the dragon, after transforming back into his humanoid form, stalked off from the camp. ?A killing rage grows within him. I know not how long we, and Brynn, will be able to con-trol his fury ?
"Because he hates Behrenese?" Cazzira asked.
"Because that is the nature of dragons," Pagonel interjected. ?They are es Of destruction, usually of random destruction. It is remarkable cl vou and Brynn have placated him enough to keep him in line thus far.
jon enough, I fear, we will see the true fury of Agradeleous."
vlli'rnar Juraviel looked out into the darkness, where the beast was out then seeking some creature to tear and devour. A shudder coursed his spine.
PART 4 THE DRAGON OF TO-GAI Chapter 28 With All the Weapons at Her
Disposal untly plowed through the soft sand, laboring for breath but, like the three hundred To-gai ponies running beside him, not slowing. The feint against the walled city of Pruda had gone perfectly, with very few To-gai-ru lost to the city's defensive volleys.
And predictably, before the fleeing To-gai-ru had gone far, Pruda's gates had swung wide and their garrison of several hundred, along with a seem-ingly equal number of peasants, all eager to join in the slaughter, had come forth, some riding horses, some on camels, and many others just running behind, brandishing everything from fine swords to farming implements.
Brynn brought her riders along the base of one huge dune, then turned about it and paused, all riders fitting arrows to their bows.
On came the lead Behrenese pursuers, and the To-gai-ru kicked their mounts into another run. Many of the skilled riders of the steppes turned back in the saddle, trusting their mounts to run true, and began letting fly their arrows.
The Behrenese pursuit halted abruptly as the front ranks thinned. Brynn and her riders heard the calls for retreat, for a return to Pruda. When she looked back and confirmed that the Behrenese had broken off pursuit, she halted her force, and gradually turned it about, taking care to send spotters out wide to make sure that their enemies were indeed heading back to the safety of their walls.
Walls they would never reach, Brynn knew, for as she had led her small force and the pursuing Behrenese out into the desert, the bulk of her army had filtered in behind, taking up a position in front of Pruda.
When Brynn and her riders caught up to the retreating Behrenese, they found them stopped in their tracks, desperately trying to form into some semblance of a defensive formation, for they faced a force thrice their size, and one comprised of skilled, veteran To-gai-ru warriors. grvnn had hoped it would go like this, with the Pruda garrison de- froved right before the city's wall, in clear view of those terrified defenders maining within Pruda. She noted the leaders of the doomed Behren- , e soldiers huddling, likely discussing whether or not they should ask for quarter.
But that was not to be. Not there and not then.
Before their huddle had produced anything at all, Brynn brought Flame-dancer up high above her head and cried out for the charge.
Showers of arrows led the way as the To-gai-ru encircled the force.
"They should have tried a charge straight through the line, back to their gates," Brynn remarked to those around her. ?Their cowardice has cost them all hope."
Another volley of arrows rained on the Behrenese, and then another, and then came the charge. Even among the Behrenese soldiers, few offered any fight, for they were all too busy trying to scramble away, trying to find some hole in the To-gai-ru line to get back to their city.
Some did manage to get through, but of the force of nearly a thousand who had left Pruda in search of a glorious victory, more than nine hundred soon lay dead or dying on the bloodstained sands.
And a To-gai-ru army of four thousand now stood before the thinly manned gates.
Merwan Ma blinked open his eyes, quickly moving his hand up to shield them from the glare of the hot late-afternoon sun.
He heard the noise almost immediately, but it took him a long while to connect the sounds to the truth of them.
They were screams of terror.
The battered Shepherd forced himself up to his elbows, wincing with pain all the way. He didn't know where he was, but he saw the white walls of a Behrenese city in the distance, swarming forms all about it, and lines of thick black smoke rising from many of the structures within.