Nordic voices shook the air with their roar, and the guard at the northern gate scrambled to his feet. A shield clanged as the bandit rapped a club against its iron surface, sounding an alarm. Our charge continued, unheeded. Hrollod drew a horn from his belt and blew a loud, trumpeting note that rang brazen and clear. One of the Thalmor, an archer, shot down the guard as the company broke upon the barricade in a wave of blazing fury and steel. Derkeethus and I thundered after them, Nael gathering her strength and leaping neatly over the row of wooden pikes.
Harsh cries howled over the din of clashing weapons. Our mage summoned an enormous figure of glacial ice that hammered the ground in a ruthless display of strength. Bandits scattered before its cold dominance. To my left, an Imperial tangled with one of the opposing mages, who slowed his joints with a heavy rime of ice. I knocked an arrow to shoot the bandit, but noticed another charging the soldier's back with his sword held high.
"Look out!" I called, swinging my aim and firing. To my dismay, I over-corrected and the arrow flew wide. The steel tip of the bandit's blade thrust through the Imperial's chest, and before my eyes lay the first casualty of the battle.
The two remaining bandits turned on me as Nael reared and I took that moment to disarm the one with the sword. But my bones chilled and my horse screamed as a blast of cold crystallized our flesh. I couldn't work my fingers around the bowstring, and the arrow I had readied fell to the ground. With a hacking cough, Nael trotted away into the thick of the battle. Behind me, I heard Derkeethus' pickaxe meet the mage's head. The fury in my blood tided over into Derk's body, giving him the strength to tear the woman's swarthy head from her shoulders. I saw it go sailing into a group of bandits that had organized near the main entryway.
"Tormir!" I called, looking for the Nord woman. "Tormir!" I didn't see her anywhere, though I spotted some archers on the walls watching something in the larger courtyard. About us the Altmer gathered, and, wielding conjured weapons, converged on the bandits approaching us. Fumbling, I drew my sword and slashed at those within reach. Our opposition blasted ice and held wards, while the Thalmor lit the arena with blazing flames.
Henny, we have to get out of the crossfire! Derk shouted in my head, the thought almost buried in a roiling sea of bloodlust. For several moments, I ignored him, slicing viciously at my surrounding foes, heedless of my allies.
"Ai! Watch it, Bosmer!" one of the Altmer shouted as my blade sang close to his ear. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, and I pushed Nael into the skirmish. She kicked and bit at everything around us, blood streaming from small slashes in her flanks. As I made a wild swing at a surly Nord covered in rotting furs, my arms went numb and I guided my horse, or was forced to, towards the barricaded entry where several foes surrounded Legate Hrollod. The pressure from my friend's presence in my mind was disconcerting, and my vision doubled and shifted as two perspectives from two pairs of eyes converged in my head.
"Gwaihen," panted the legate, parrying a blow that would have cleaved his skull. "Head to the prison! She's gone inside!"
A blow from a club forced him to his knees. I tried to distract the bandits attacking him, but my arms remained frozen. Uttering a yowl of frustration, I broke the Argonian's hold on me and his power was drawn into me. My voice shook my teeth as my breath was shoved out into the air. The bandits were staggered, and one stumbled backwards onto his back. Somewhere in the courtyard beyond, another battle between mages and warriors waged.
"What are you waiting for? The tower on the right! Go!" roared Hrollod as he gained a second wind and drove his opponents back towards the inn.
The archers on the walls continued to pick off our forces in ones and twos. I watched soldiers rip arrows from their limbs in order to keep fighting unhindered. Looking up, I spotted a woman, hardly old enough to properly wield the longbow she sported. Her eyes were wide with terror, but all I saw was the arrow she intended to shoot at me. I screamed something inarticulate in Bosmeri at her, drawing my own arrow faster than she could register the motion. She fell a moment later, the glowing white of the bone shaft protruding from her chest. Wildly, I shot the archers on the walls, uncaring of whether they had a life beyond this fort. If they had families. I plucked them all down like gourds off a fence during target practice.
"Henny! Focus on the objective! We have to find Hrefna!" Derkeethus shouted near my ear, trying to pull my arms away. His will pushed against my own, but I could neither control nor stop the desire to destroy everything in my path anymore.
"How dare they wield a bow!" I howled in Bosmeri, some greater force taking over my psyche, enraging me and strengthening me. It undulated and coiled in my gut, turning my body into a writhing shape of burning hunger and rage. It wanted to see more blood spilled.
At last, a frigid grip seized me and I was forced through the entryway on my horse. The torch in my hand sputtered, dripping flaming bits of fat into the snow. Release me! my mind shrieked, struggling against the mental vice.
No. We have a job to do, and I won't let you throw away all of our progress, came the chilling thought of Derkeethus. I'm sorry, Henny. But we need to focus. There was a feeling like a caress upon my soul, a gentling of that cold grasp as it relaxed. Nael galloped into the courtyard where lightning flashed in a blinding array of bolts and sparks. The Thalmor soldier that charged with us--the one from the marshes--drew her weapon and grounded the charges, though her body shook from the magicka surging through her nervous system.
"Get into the tower! I can't believe I'm saving your imbecilic hide!" she growled, gritting her teeth against the onslaught. An Imperial soldier joined her, fending off encroaching forces with expertly wielded sweeps of his sword. Derkeethus kept his grip tight, though I continued to struggle. My efforts became more frenzied when I saw the bowman defending the steps to the prison. The arrow he held in place was pointed right at us. The Argonian only interpreted my struggles as attempt to escape him, and placating sounds entered my brain in response.
The bowman released the arrow. With my senses strung out, I heard the fletchings whistle as air passed through each feather's fiber. I heard when the arrowhead snapped as it entered my companion's hide, lodging in the chest cavity with a sickening squelch.
Nael screamed shrilly, and with an unsteady wobble, she collapsed on her side, trapping me underneath her. Her breathing was a rapid gurgle as her chest heaved until, after several moments, she grew still.
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