As he stood shoulder to shoulder with Ozru and tried to puzzle out what it meant the sound of horns filled the air. The breeze carried with it the scent of burning wood and flesh, and the rooftops glowed a dusky orange like the sun was on the rise. Why would the King set the signal flags alight? What did it mean? Maybe it was a special order to fire Dale? Although if that was the case then the order was late, because the city was already aflame. Uzresh blinked, unable to believe his eyes, as he watched the red and yellow tongues of flame leap high into the dark sky. Out beyond the city walls, high above them on the spur of the mountain - and exactly where Azog had set up his command post - fire raged. Wordlessly, Ozru tapped his shoulder and pointed. But the men and elves needed subdued here too. Although, if the inner city was where the fighting was thickest, then that was probably where they should be. The light seemed to originate from somewhere closer to the inner walls this time. One swooped too close and Uzresh swatted it away from them with the flat of his scimitar as Ozru cursed beside him. Another flash of light lit up the bats that wheeled above their heads.
Only the clash of metal against metal, and the screams of the injured and dying that drifted from nearby houses and the warren of alleyways surrounding them. “What?” Urzesh looked up and down the wide street and listened hard. Ozru beckoned to him urgently from the end of the alleyway as Uzresh jogged to meet him. As the flimsy, wooden door slammed shut, Uzresh snorted at the sword abandoned on the stones.
The man scuttled backward and flung himself into one of the narrow houses. But it was hard to tell in this mannish place of overhanging walls, and streets barely the width of his shoulders, and his second-in-command sounded frantic. The grey wizard’s light didn’t seem near enough to be a concern. The feeble blow slid harmlessly off Uzresh’s shield and he kicked the man backward. A bright flash of white light lit up the narrow alleyway as the man struck out blindly with a sword he didn’t know how to use. Distracted by Ozru’s shout, Uzresh’s scimitar sparked off the wall and missed the man by a whisker.
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