not, Brynn Dharielle would have to deal with the fact that she had been in-strumental in letting a dragon loose upon the world, and though she had exacted the necessary promise from Agradeleous, she was not sure that it would hold.
"How bad?" she asked the dragon, moving around to face him directly.
Agradeleous growled and reached for the ballista spear with his foreleg, then tore it out. He reared on his hind legs, roared defiantly, and hurled the bloody spear across the sands, into the midst of the still-scrambling Behre-nese far beyond the gate.
Then came the bone-crunching sounds as Agradeleous began his trans-formation to his bipedal form. All about him, To-gai-ru warriors blanched and retreated, as fast and as far as they could run.
But Brynn stood right there, before the dragon, grateful to him for his sacrifice that night. A necessary sacrifice, and one that had turned the Behrenese charge into a fast retreat.
Lookouts on the walls were even then calling down that their enemies had broken off, all about the city, had returned to the encircling perimeter and were striking camp.
"I will need you again in the morning," Brynn whispered to the dragon. ?When Pagonel arrives."
The dragon growled, and nodded.
Brynn took a deep breath and headed away, cursing herself silently for her moment of selfishness, when she had hoped the dragon would die.
No, it wouldn't be that easy. For the sake of To-gai and all her dreams, it couldn't be.
The timing could not have been better for Brynn and her companions. Dawn broke over the city of Avrou Eesa, bright and clear, and the Behre-nese began their charge, their perimeter collapsing inward. And at that same moment, Brynn saw the flashing signal out in the distance beyond the westernmost Behrenese cluster that told her of Pagonel's arrival.
"Eastern wall!" she cried, and more than half of her warriors ran that way, launching arrows out at the charging Behrenese, though they were still too far away for any effective barrage. As the warriors bent down behind the wall, they propped helmets in place, decoys to make it look as if they in-tended to hold the wall.
And then they abandoned their posts, running to their waiting mounts, who were assembled in the western courtyard before the gates.
Brynn, meanwhile, went to Agradeleous. She sent the dragon flying away to the east, dropping down to attack the Behrenese advance. As the lines broke apart, the eastern gates of Avrou Eesa were thrown wide and many horses charged out.
Riderless horses. Captured Behrenese horses.
From her post on the western wall, Brynn took hope as she saw the Behrenese lines beginning to veer toward the west. Yatol Bardoh had an-ticipated a breakout, and following logic and the dragon's strike, he ex-pected the breakout to be to the east.
But Yatol Bardoh did not know that a second To-gai-ru force, thrice the size of the one he had contained within Avrou Eesa, was just to the west of him.
The city's western gates flew wide and out came the charge of Brynn and her two thousand warriors, bearing down on the main Behrenese force west of the city.
And then came the battle cries and thunder of the second To-gai-ru force, charging east, bearing down on the same enemy positions.
Caught between the vise, the Behrenese forces scrambled to find some defensive posture.
Brynn drove her charges in hard, her sword all ablaze, Runtly answering her every command and improvising when necessary. The To-gai-ru earn through like a swarm of locusts caught on a fast wind, slashing the Behre nese ranks, forcing soldiers to dive aside or be trampled.
They did not stop to engage, though, but continued their charge until they had linked up with the larger force, moving west to east with similar brutal efficiency.
And then they turned, as one, to the north and the open sands, riding hard and outdistancing the surprised and confused Behrenese.
By the time the main numbers of Yatol Bardoh's warriors had come around to the western line, Brynn and her warriors were a dust cloud on the northern horizon.
They left behind a field of carnage, of many fallen Behrenese and more than a few fallen To-gai-ru, as well.
But the breakout had worked - another devastating blow to the Behrenese morale, and a lightning fast battle that claimed the lives of ten times more Behrenese than To-gai-ru.
And then came Agradeleous, just to accentuate Yatol Bardoh's embarrass-ment, sweeping past the Behrenese field, accepting the volley of hundreds of arrows and returning a strafing line of killing fire, and even managing