Manguino went to his desk and opened a side of it revealing a hidden recess. He took off a couple support bolts, a huge cross bow, similar to those that Boyce and Lloyd possessed. He took it to the window and aimed at Lloyd's eagle as he soared by, and he shot the longest and thickest arrow, right at the bird. The arrow pierced its way right though the bird and it convulsed in mid-air, and began to fall. Lloyd was caught by surprise for a moment but he glided the bird to the road leading up to Halls. He jumped off the great bird before the bird buried itself into the soft earth at the road side and he ran for cover as the guards, station above upon the quadrangle wall, shot down at him. Boyce swooped down from above and wiped out the men from the wall and Zoro cawed in victory, directed at Lloyd. He and Boyce waved back to one another and Lloyd ran to the centre of town, followed by Boyce, above him. By this time the great mass of the people that congregated down in the square were embroiled in the battle. Few were fighting on the side of Halls and the square was quickly secured. Orren sent several of Hint's men, mounted on horses, to pursue Boyce. Each of them carried a cross bow and they road headlong towards the town, after Boyce. The entire city was nightmarish in appearance. Like an abstract picture, a foggy dream, it was dark out but parts of the horizon was purple and orange colour, and it looked like it was aflame with yellow and blood red. The entire sky was filled with birds, most of them white in colour and they shimmered when their flapping wings caught the remaining twilight and hurled it back towards Phoride, and Pomperaque. Boyce flew by a tall building and set down on the flat roof of another nearby. He looked over the ghastly empty city and announced his mind to it. "PHORIDENES! Come out and fight for peace! Come out and fight for the memory of your beloved Brook Scullion-Blue! Come out and fight, for me -- his son!" He took off from the roof top and quickly rose and swung around the tall building again. Lloyd watched him from an alley near the square and he also saw the horsemen with the cross bows. They dismounted and took a circular position, facing outward and upward. They raised their cross bows into the air and waited for Boyce to get closer. Lloyd took aim with his electrophore and shot them but before they fell dead, two of the men let go with their arrows and their arrows found their mark. Boyce's eagle writhed in pain and heaved in the air and Boyce could not control it. The bird collided with the tall building nearby and threw Boyce over the rock railing of the building's main balcony. Lloyd watched it all and soon became extremely worried when Boyce didn't show himself, and there was the Cardinal Orren riding to the square with five other men, their own electrophores blazing their trail. CHAPTER FORTY