quick to point out. ?When you have the power, only then can you measure the relative morality of your peoples."
Brynn wanted to argue, wanted to find some words to deny the logic or the dragon's observations. But in truth, she could not. Would her people have acted any differently, had they been the conquerors? Had they acted Differently in their first large victory, when Dharyan had been overrun? I til she had intervened, the Behrenese had been subjected to many of the e injustices they had shown to the To-gai-ru.
But she had intervened. Brynn had to remind herself at that uncertain ornent, with Agradeleous, of all people, laying bare her conscience, and the Yatol Bardoh and thirty thousand Behrenese warriors coming to de- Str0y her relatively insignificant army.
"You are quite observant for one who does not know humans," Brynn remarked.
Agradeleous gave a rumbling laugh. ?Detachment allows for that." Brynn turned to face him once more, locking him with a serious stare.
"Will you fly out against the archers?" The dragon put on a perfectly awful grin. ?With pleasure."
The storm swept in across the blowing sands, thirty thousand strong, led by riders waving the huge curved swords favored by many Behrenese war-riors. They charged at Avrou Eesa's western gate, and for a brief moment, Brynn's heart sank in the fears that Yatol Bardoh would abandon all caution and just overrun his conquered city.
But then the lead riders broke, left and right, their horses thundering about Avrou Eesa to encircle the wide city. With the discipline of a superbly trained army, the Behrenese soldiers filtered to their appropriate positions. By late afternoon, Brynn and her army were fully encircled, the enemy line secured like a hangman's noose, and with the devastating war engines al-ready assembled out to the west of the city.
The bombardment began soon after dusk, with balls of pitch soaring in to smash walls, splattering all about.
Brynn's warriors let many of the ensuing fires burn, for they had no de-sire to save any more of Yatol Bardoh's city than those sections they needed for defense.
The first charge came soon after, with infantry marching in from all sides, shield to shield.
Brynn knew that Bardoh was trying to draw her out, to see how much firepower she and her warriors could throw back at him. And so she did not disappoint, lining the walls, particularly the eastern one, with archers and meeting the charge with volley after volley of arrows.
And then she went out, upon Agradeleous, sweeping first to the south, scattering the terrified Behrenese before her, then turning to the east, where that line broke almost immediately and rushed back to the cover of their own archers.
Brynn banked Agradeleous sharply, putting the dragon in fast flight right over the city and beyond, sweeping to the west, flying right over the sur-prised Behrenese infantry and right over the reserve cavalry, all fighting to hold their terrified horses steady, and right through the hail of arrows th Behrenese archers launched their way.
Agradeleous bore down on the war engines with a vengeance, setting a cata pult ablaze, then banking up to hover beside another, his great tail srnashin hard against the supporting beams.
"Fly away!" Brynn cried out frantically. ?Agradeleous, fly away!"
Too excited and enraged, the dragon didn't even hear her, and so his sur-prise was complete when a ballista bolt smashed hard against his side knocking him from the sky.
The Behrenese warriors cheered and charged, long lances flashing in the firelight.
"Up!" Brynn commanded. ?Up and back to the city!"
The dragon spun about and charged into the coming line of soldiers, tak-ing hit after brutal hit, but giving out killing blows with great claws and chomping maw, beating others aside with his great wings and launching still more far away with his deadly tail.
Brynn kept urging him up, as more and more Behrenese soldiers charged in fearlessly.
The woman's respect for her foes increased dramatically in those few minutes.
Finally, to Brynn s great relief, the dragon leaped up into the air, his great wings beating immediately to send him flying back toward Avrou Eesa's western gate. The pair set down in the courtyard just beyond the gate, Brynn leaping down from the dragon's back to inspect his greatest wound, where the ballista spear had hit home.
The warrior woman winced, more at her own thoughts than at the wound - for she had allowed herself, for a brief moment, to hope that the wound would prove fatal. In the end of all this, whether To-gai was free or