"The Dragon of To-gai!" one spat. ?She turns and flees at the first resis-tance! Coward Ru!"
The others murmured their agreement with the assessment.
"They have ridden all the day," the supremely confident Yatol Grysh told his commanders. ?Take your men and their horses, hunt them down and kill them."
It was an order eagerly received. Within only a few minutes, Dharyan's western gate swung wide and the ground shook under the hoofbeats of nearly fifteen hundred cavalry, the Jacintha warriors and a good portion of the Dharyan garrison beside them.
They came out strong, barely taking the time to form into any coherent groupings, and swung to the south, thundering away in full gallop.
Soon after, the fleeing To-gai-ru force was spotted, still running south, paralleling the plateau.
Thinking their prey tiring, the Chezhou-Lei spurred their forces on even harder, gaining ground.
They came into the northern end of one narrow vale, split by a wide and shallow river, and saw the torches of the fleeing To-gai-ru streaming out the southern end, only a quarter of a mile ahead.
Up went the war cries, the leaders and their soldiers bending low over their mounts, thinking their victory, over a tired and battered foe, at hand.
And then their world changed, so abruptly, so stunningly, as both hills, left and right, came alive with swarms of To-gai-ru warriors, as the Dragon of To-gai's three thousand hidden warriors sprang up, raining death from on high.
At the south end of the valley, Brynn called for a halt and turn, re-forming her line. She didn't turn them loose immediately, but let the rain of death continue, let the Behrenese ranks break apart with terror and confusion, let them thin as soldier after soldier was plucked from his horse.
Then came the charge, left and right, the To-gai-ru forces closing like the jaws of death, angling to seal off any retreat.
And then came Brynn's charge, in a long and thin line, bows humming and then swords clashing.
The Behrenese had nowhere to flee, and no time to regroup into any of a defensive formation. Nor could die Behrenese shoot from with anywhere near the speed and accuracy of the skilled To- hunters Brynn had shaped the battlefield perfectly to fit her forces, 'I use overconfidence of Yatol Grysh to coax his soldiers from defensive walls, out into the open, where they were no match the fierce To-gai-ru riders.
she eagerly led the way in ror close combat when the time was upon her fiery sword flashing death to any Behrenese who wandered too truth, most were merely trying to flee. That only heightened the slaughter.
"My night has just begun," Brynn said to Pagonel when the battle had ended. She found the mystic hard at work tending the wounded, though he had not escaped unharmed, and showed a bright line of blood across his upper arm where an arrow had creased his skin.
The mystic nodded. ?You understand the power you now unleash?" he asked.
"I understand that Dharyan will fall in the morning," Brynn grimly replied. ?Whatever the cost."
The mystic nodded and Brynn turned Runtly and galloped away to the west, to the base of the plateau divide.
Her friends were waiting for her, Juraviel and Cazzira already sitting astride the great dragon, who was back in his more natural, and more im-posing, winged form.
"I feared that we would have to leave without you," Juraviel remarked, obviously greatly relieved to see the woman still alive and unharmed.
"This is not a fight I wish to miss," Brynn replied, climbing up atop the dragon's lowered neck.
"We marked well the ballista emplacements," Cazzira informed her.
Brynn nodded. ?A few, perhaps," she agreed. ?But the prize I seek is greater."
Their great spears are the only weapons which can prevent me from raz-ing the city wholly," the dragon argued.
"We will break their heart and their will, and so Dharyan will fall," was all that Brynn would offer at that moment.
Up they went, high into the dark sky, and in moments, the lights of Dharyan were in clear sight.
How much brighter they would soon burn!
orynn brought the dragon around to the north and then to the east, snowing full well that all of Dharyan's eyes were straining south and west.
Agradeleous climbed high into the dark sky, then he turned and held for st a moment, and then he plummeted, gaining speed. With a tremendous ?ush, his wind alone blasting surprised guards from the northeastern wall, the dragon crossed over the city. Despite Brynn's instructions, he did ve to cross right above one ballista emplacement, his raking