Queen Of Glass

Book 2 Chapter 16 part 2

Celaena stood before the Gate of Omil and looked at the taught and nervous faces of the men assembled before her, doubt spreading across her chest. Despite the Fae armor that shone and glittered around them, these were not soldiers. For a moment, Adarlan's army might be surprised, but as soon as they saw that these were just peasants and merchants, their shock would wane and the slaughter would begin once more.

She felt an urge to tell them all to run back inside the great building, to hide and let her do the fighting with the few soldiers that Peregrinno possessed, knowing that she wouldn't feel as bad about her own death as she would about the deaths of two thousand common folk. If she survived the night, how many hours would she spend fretting over the lives lost here?
The men of the town watched her warily, and Celaena felt her stomach clench in fear. Did they know that they would all probably die? Did they say goodbye to their children and friends before leaving the safety of the building? Sorrow caught in her neck and she turned from them, finding Colwir standing beside her.
"We have over one thousand men here," the captain said, "and the six hundred women who are willing to fight have been assembled on the battlements above us and behind." Colwir pointed to the first wall of the building. Sure enough, there was an enormous amount of women lined up along the lowermost balcony of the building. Celaena turned around and looked at the massive wall of the battlements before them, admiring the smooth two lines of archers that stood there.
The archers on the battlements would fire first, breaking the oncoming lines of Adarlan's soldiers once the shield dropped. As soon as the soldiers got close enough to mount the walls, half of their numbers would fall back to join the women standing on the balconies of the Fortress, where they would fire high into the air beyond the battlements, taking down whatever soldiers were unfortunate enough to be found beneath. Once the iron doors of the Southern Gate of the Fortress were breached (which Celaena knew would be smashed apart with some sort of foul battering ram), the archers would fire upon the soldiers rushing in, hopefully taking them down before they had time to plow across the massive courtyard to the Gate of Omil.
The makeshift soldiers would stand before the Southern Gate and the Gate of Omil, waiting for the moment when the great doors were smashed down. To identify themselves as citizens of Peregrinno, Celaena had had each soldier paint an "X" out of tar on his helmet and back plate. The women were not trained archers, and even with the golden helmets of the armory, it would be hard to tell good from bad once blood started spilling and chaos ensued. She would be leading the first round of archers on the battlements, relying on Colwir and Phillio to keep up the morale of the soldiers waiting in the courtyard beneath. Once Adarlan got too close to the battlements, she would join the men at the gates.
The sun had set, and the sky was a sickly shade of blue and purple. Hopefully the moon would quickly rise and provide a better source of light than torches. The shield would soon be reaching the first line of archers on the walls of the Fortress. The lower the shield got, the louder the din of war became. Celaena hadn't had a clear view of the soldiers, and their number was still unclear, but she knew that they outnumbered them at least three to one. While they had the advantage of the Fortress, higher ground, and better armor, Adarlan's army had the advantage of its best soldiers and fifteen years of conquering under its belt.
It was becoming common knowledge that Peregrinno had little chance of surviving the night. Their best chances lay in the untested skill of their archers and the bottleneck that the two gates provided. Once the Southern Gate fell, all of Peregrinno's forces would block the Gate of Omil. Whether or not that would do any good, Celaena did not know, but it was the only opportunity they had.
Surprise was also on their side. As soon as the shield dropped to the level of the battlements, Celaena would give the signal and it would vanish. Adarlan's forces would not be expecting that move—and that was when Celaena and the archers would strike. They'd fire as fast and as accurately as they could upon the unsuspecting army, taking the front lines down before they could even charge.
While Celaena had been planning the battle with the Elders, Colwir had apparently given the women some instruction on how to shoot. But the assassin knew better than to rely upon the skill of peasants alone. She was counting on the hope that the line of dead bodies would prove cumbersome, requiring Adarlan's soldiers to step over or move them aside in order to get at the Fortress and thus giving Peregrinno's women enough time to reload their bows and fire upon the new line of soldiers that stood before them.
Celaena looked up at the clear blue shield, watching it slowly sink downwards. It would be fifteen more minutes until it would be at the level they wanted.
"It is time," Colwir said to her, and Celaena lowered her head and nodded. He was clad in fine armor, and his helmet was clutched in the crook of his arm. Had he ever expected to see battle? Had he ever thought that he would see his friends and family taken down by the swords and arrows of Adarlan? Celaena felt a great weight pressing on her heart. His death would leave her with the heaviest guilt hanging upon her heart.