They reached the end of the terrace and began climbing. There were places so steep she had to grab the epaulet stirrups on two of Peregrine and let him hoist her up. They passed the nearest cannon, what was left of it. Johanna had never seen weapons fired except in stories, but the splash of metal and the carbonized flesh could only mean some kind of beam weapon. Running across the hill were similar craters, destruction punched into the already burned land. Johanna leaned against a smooth rounding of rock. "Just pull over this one and we're on the next terrace," Pilgrim's voice came in her ear. "Hurry,
复件 (88) air max, I hear shouting." He leaned two of himself down, tilting his epaulets toward her hands. She grabbed them, and jumped. For a moment she and the pack teetered over a four- meter fall, and then she was lying on brownish,
复件 (45) air max1, unburned moss. Pilgrim clustered around her, hiding her. She peeked out between his legs. The outermost walls of Steel's castle were visible from here. Tinish archers stood boldly on the ramparts,
复件 (10) air max2, taking advantage of the chaos among Woodcarver's troops. In fact, the Queen's force had not lost many packs in the air attack, but even the unwounded were milling around. The Queen's soldiers were no cowards -- Johanna knew that by now -- but they had just been confronted by force beyond all defense. Overhead the smoke faded into blue. The battlefield ahead of her lay under clear sky. In the years before the High Lab, Johanna and her mother had often gone on nature trips over Bigby Marsh at Straum. With the sensors on their camper packs they'd had no trouble watching the skyggwings there: even if this flier's automation was not specifically looking for a human on the ground, it should notice her. "Do you see anything?" The four adult heads angled back and forth in coordinated pairs. "No. The flier must be very far away or behind the smoke." Nuts. Johanna came off her knees, trotted toward the castle walls. They must be watching there! "Woodcarver's not going to like this." Two of the Queen's soldiers were already running toward them, attracted by their purposeful movement or the sight of Johanna. Pilgrim waved them back. Alone on an open field less than two hundred meters from the castle wall. Even with normal vision, how could they be overlooked? In fact, they were noticed: There was a soft hissing,
Mbt Bia Shoes, and a meter-long arrow thunked into the turf on their left. Scarbutt grabbed her shoulder, pulling her to a crouch. The puppies shifted his shields into position: Pilgrim made a barricade of himself on the castle side and started back out of range. Back into the smoke. "No! Run parallel,
复件 (38) air max1! I want to be seen." "Okay,
复件 (2) 复件 air max2, okay." Soft sounds of death whispered down. Johanna kept one hand on his shoulder as they ran across the field. She felt Scarbutt falter. The arrow had caught him in the thick of his shoulder, centimeters from a tympanum. "I'm okay! Stay down, stay down." The front line of Woodcarver's force was rallying toward them now, a dozen packs racing across the terrace. Pilgrim bounced up and down, shouting with a voice that punched like physical force. Something about staying back, and danger from the sky. It didn't stop their advance. "They want you away from the arrows." And suddenly they noticed that the fire from the castle had stopped. Pilgrim scanned the sky, "It's back! Coming from the east, maybe a kilometer out." She looked in the direction he was pointing. It was a lumpy thing, p