The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way by Harry Connolly

couldn’t have moved more suddenly if they’d been pulled by ropes. Their voices were angry, but their palms were open and their body posture leaning back. They were more surprised than anything else, but that might change quickly.  
    “Hear me!” the magistrate called. He had to shout it several times before the room became quiet enough for him to speak. “This court has passed judgement. If any man, woman, or child does harm to the accused, they and their families will dangle from the western cliff! Extra-judicial violence will not be tolerated.”  
    The uproar returned, but this time, several of the serious-looking people by the benches shook their fists. Tejohn stared up at the magistrate. The man’s eyes bulged as he shouted, as did the veins in his neck.  
    A high-pitched scream cut through the din. Forgetting for a moment the consequences of turning around, Tejohn spun toward the great hall entrance. Luckily, the crooked-backed old man did not lash him, because he turned toward the sound, too.  
    There was another scream, then a third overlapping one. Those weren’t sounds of outrage; they were screams of terror. The big double doors to the hall stood wide open, and everyone near them had turned their attention toward the courtyard.  
    Tejohn craned his neck to see what was going on outside. It wasn’t very far from the door of the holdfast to the wall, but all he could see from this angle was a barracks on the far side of the yard. A dozen soldiers came into view, charging toward the wall as they screamed, but even from this angle, Tejohn could see they couldn’t hold a decent line.  
    A boy of about fourteen leaped into doorway and shouted, “The gate has been breached! We are under--”
    A flash of pale purple passed in front of the doorway. The boy vanished as though by magic.  
    Fire and Fury, there was a grunt inside Twofin lands.  
    “Commander Snowfall!” the magistrate called. Snowfall stood gaping at the empty doorway, seemingly deaf to the screams around him. “ Remly !” The cadaverous man turned his attention toward the man. “You are high commander now! You must rally our spears!”  
    Remly’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as though he was trying to swallow but his mouth was bone dry. “Spears,” he said, his voice hoarse, “on me.” He started toward the doors, but with less urgency than duty and honor would suggest.  
    He’d left no one behind to guard “the accused.” Tejohn shuffled after them, doing his best to avoid being knocked over in the milling crowd. Someone should have ordered the citizens to make way for the spears, but it wasn’t Tejohn’s place to do it.  
    Citizens in the courtyard surged into the building, making it impossible for the soldiers to advance. Tejohn should have followed them back into the building. This was his chance to find a knife or something to cut his bonds, then raid the kitchens and set out for the northern gates, Tempest Pass, and the spell he had sworn to find for Lar Italga.  
    But that wasn’t what he was doing. Instead, he bent his knees and pushed forward, bracing himself as well as he could with his narrow stance. Then the crowds passed him and he was alone, stutter-stepping after the soldiers.  
    “Form up in front of the hall,” Commander Snowfall said. The spears who had been guarding Tejohn shuffled down the steps and formed a ragged line.  
    Out in the middle of the courtyard, the grunt hunched low over a bloody wreck. Fire and Fury, but the creature was big. It had dragged the corpse of the boy into the open and was now feasting on him in full view of the yard. Tejohn was glad the creature’s back was to him.  
    To the right, soldiers milled uncertainly near the broken gate. They held the longest spears Tejohn had ever seen. They were absurdly long.   Atop the wall, several archers were still stringing their bows, while others awaited an order to shoot.  
    To the left, more spears stood at the ready to