One vordknight streaked toward the tower where Ehren and the First Lord stood, only to be struck by half a dozen arrows loosed from the bows of the Knights Flora of the Crown Guard positioned on the neighboring towers. It dropped instantly, smashing into the battlements with a brittle, crackling sound, one of its wings still buzzing uselessly as it fell toward the courtyard fifty feet below.
The cold wind from the north grew colder yet, and Ehren shivered, his cloak suddenly inadequate against it. He turned to look over his shoulder, to the north, and saw the stars change from sharp, clear pinpoints of light to murky, blurry spots of silver in the night sky.
Gaius nodded once, and said, "Let's begin, then, shall we?" He turned his palms to the sky and lifted them in a single, sharp gesture.
The low-lying fog that had formed on the ground, somehow untouched by the wind, suddenly leapt skyward. It boiled up over the walls of Ceres and swallowed the tower in a sudden rush of warmer air. The fog passed them, and Ehren saw it lifting away into the sky like some enormous blanket.
Gaius sighed and lowered his arms, his shoulders slumping wearily. "Let's see if this works."
Ehren swallowed. "Sire? You don't think it's going to work?"
"The theory is sound. But we've no way of being sure, have we?"
"Ah," the young Cursor said. "What will we do if it doesn't?"
Gaius arched an eyebrow and said, calmly, "I expect we will die, Sir Ehren. Don't you?"
Thunder rumbled through the greyness overhead.
Ehren shivered, but before he had time to respond, he felt the first ice-cold raindrops begin to fall. They came one by one at first, then began to fall more and more thickly. He walked over to stand beside Gaius, who stared out at a battlefield that had been almost entirely occluded by rain. The burning sword of High Lord Aquitaine was leaving a plume of steam behind it, even as the Aleran fliers began to turn back toward the city, losing altitude as they came.
"You knew Rhodes was going to be killed when you sent him out there," Ehren said quietly.
"Did I?" Gaius asked.
"And when this is over, Aquitaine is going to look like the man who created an orderly retreat out of a rout."
"Not to quibble," Gaius murmured, "but Lord Aquitaine is the man who created an orderly retreat out of a rout." He shook his head. "I'll give Attis this; he always understood that the strength of a High Lord-or a First Lord, for that matter-is in the hearts and minds of those who support him."
"The sword," Ehren said. "He's using it to hold a firecrafting together. He's giving them courage."
"Mmmm," Gaius agreed. "Rhodes was powerful, in a personal sense, but he never saw any further than the ends of his own fingertips. No different than Lord Kalarus, really, except that Rhodes was more intelligent and had more dangerous neighbors."
"Far more dangerous," Ehren said. "So much so that Rhodes's life was the price of said neighbor's allegiance."
The First Lord smiled, a wintry expression that meant nothing. "The Citizenry has been blind to the threat the Vord represent, certain they would be easily overcome. That arrogance was as dangerous to us as the Vord. After tonight, it will no longer be an issue." He glanced up at the rumbling sky, where the rain continued to fall more and more thickly, and added, his tone wryly amused, "One way or another."
Then he staggered and fell to one knee.
"Sire!" Ehren said, starting forward.
The First Lord coughed, the sound horrible and hollow, over and over, each one wracking his entire body with clenching motion.
Ehren knelt beside the old man, supporting his weight when Gaius's balance failed again.
After a moment, the fit of coughing passed. The First Lord shuddered and leaned wearily against the young Cursor, his head bowed. His lips looked blue, to Ehren, his face pallid and grey.
"Sire?" Ehren asked quietly.
Gaius shook his head and spoke in a rasp. "Help me up. They mustn't see."
Ehren blinked at the First Lord for a heartbeat, then slipped one of Gaius's arms over his shoulders and rose, helping the older man to his feet.
Gaius leaned against the battlements for a moment, his hands spread across the cold, wet stone. Then he drew in a deep breath and straightened, his features composed, as the Aleran forces returned to Ceres.
Aquitaine's sword burned more and more clearly, until he and the men he had gathered around him, some two hundred or so Citizens and Knights Aeris, sailed over the walls of the city and down into the streets beyond, heading for the rally points where the Legions had already planned to gather before withdrawing. The cavalry was not far behind them, their exhausted horses running hard as they streamed back toward the city.
Aquitaine himself, instead of accompanying his men, soared up to the tower, cutting his windstream with masterful timing, landing like a man who had decided to hop over the last step in a stairway. He nodded once to Ehren, transferred his sword to his left hand, and saluted Gaius, putting his fist to his heart.
Though the fire of Aquitaine's sword was out, the metal still glowed and hissed with every raindrop. His armor, elaborate, beautifully made lorica, was crusted with a thin sheath of ice across the shoulders and upon the bracers that covered his forearms.
"It's working," Aquitaine said shortly. "Their wings can't handle the ice."
"Naturally," the First Lord replied calmly. "We'll fall back to Uvarton, cutting the causeway every mile as we go."
Aquitaine frowned and turned to stare back out toward the south. "Their greatest advantage is their mobility, their flight. We should move forward with every legionare, now, and take them head-on."
"Their greatest advantage is the ability of the Vord queen to coordinate their movements," Gaius countered. "If we march our men out there into the dark and the storm, it will be a hopeless mess. The Vord will have no such disadvantage. We retreat. More of our reinforcements will meet us every day."
"As will theirs," Aquitaine said. "We should hit them now, hard, try to thin them out."
"If need be, I'll ground them again, Your Grace." Gaius's eyes hardened. "We retreat."
Aquitaine frowned steadily at Gaius for a long moment. Then he said, "This is the wrong move."
"Were I a young man," Gaius said, "I would think so as well. If you would be so kind, please notify the other High Lords. Sir Ehren, please take word to the Crown Legion and to the First and Third Imperian."
Ehren and Aquitaine both saluted the First Lord. Aquitaine simply stepped up onto the battlements and dropped off the tower. The roar of his windstream came up to them a beat later. Ehren turned toward the door, but paused, looking back at the First Lord.