Aingeal turned toward the gate.
Mael Ruadh moved for her.
Reginald was between them before the man had taken two strides. Their blades met with a sound that rang through the hall.
“Go,” Reginald said.
Aingeal hated that he was right but ran.
Outside, the trap had sprung.
Smoke rose from the east. Not fire this time, but damp straw lit for signal. Men shouted near the marsh road. Seamus had struck from concealment, but Mael Ruadh’s second force was larger than they had guessed. Too many horses. Too many men flooding from the reeds in a wedge meant to drive for the gate.
Aingeal took the stair to the wall at a run. “Tomas!”
He was already below, sending boys to the inner shutters and ordering women with knives and poles toward the passage that led to the stores. He looked up once, face pale but steady.
“Close the inner gate!” Aingeal shouted.
“If we close it, Seamus is outside.”
“If we leave it open, everyone inside dies.”
He swallowed the cost.
“Close it!” she commanded.
The inner gate began to move.
From the wall, Aingeal saw Seamus fighting in the marsh road, cut off but not broken. His men had taken the first charge and bent under it without collapsing. Cormac had pushed from the yard with the reserve and now drove toward the gatehouse, shouting for archers to clear the left flank.
And Reginald was still in the hall with Mael Ruadh.
For one heartbeat, Aingeal nearly turned back.
Then a raider came over the outer wall by a ladder leaning near the eastern tower, and the world narrowed. She snatched a spear from a shaking boy and drove it forward with both hands.
The man fell back off the ladder before gaining the wall.
The boy stared at her.
“Again,” she snapped.
He seized another spear and followed her example.
Below, Mael Ruadh’s men rammed the half-closed inner gate with a stolen cart. Wood screamed. Men shouted. Tomas stood too close, pointing to the brace beam as if anger might make it move faster.
Aingeal saw one raider break through the side post and swing for him. “Tomas!” she shouted.
Reginald appeared from the hall arch then, blade red. Beneath the torn edge of his tunic, a strip of his deep red showed at his shoulder.
Mael Ruadh was not with him.
Reginald saw Tomas and raced to him. He struck the raider aside before the blow landed and shoved Tomas hard enough to send him sprawling out of danger.
The cart slammed again.
The brace beam cracked.
