If the dam had remained so precarious, the loggers would have had a shot, but it was clear even in the gathering gloom that both the logs and the water were working with the Urghul. More trunks piled up, stacking closer and closer together, until the horsemen were crossing in groups of three and four, sometimes keeping their saddles until the far bank. Valyn shifted the long lens to Annick. Her right arm was a blur as she aimed and shot, aimed and shot, too fast for Valyn himself to spot the relevant targets. Her face was turned away from him, but he could imagine her blue eyes gone gray as slate in the twilight, the hard set of her jaw. The mud flats gave her and her archers time, but the Urghul had numbers to spare and more. With the dam firming up, even Annick couldn’t hold them forever.

“Where in ’Shael’s sweet name is Gwenna off to?” Laith muttered.

Valyn turned to find her darting north between the houses, away from the fight. Didn’t seem like Gwenna to run away.

“Getting more archers, maybe,” Talal said.

“What archers?” Valyn asked, shaking his head. “Everyone who can hold a bow is already on that barricade.”

“We’ve got to go down,” Laith said.

Valyn shook his head. “And do what? You don’t even have a bow.”

“I’ve got a pair of swords,” Laith spat. “I’ve got my fucking fists.”

“Your fists aren’t going to turn that tide,” Valyn growled. “Gwenna has her mission, and we have ours.”

“They need to fall back,” Talal murmured. “They’ve lost the far channel. They need to fall back to the western island and blow the central bridges.”

Valyn turned back to the battle. At a glance, it wasn’t obvious that the leach was right. Just a handful of riders had actually reached the barricade, and those were dispatched quickly enough by arrows and axes. As Valyn watched, Pyrre stepped from nowhere onto the highest log of the barrier, swung onto a horse behind the rider like a young woman going for a gallop with her gallant, hugging him close around the chest. Valyn caught a glimpse of steel in the starlight, and the man crumpled forward, then off, tumbling to the ground. Pyrre shrugged into better position on the horse’s back, then kicked the mount north along the far side of the barricade, alone among the mass of Urghul. She charged directly into two more riders, leapt free as the horses went down in a tangle of thrashing limbs and hooves, landed atop the piled logs, then dropped down once more to cut the throats of the struggling Urghul.