
That settled it. The towers must be destroyed! A plan was forming in his head.
Suddenly, a huge shadow loomed behind Benton. He spun, but it was only Thudd.
Benton waved Thudd forward toward the tower along with the rest of his team. He, Sitto and Francesca had been steadily advancing all this time. Thudd acknowledged the direction with a nod of his mighty head and an eager grin.
Finally, a few of the Horde warriors surrounding the base of the siege tower noticed their approach. They gave up a fearsome war-whoop that sounded not so much like intelligent beings but rather like a pack of ravenous hyenas. They clashed their weapons and charged their attackers. The battle was joined!
Thudd was the first to reach the Horde warriors. He whirled and swung his mighty idej with such speed and deadly accuracy that no Horde could approach him. He was soon completely surrounded and swamped by
Horde warriors and was lost to sight.
Benton and Sitto took up positions back to back and engaged the Horde in that fashion. They protected each other's blind side and dished out bladed death in a broad swath before them. Meanwhile Francesca, who had taken Benton's supply of crossbow bolts, darted around the periphery of the battle picking off Horde who were coming too close to breaking through the men's line of defense. The bodies were piling up quickly, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep their footing on the slippery, blood soaked ground.
In this way, the three Virgos fought their way toward the siege tower. At regular intervals, Benton could hear the snap and twang from above, and resulting explosion from the direction of the city. As they approached, Benton risked taking quick glances around. He was looking for something in particular, and there it was!
"Sitto! Cover me!"
Benton sprinted the rest of the short distance to the base of the tower. There were no Horde directly in front of him. Behind him, Sitto shifted his stance to protect Benton.
As Sitto and Francesca fought desperately to keep the Horde from Benton, Benton climbed up onto the lowest level of the tower, about four feet off the ground. It was the storage area for those black bombs. There were hundreds of them here! It he could set one off, it would blow up all the rest in a massive chain reaction that would take out the tower, and hopefully suggest a course of action to the beleaguered Borials and Virgos inside Noran.
Benton pried open the top of on other canisters and dumped the contents onto the wooden deck. Then he scooped up a double handful of the black powder and sprinkled a trail away from the pile he had spilled.
It was his intention to lead the trail as far as he could, then light it with the spark from a rock off the edge of his idej. But before he could hop off the storage deck, a huge shadow loomed up behind him. Benton turned, expecting to see Thudd again, but found himself instead face to face with an infuriated Horde warrior.
Too late, Sitto shouted, "Look out!"
Benton threw the remaining gunpowder into the Horde's face at the same time the Horde swung his idej. The blow went wide, striking instead the metal lid of the spilled powder keg. A spark flew off and landed on the powder trail, igniting it. This fuse was a lot shorter than Benton had intended.
Benton and the Horde looked at each other in wide-eyed shock, and then both dove off the deck, all thoughts of killing preempted by their sudden desire to get as far away as possible from the imminent explosion. They didn't get far.
When the Horde bombs exploded, the shockwave picked Benton off his feet and sent him cartwheeling ahead of it. The sound of the explosion slammed into his eardrums with such force that his head threatened to explode from the reverberation.
The last thing Benton remembered was the ground rushing up to meet him far too quickly.