The sergeant looked at her, and she looked at him. He scrambled for the fallen man, pressed his own head down over the other man's head. For a moment no arrows struck the stone; only the wind wept among the ruins.

He flung back his head. "My lady! Lady Bertha! I fear these points are poisoned. Any scrape, any strike, will kill us. Ai, God have mercy!"

An arrow clacked against the wall.

"I'm hit," said Jerome, from among the horses.

Every person startled, as if his words were a blow. For the longest time, no one moved or spoke as from the night came no fresh shower of arrows. Even the scrape of Heriburg's knife ceased. Rain clattered in the trees.

Or was that rain? Pebbles shaken in a gourd might make such a sound. Whining, the dogs slunk under the wagons.

A man's scream rose out of the night. No one moved. They were all afraid of exposing themselves to an arrow's poisoned barb. The cry cut off. The rainlike sound ceased.

"That was Wilhelm," said the sergeant. "At the first wall, twenty paces out."

The men stared into darkness. They were nothing but silhouettes, barely visible. Spears and swords and bows had no more substance than branches. When the next flight of arrows poured in, anyone might be scratched, and die.

Hanna stood. "Under the wagons. Under shields. Under canvas, any cover at all. Cover your faces. No matter what you hear, don't look. Be blind."

"We can't fight if we're blind and hiding!" said the sergeant.

The enemy didn't have their range quite right. Half the next volley snapped on stone and a dozen arrows skittered along the canvas awning, but one buried its point into the dirt an arm's length from the sergeant and another skipped across Lady Bertha, but surely her mail had protected her.

"Ai, God!" cried the sergeant. "Are you hit, my lady?"

Bertha's face was pale, but Hanna could not tell if the arrow had drawn blood. She did not answer.

Above, another soldier shrieked. "Ai! Ai! I'm hit!"

Two dropped out of the wall. "Peter's touched! We're like trapped ducks there, strung up for market day!"

"It burns!" screamed Jerome, and Ruoda began sobbing and wailing, "No, no, Jerome! God! I pray you! Spare him!"

"Down!" cried Hanna, and Bertha answered her.

"Down! All of you! Take cover! Cover your faces! Do as the Eagle says!"

Hanna ran to the cart, not waiting to see if they obeyed her, although she heard them scrambling. The shaking rain began again.

They are advancing.

She pulled open the door and shoved past Brother Breschius, who was poised a hand's breadth from the threshold. Out of the darkness, cries rose from inhuman throats, but their battle cry was a name she recognized:

"Sanglant! Sanglant!"

"Sorgatani! We're lost if you do not come now! We have no defense against their weapons. I pray you! I do not know what enemies these are—"

"I know who they are."