The weapon brought to Henry was a strange contraption; one he had never seen before that was certain. He had laid out everything brought to him out on a cloth so it was all easily visible at once. Standing halfway down the archery range he had hoped to recreate the volley the enemy had enacted but so far he had yet to work out the weapon and no one who was uninjured had seen the weapons in use.

"How does one use this weapon?" He muttered to himself, picking up the wooden stock of the weapon and turned it over in his hands. It was clear to him that the ammunition should go into the long metal tube mounted on the wooden stock for else it had no other apparent use but try as he might he had yet to work out how to release said ammunition. He looked down at the other items and scowled, nothing was clear. Hearing the clatter of horseshoes he looked up as one of the riders he had sent to retake the gatehouse arrived. After dismounting the man, more of a boy really, approached with a wrapped package in his hands.

"Part of the weapon used on the gates, Lord Henry." He reported, handing over the package. Henry unwrapped it carefully, away from the other items, and looked at the remnant in curiosity. It was a charred piece of wood, presumably part of one of the barrels, with a black stain on it different to the scorch marks on it. An idea occurred to him and he picked up the other weapon and looked down the metal tube carefully and saw the same strange marks.

"These weapons are connected somehow." He murmured to himself, picking up one of the multiple packets from a leather pouch found on a corpse in the field. He tore open the small packet and found a metal ball, a piece of wadding and some powder. He looked again at the weapon and poured down the powder and then the wadding and ball with the rider looking increasingly uncomfortable.

"My Lord, is this safe?" He asked nervously.

"Almost certainly not." Henry said as he hefted the weapon. The ball and wadding were barely inside the barrel but there was a metal rod hooked underneath the barrel so he use it to prod them down to the bottom. He lifted the weapon to his shoulder as he had seen the attackers do and pulled the metal lever. Nothing happened so he looked at the weapon again and saw a second lever which he pulled back. An audible click sounded so he brought it back up to his shoulder, aimed down the weapon using the small nub of metal on the top for aiming, as it presumably was meant for, and pulled the lever again. The recoil was so hard and unexpected he was nearly thrown onto his back, the crackle of the weapon deafening him momentarily. There was the smell of rotten eggs and a small cloud of smoke drifted away from the end of the barrel.

"What kind of magic is that?" The rider asked after both men recovered from their surprise. Henry laid the weapon down carefully before stepping back and rubbing his now bruised shoulder.

"I don't think it's magic. It's just very clever which makes it all the more dangerous." He looked at the rider who wore his confusion obviously. "Anyone can use this if they know how. It requires little skill and even less practice. Levy armies would be just as effective as trained ones so you can recruit anyone and everyone to fight and kill. I need to let the Queen know." Henry turned to go but saw a familiar figure walking across the courtyard to the range.

"Lady McArthur, it would appear you had the same idea as I did." Henry greeted her, gesturing to the weapon in her hand. "I've just managed to work out the contraption works, allow me to show you." He demonstrated again with his own borrowed weapon, clearly showing her what he was doing. This time he was prepared for the kick but the metal ball still missed the target by a wide berth.

"They appear to very inaccurate but with enough of them at once accuracy doesn't matter." Henry said. He was about to continue when he saw red smoke rising to the South. He pointed towards it. "I had guards stationed at the gates signal with red smoke if an enemy was approaching. They would only signal with red if they definitely knew it was an enemy."

A deep boom sounded, carrying across the plains of the Academy from the South. It was the same as that from the strange weapon but magnified several times over; a larger weapon of the same type. Henry had heard it at the gates when the enemy had first broken through.

"That's the army that attacked Anstarn." Henry turned to the rider. "Is the way through the North Gate clear now?" The man nodded.

"The fire has burned itself out and Lady Revaz is patrolling the route." Henry bit his lip. He hated to give the order but they had no other choice at that moment.

"Go to the Academy Tower and tell the Queen we have to go. The carriages and horses are waiting, get the wounded to the carriages and anyone who can ride mounted up immediately and then send them all to the North Gate. I'll take the reserve and hold the enemy up for a while."