power of the Behrenese forces assembled against them, after all.
"We will strike, and we will run," Brynn explained. ?Leading our ene-mies back toward Behren, to the edge of the plateau rim."
"And into Behren?" one man asked.
"We will take them to a point where there seems no route into Behren," Brynn answered. ?Where they will believe us trapped by the plateau rim and where they will likely find allies to strike against us."
More murmurs filtered throughout the gathering, but Brynn, growing more and more confident, merely smiled.
And so it began, with the newest To-gai-ru army, two thousand strong, overrunning an outposter settlement teasingly close to the frustrated Behre-nese army. A week later, a second settlement fell, far to the south and east of the previous. While flying about on Agradeleous that night after the second battle, Brynn noted that the Behrenese army had turned more to the south, and she also noted a line of couriers riding out straight to the east. Yes, her enemies knew where they were, and knew well the terrain.
She was counting on that most of all.
Through it all, the ranger kept Agradeleous in check, tightly reined. She was not willing to reveal him further to her enemies, for all of this, in the end, would come down to his ability to serve her army well. She did fly out to the south, to the Mountains of Fire, to instruct Pagonel to begin the march toward Avrou Eesa.
Two days later, a Behrenese supply caravan was flattened, and the chase continued, and the word continued to spread into Behren that the Dragon of To-gai had indeed returned to the steppes, but was fighting her way back toward Behrenese soil.
Right in the region immediately west of Yatol Bardoh and Avrou Eesa.
The march from Bardoh's city began the very next day, heading for a pass that would bring the glory-hungry Yatol and his fifteen thousand onto the To-gai plateau to the north of Brynn's position, with the second army ] j by Chezhou-Lei Shauntil, circling fast to the south. At that particular juri ture of the two kingdoms, there weren't many easy routes up or down tf plateau, and it seemed obvious to the Behrenese that the Dragon of To-had erred, for Yatol Bardoh would beat her to the north pass, arrivi within a week, and Shauntil had the west and the south already cut off Brynn's To-gai based army continued its flight to the east, seemin I walking into the jaws between the mighty Behrenese forces.
And then, a few days later, they were out of room, with the cliffs of th plateau divide blocking their way to the east, and with south, west, and north blocked by the two pursuing armies.
"Burn your fires bright this night," Brynn instructed her warriors.
"For tomorrow, we will fight and die!" one man called out, and neither he, nor any of the others, seemed bothered by that grim possibility.
"For tomorrow, we will begin our ride across the sands of Behren ? Brynn corrected, and she pointed out over the cliff. ?Down there." She fin-ished with a whistle, and the great dragon Agradeleous rose up over the edge of the cliff, higher and higher, and bearing under him a huge platform, secured to his talons by thick ropes.
They rode like the sandstorm whirlwinds across the open desert, the great storm that was the Dragon of To-gai and her followers. Before Yatol Bardoh and Chezhou-Lei Shauntil had even charged their way out of the steppes and back onto Behren's light brown sands, Brynn and her two thousand had the city of Avrou Eesa in sight.
The woman looked to the south, knowing from the previous night's dragon flight that Pagonel and her main force was still several days away. If she waited for them, the assault on Avrou Eesa would have to happen right before Yatol Bardoh returned, and then they would have to flee wildly, with the Behrenese in hot pursuit.
But Avrou Eesa was a prize that Brynn would not let get away, for she keenly remembered the grim fate of her parents at the hands of Yatol Bardoh.
That night, she went in with Agradeleous, swooping about the city, set-ting buildings ablaze and toppling defensive positions and great catapults, blasting down the many remaining soldiers who came out against them.
And then, from on high, Brynn yelled down to them, told them to flee Avrou Eesa or be destroyed. ?Run down the eastern road!" she cried, claim this place for To-gai. Be gone!"