Chapter 7: The Gate

The Mouth was already ringed with hunters when I got there.

The iron gate hung over the top of the stair on two great chains, ready to drop.

It was taller than three men and older than the guild, black bars as thick as my wrist.

Four guards stood at the winch with their hands on the brake.

Joris was there in his black coat, because he was the Gold on watch.

Sander stood at the front of a knot of Steels with his spear on his shoulder, and the archer stood beside him.

"Who's below?" I shouted.

"Two Iron parties on two," a guard called back. "One's up already."

"Which one?"

Nobody answered me.

Then someone came stumbling up out of the dark, and the hunters pulled him over the top step.

It was the leader of Daan's new party, a red-haired man with a torn sleeve and a face white as paper.

He grabbed the first person he could reach, and it was me.

"It came up from six," he panted. "It went right through two, we never even saw it coming."

"Where's my brother?"

"He stayed in front," the man said. "He held it on the stair with his lance so we could run."

"He's still holding it," he said. "He was right behind me. He was right behind me."

I looked down the stair.

Far below I could hear something, a scraping and a clicking, and a boy's voice shouting at it.

It was coming up.

I turned to the Steels.

"Come down with me," I said. "Four of you, that's all. It's on the stair, it can only come at us one way."