amara 's temper flashed , and she faced pirellus , ready to bring the man to task bernard stood up , as though to get between them down the wall , one of the brass horns sounded a call to arms , a clarion note that clove through the cold furyht air and brought the veteran troops on the wall to their feet , shields and weapons ready , before its notes had died away `` sir , '' snapped giraldi , from the wall over the gates `` they 're coming again `` pirellus turned his back on amara and leapt up to his position over the gate out at the edge of the light , the marat appeared again , rushing forward m a howling mob-but this time , their screams were punctuated not by the howling of the great , dark wolves , but by the metallic , whistling shrieks of the giant predator birds that raced beside them as the pale tide charged toward the walls `` archers , '' pirellus called again , and once more , in three humming , whistling waves , marat dropped to the ground , the life driven from them by aleran shafts `` spears '' pirellus called , and once again , the legions squared up to face the marat but that was where the similarity to the charge of clan wolf ended there were no scaling poles this time , no ram to assault the gates instead , the first rank of the marat , howling their defiance , simply hurled itself at the walls and , running at a furious pace , leapt up to the top if amara had not seen it happen , she would never have believed it possible-but the marat , without aid of any kind , simply hurtled into the air , grasped at the top of the fifteen-foot wall with one hand , and hauled themselves up to fight the great birds stalking beside them leapt up , too , even higher , furiously beating at the air with their stubby wings and holding themselves aloft just long enough to rake at the defenders atop the walls with their vicious talons , driving aleran men back long enough for the young herdbane warriors to haul themselves onto the battlements and throw themselves forward into battle with a fearless , even mindless abandon amara stared in startled horror as a marat hauled himself onto the wall not ten feet from her , and his great bird landed beside him with a scream , its beak slashing wildly at an upraised shield the marat lifted his knife and leapt at her , shrieking , while behind him another scrambled atop the wall in his place amara tried to dodge to one side , only to realize that there was nothing but the empty air of the courtyard beneath her .