The horns sounded all across the city.

Thain's house became an instant scramble to prepare for the incoming battle. Thain made the first move as he leaned down to me, pressing his lips to mine in a swift and powerful kiss. The shock of it and what it meant numbing my heart to the possibilities that this could be our last before we really even began to be together. In the same breath that he kissed me, he rushed from the room, already dropping his glamour and becoming Thanalan the Ravager for his city once more. 

Schula shoved the rest of her tart in her mouth and ran to the side of the room where she had brought her armor, just in case. Nassir abandoned his tea altogether and ran for the front door. I dashed upstairs to get my own armor, which had thankfully been laid out in my usual rooms. Through the open balcony door, Puko came soaring in and landing on my shoulder.

I still had Thain's tunic on under all my armor, but there wasn't time for anything else. If anything, I now looked more like one of the witches from the valley, but with a polished breastplate. 

Schula had more to put on so it took her longer, but as I was coming back down the stairs she was coming up to get me. We raked our eyes over each other, ensuring no straps were left undone, and wordlessly we made for the door.

In the open streets, the horns howled their cries to battle. Doors and windows closed and shuttered as fae creatures ran out of their homes or shuttered inside them. Those who were answering the calls to battle were a very mixed bunch, but they all seemed to know where they were supposed to be.

Bits of ash sprinkled in amongst the falling autumn leaves were a distraction. Puko snapped at more than one bit of ash that fell close to him, and as enough of it fell it began to taint the small puddles of water still swelled on the cobbled roads from an overnight rain. The furthur we went, the more the small bits of clinging, still water began to darken.

"How could they have gotten here so fast?" I asked.

"An army of the dead doesn't need to sleep," Schula answered. "My guess is that this battle will be mostly the... the risen dead."

"Then the living force may come after," I murmured. "Unless we finish this quickly."

"If I see DuVarick's face in this battle..." Schula let her silent promise trail away as we ran over the last footbridge on our way to the gate. 

'You will not be the only one, little one.' Spaulder's comforting presence washed over us. We paused, looking up at the sky just as a giant black shadow raced across it. His massive wings easily blocking the sun as he passed overhead.

His path easily took him to the front gates, we and many others watched as he settled in and circled lazily above it. 

'I will remain here, watching,' he promised.

I smiled up at him as we continued walking toward the gate, but as I laid eyes on the fae creatures gathered I could tell that his presence made many of them uneasy. Already swallowing the reality of Baeleon's death, they were mustering themselves to defend their city against what must be sudden rumors of a horrid enemy.

I'd be unsettled too, if I hadn't already come face to face with Bara Khalja.

"Where do we go, exactly," I asked Schula. A few eyes had already found us, and the exhausting whispers began.

"Do you see that male over there with the small flag at his belt? That's one of the tower captains. We're to take a spot at each side of the gate, right? Let's go up the towers."

"There are towers?" I gawked, not seeing where Schula was pointing.

"They're hidden, but yes. Here, I'll show you." 

She walked us to the captain, and after a quick conversation I was shown to a nearly seamless wall of the cliff that opened to a ladder and space lantern light. Schula gave me a hug before going to the other tower and leaving me and Puko to the eastern side.

The seldom disturbed space was thick with moisture and dust. I climbed the ladder carefully, Puko's sharp grip digging into my shoulder as he held on. I just prayed he wouldn't startle and scream in my ear as we climed.

At the top of the ladder I found the door and climbed up and out. The tower's top was just as concealed as the entrance, and thanks to some intricately grown plants and trees, I could see out but it was unlikely anyone would notice me up here from below. No wonder I never knew there were towers on either side of the gate, despite having passed through it many times now.

I searched for Schula, but she was just as hidden as I was. The only view I did get was the gates below, and a space out front that was held by Thain and Eberon.

'Spaulder.' I reached out, hoping he could hear me despite the distance between us. I knew he was above, but we had never spoken from any kind of distance before.

'I am here, little one,' he answered. 'Her, allow me to join us.'

'What do you mean join us?' It was Schula's voice coming through, and it startled me for a moment.

'Oh, that's convenient,' I answered.

A speck of ash fell down and landed on my hand. Puko snapped at it.

'Spaulder, what is beyond the gates here? I can't see too far into the forest.' Hopefully his eyes would be at an advantage to Schula and me when it came to knowing what force was out there.

'It burns,' Spaulder answered.

'What burns?' Schula asked.

'I am sorry, little ones. Your forest burns.'

My heart nearly stopped. I strained to see between the branches and leaves, out across the spance before the gates. It was no use, the towers were made to defend the space up close, not scout from afar. 

'And the army?' Schula asked, weakly.

'They come,' Spaulder answered. 'Prepare.'

I looked down over the Autumn forces just inside the gates. The first attack would be at the gates themselves, but if they were pried open then Thain and Eberon would meet them head on. Did they know? Had they seen the fires as Spaulder had?

'Schula, do you think we can relay messages to the ground level?' I wondered.

'I will see to it,' Spaulder said, but said nothing more.

After a moment of silence, I looked back deeper into the city. Should I have brought my spellbook? Lark's spellbook? But then, witchcraft was never as quick as the fire that I could call to my fingertips. At least, none of the magic that I could master while I was in the valley. Though, Purda's healing would probably be a blessing in this battle. Provided I survived it, I swore to resume studying Purda's teachings more often. It was just too useful.

"Incoming!" A roar from below brought me back to the present and I rushed to see outside the gates better.

My heart sank as I saw them. The entire open space between the gates of Thanantholl and the forest beyond was filled with Bara Khalja's risen army. There was even a mix of his plainsmen raiders as well, though they appeared to be dead as well. All of them were rushing at the gate as one horrid force.

My eyes darted to the treeline. I saw them, lighting torches to low hanging branches as they passed. A tear slipped down my cheek and it felt as though ice had a grasp of my heart.

This was all so wrong. Everything Bara Khalja did, everything DuVarick used him to do, felt against the Mother and the Stars, and there was little I could do about it. If only the element I grasped at so easily was water instead of fire, I would be out there fighting off the flames that consumed the blazing Autumn landscape, even as the enemy overtook me. 

'Spaulder, how many are there?' A voice had been pulled into our comfortable space, this time it was Eberon.

'The trees obscure much of the force, but it spans across the distance. A thin, unending trail of these putrid bodies filled with dark magic to move. The one responsible is not near, and neither is the mad king.'

My eyes closed. A seemingly endless chain to beat against our doors. An untiring army. And by the time we could cut through them all, their living force would surely show up, fresh and prepared to fight back.

'What are you waiting for, Wren?' Schula's voice came through, cold and calculating. 'If it's fire they want, let them feel it. Burn them all to ash.'

Another tear slipped down my face and dripped onto my armor. I watched the motion as it splattered on the emblazoned maple leaf.

Rolling up my sleeves, I held both hands in front of me as I targeted the horrid army below. Already they had reached the gates, pounding at them with no distraction, even as magic and arrows alike found their marks in the unholy flesh. 

"For Baeleon," I whispered, and unleashed myself. 

Fire, mixing with an onslaught of icy shards as we rained our fury downward. I knew, somewhere in my head, that I should be conserving what I could for a long battle. But I couldn't stop letting it all out any more than I could stop the flood of tears that dripped freely off my chin. 

Puko had long ago abandoned my shoulder, instead taking to the skies and likey joining Spaulder in his lofty view. 

Below, my elven eyes showed me in fine detail what searing fire and bladed ice did to the Winter army. The bodies moved in unnatural patterns, not caring that we tore the skin and burnt the bones. Not caring when their own bodies were being ripped apart by arrow and magic. As one body fell or dismembered, the ones behind it would move it to the side and take the now empty place at the front of the line. 

The seemingly infinite line.

'They keep coming!' I was in a rage, but I could feel my magic would burn low at this rate unless I slowed down.

'Hold, little ones,' Spaulder said. 

I wanted to ask what he meant. I wanted to reach out, and look, and see him. I barely moved my head to look up when a giant black shadow cast itself over me, over the front gate, and descended over the vast army.

Flying low, he let loose a stream of thick fire that smoldered over a long line of the enemy before swooping back up and resuming his lazy circle over the gates of Thanantholl. 

'Spaulder!' Schula cried out.

'Are you okay?' I asked.

He snorted, a puff of smoke leaving his nose and lifting away into the sky with the rest of the collecting ash. 'I have been in battles since before your ancestors were born, little ones. I am fine.'

'Yes, but that was before you spent mellenia chained in a cave,' Schula prodded. 'Just be safe, please. We're worried about you.'

He let out what sounded like a sigh in our heads, and then he agreed. 'I will. But only because it was you who asked.'

Suddenly, a shaking threw me off my feet. The tower under me shook violently, and I barely caught myself as I fell, only managing to scrape up my palms as the shaking stopped. A huge crack filled the air.

'The gate!' Spaulder called out. 

"Thanantholl, defend!" Eberon's call to arms sounded from below. 

I scrambled back to my feet, grabbing the side of the tower and looking down into the fray of it. 

A set of very big... things, survived Spaulder's line of fire. They were nasty looking constructs of stretched skin and bone. Muscle bunched and strained as they moved. And between them, a snapped bar of the gate.

'What are those things?' Schula asked.

'Nothing good,' Spaulder promised ominously.

Our side pushed the now useless gate open, and poured out in all their fury. Taking the lead was Thain followed closely by Eberon.

The battle for Thanantholl had begun.