[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
without removing his foot from the stir-rup. His heel connected with an armored chest, then Batu swung
around and ran his saber through the yellow-toothed gnoll's throat.
As he pulled his blade free, a shadow passed over the bat-tle. Six golden balls of magical energy flashed
out of the sky, killing six men. Batu looked up and saw a griffin swooping low overhead. The wizard atop
the monster held his hand outstretched and pointed at the melee below him. The grif-fin's other rider
allowed the beast to swoop safely past the battle, then wheeled it about for another pass.
At the same time, Batu saw a gnoll step toward him. He spurred his horse, and it pushed its way
forward to where Jochibi had just separated a beast's head from its shoulders. All around the Tuigan, the
ground was carpeted with fallen gnolls. Nevertheless, their fellows pressed the attack, wildly swinging their
maces and morning stars. Often, the dog-men had forsaken weapons altogether and were using bare hands
to drag the Tuigan from their saddles.
They were meeting with entirely too much success. In Ba-tu's group alone, nearly half the horses were
riderless. Far-ther away, in the companies to either side of the renegade's, the story appeared to be much
the same. He saw many empty horses and, fortunately, plenty of fallen gnolls. Near each group were three
griffins bearing a wizard and a rider. While the riders guided the flying mounts, the mages flung various
magical bolts, beams, and rays into the melee.
The gnoll that Batu had avoided earlier came up behind him. Just as the beast swung its morning star,
the Shou turned his mount to meet the attack. The spiked ball bounced of the black horse's barding, then the
stallion reared and thrashed the gnoll with its front hooves. When the horse dropped back to the ground,
Batu finished the cringing dog-man with a swift chop to its collarbone.
"Time to leave!" Batu shouted, trying to make himself heard above the clamor of battle. When Jochibi
showed no sign of hearing him, the Shou slapped is subordinate's leg with the flat of his blade. The grisled
Tuigan twisted around, his guard raised. "I thought you were dead!"
"I am," Batu responded. "But the judges of the hells have al-lowed me time for a few battles more."
Another griffin swooped overhead, and a fireball erupted on the edge of the company. A half-dozen
men, horses, and gnolls screamed in agony as the orange flames engulfed them.
"By now, the enemy should be convinced of our sincerity," Batu said.
"Agreed," Jochibi responded. "Let's go!"
Without waiting for Batu's command, the Tuigan spurred his horse and pushed his way out of the melee.
An instant later, Batu turned his horse in the opposite direction and broke free of the fray. As the renegade
and his adjutant bounded away, the nearest drummers silenced their instru-ments.
Within moments, the area was empty of Tuigan, and the Shou was riding past the next group of gnolls
with more than twenty warriors at his back. As the drummer assigned to this melee saw Batu pass, he
silenced his instrument. The horsewarriors disengaged and joined the retreat.
Batu could not help but admire the precision of the ma-neuver. As the time came, each man executed
his orders flawlessly, regardless of what else was happening at the mo-ment. Even in the heat of battle,
there was none of the con-fusion common to Shou maneuvers. Batu continued past melee after melee
collecting his troops with drill-field preci-sion.
As expected, the retreat took the enemy by surprise. For several minutes the griffin riders did not
pursue. By the time the airborne cavalry reorganized themselves and turned to the chase, Batu was only
two miles from the valley walls. With him rode nearly five hundred warriors that he had collected from the
melees along the line.
Even in retreat, his troops were dealing a serious blow to the gnolls. As their fellows disengaged and
joined the re-treating army, the Tuigan archers, accustomed to firing on the gallop, unleashed a volley of
arrows. The deadly shafts rained down on the defenders like a hail storm. The massed fire was so accurate
that barely a handful of gnolls escaped each time the archers fired on an enemy company.
As the Tuigan approached the next melee, it was the en-emy who tried to disengage and run. Having
seen what had happened when the mounted archers passed the last com-pany, the gnoll officers had no
wish to meet a similar fate. The Tuigan, however, were accustomed to battling fleeing adversaries and did
not allow them to escape. As the gnolls turned their backs, the horsemen tarried long enough to cut them
down, then joined the rest of their fellows.
The same thing happened as the riders approached the next three companies. Batu began to fear that
the efficiency of his archers had alerted the flying cavalry to his plan. The Tuigan were only a mile and a
half from the canyon walls, and the griffins still had not caught up.
With less than a mile to go before reaching the flank, two hundred griffins finally gathered into a
formation behind the barbarians. Unfettered by the presence of their own troops, the wizards showered the
Tuigan with horrible, de-structive magic. Walls of fire and ice appeared in the middle of the Tuigan retreat.
Struggling to avoid the obstacles at a full gallop, dozens of men and horses tumbled to the ground. Black
clouds rained death down on small numbers of riders. Once, twenty horses drifted high into the air, then
came crashing back down on their fellows.
Four hundred yards from the canyon wall, the Tuigan re-treat turned into a genuine rout. Under the
withering, air-borne attacks, the barbarian horsemen could no longer ignore their fear of magic. The last
few gnoll companies es-caped intact, but Batu was not concerned. His troops had al-ready dealt so much
destruction that the enemy army was ruined for all practical purposes.
Besides, the rout would only serve to draw the griffin riders into his trap, and that was worth the lives of
a few dozen gnolls. If his plans were to succeed, the enemy fliers had to be so caught up in pursuit that they
did not notice their danger until it was too late.
The Tuigan and their pursuers reached the canyon wall. The retreating horsemen turned east along the
base of the mountains, just as Batu had planned. Looking around, the Shou estimated that he had perhaps a
thousand riders with him. Assuming that Jochibi had a similar number on the other side the of the valley,
that meant he had lost two thou-sand men to the gnolls and the magic. The number was a large one, but he
knew the figure would have been a lot higher if Jochibi's sharp eyes had not spotted the griffin for-mation
before the battle began.
They continued along the base of the canyon for several more minutes, the enemy in close pursuit. Batu
saw no sign of his reserves on the canyon walls, but he had too much faith in the Tuigan warriors to doubt
that they were there. A few moments later, the sweet music of twanging bow-strings filled the air, and the
Shou twisted around in his sad-dle to see what had happened.
He was greeted by the sight of chaos in the air. Over a hun-dred wounded or dead griffins were
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]