Brynn grimaced, but held fast her plan, knowing that many of these brave warriors would not ride out of this deadly place. They had all known that grim reality, and yet every man and woman in her army - every single one! - had volunteered to ride with her to the base of the wall. Still, this macabre game of nerves was starting to fray hers. „Commit them,“ she whispered, a quiet plea to Yatol Grysh. „Show us our folly.“
Forty yards.
„Sweep left and right!“ she ordered her band, though she understood that such a turn might actually leave more of them exposed.
Immediately, the well-drilled To-gai-ru line split down the middle, going left and right. For the skilled horsemen, who hunted the wild steppes while riding, the turn did nothing to deter their attack, and their arrows continued to skim the top of the wall.
But then came a cry from that wall, a familiar voice, speaking in the language of the To-gai-ru.
„A trap! A trap!“ Ya Ya Deng, Ashwarawu’s informant, cried out, and then her words became a groan, and all who heard it understood that she had been silenced by a sword.
„Hold! Hold and center!“ Brynn cried immediately, and how grateful she was for that unexpected assistance, for the excuse to keep her soldiers back a bit farther from the wall.
And not a moment too soon, for even as the split forces began re-forming at the center, and back out to more than fifty yards, the horns began to blow wildly within Dharyan and the top of the wall seemed to grow, as hundreds of soldiers stood up, bows in hand, letting loose a volley that would have surely devastated the force had they been closer. Even as it was, many warriors
fell in that devastating volley, stuck with arrows or with their prized hor shot out from under them.
„A trap! A trap!“ went the cry along the To-gai-ru line, on cue
away! Kun away!
They milled about in seeming confusion, though in truth, the skilled hor men knew exactly their course. They scooped up comrades, grabbed hors wandering riderless, and suffered the storm of another arrow volley.
And then they turned and fled, crying out in seeming despair.
All along the Dharyan wall, a cry of victory erupted, with soldiers throw ing their arms into the air and yelling out for Yatol Grysh. In the courtyard behind them, the Yatol stood with his seven Chezhou-Lei commanders
„The Dragon of To-gai!“ one spat. „She turns and flees at the first resistance! Coward Ru!“
The others murmured their agreement with the assessment.
„They have ridden all the day,“ the supremely confident Yatol Grysh told his commanders. „Take your men and their horses, hunt them down and kill them.“
It was an order eagerly received. Within only a few minutes, Dharyan’s western gate swung wide and the ground shook under the hoofbeats of nearly fifteen hundred cavalry, the Jacintha warriors and a good portion of the Dharyan garrison beside them.
They came out strong, barely taking the time to form into any coherent groupings, and swung to the south, thundering away in full gallop.
Soon after, the fleeing To-gai-ru force was spotted, still running south, paralleling the plateau. Thinking their prey tiring, the Chezhou-Lei spurred their forces on even harder, gaining ground.
They came into the northern end of one narrow vale, split by a wide and shallow river, and saw the torches of the fleeing To-gai-ru streaming out the southern end, only a quarter of a mile ahead.
Up went the war cries, the leaders and their soldiers bending low over their mounts, thinking their victory, over a tired and battered foe, at hand.
And then their world changed, so abruptly, so stunningly, as both hills, left and right, came alive with swarms of To-gai-ru warriors, as the Dragon of To-gai’s three thousand hidden warriors sprang up, raining death from on high.
At the south end of the valley, Brynn called for a halt and turn, re-forming her line. She didn’t turn them loose immediately, but let the rain of death continue, let the Behrenese ranks break apart with terror and confusion, let them thin as soldier after soldier was plucked from his horse.
Then came the charge, left and right, the To-gai-ru forces closing like the jaws of death, angling to seal off any retreat.
And then came Brynn’s charge, in a long and thin line, bows humming and then swords clashing.
The Behrenese had nowhere to flee, and no time to regroup into any of a defensive formation. Nor could die Behrenese shoot from
with anywhere near the speed and accuracy of the skilled To-
hunters Brynn had shaped the battlefield perfectly to fit her forces, ‘I use overconfidence of Yatol Grysh to coax his soldiers from defensive walls, out into the open, where they were no match
the fierce To-gai-ru riders.
she eagerly led the way in ror close combat when the time was upon her fiery sword flashing death to any Behrenese who wandered too truth, most were merely trying to flee. That only heightened the slaughter.
„My night has just begun,“ Brynn said to Pagonel when the battle had ended. She found the mystic hard at work tending the wounded, though he had not escaped unharmed, and showed a bright line of blood across his upper arm where an arrow had creased his skin.
The mystic nodded. „You understand the power you now unleash?“ he
asked.
„I understand that Dharyan will fall in the morning,“ Brynn grimly replied. „Whatever the cost.“
The mystic nodded and Brynn turned Runtly and galloped away to the west, to the base of the plateau divide.
Her friends were waiting for her, Juraviel and Cazzira already sitting astride the great dragon, who was back in his more natural, and more imposing, winged form.
„I feared that we would have to leave without you,“ Juraviel remarked, obviously greatly relieved to see the woman still alive and unharmed.
„This is not a fight I wish to miss,“ Brynn replied, climbing up atop the dragon’s lowered neck.
„We marked well the ballista emplacements,“ Cazzira informed her.
Brynn nodded. „A few, perhaps,“ she agreed. „But the prize I seek is greater.“
Their great spears are the only weapons which can prevent me from razing the city wholly,“ the dragon argued.
„We will break their heart and their will, and so Dharyan will fall,“ was all that Brynn would offer at that moment.
Up they went, high into the dark sky, and in moments, the lights of Dharyan were in clear sight.
How much brighter they would soon burn!
orynn brought the dragon around to the north and then to the east, snowing full well that all of Dharyan’s eyes were straining south and west.
Agradeleous climbed high into the dark sky, then he turned and held for
st a moment, and then he plummeted, gaining speed. With a tremendous •ush, his wind alone blasting surprised guards from the northeastern wall, the dragon crossed over the city. Despite Brynn’s instructions, he did ve to cross right above one ballista emplacement, his raking claws and swe ing tail destroying it and its crew as he rushed past. And then he turned f his primary target, and it was not difficult to spot, for the temp]e Dharyan was easily the largest structure in the city.
He pulled up before it and loosed his fiery breath, blowing out the ea ern windows, lighting the wooden supports.
He shifted up higher and breathed again, and then a third time, his breath igniting fires all about the structure.
Below on the streets, the people cried and rushed for cover, and Agra deleous dropped upon them, strafing a line of fire along one avenue, starting fires along the rows of houses and storefronts.
Behind Brynn, Juraviel and Cazzira worked their bows wildly, sending lines of stinging arrows out at any soldiers they could spot.
„Enough, Agradeleous!“ Brynn cried repeatedly, but the dragon wasn’t hearing her, or wasn’t paying her any heed if he was! He swept along above the streets, his tail thrashing destruction, his claws snapping down at any soldiers he caught in the open
, his breath sweeping out to immolate any who were not fast enough or cunning enough to get out of the way.
Soldiers died in that rush, but many more civilians fell to Agradeleous. Women died and children died, and Brynn had to fight back the bile in her throat.
Gradually, the defense began to organize, and arrows whizzed up about the riders, many striking the dragon, bouncing harmlessly off his scales or scoring hits upon his leathery wings.
And Brynn continued to scream at the beast, commanding him to fly away, as they had planned.
And Agradeleous continued to rain death and destruction, all the way to the front gates of the great city, which he leveled with a single blast of his fiery breath.
Finally, the dragon flew off, back into the darkness of night, leaving the screams and the rumble of great fires, behind him. He reached the cliff-facing, but did not land and let his riders down. No, he went up higher, searching among the heights until he found a loose boulder that he could scoop up with his great clawed feet. Then he turned and swept back for Dharyan, flying high above the city, too high for the archers or the ballistae to reach him.
He dropped the boulder, aiming perfectly for the largest fire in the city, and the huge stone smashed through the roof of the Dharyan’s temple.
„I can do this all night!“ the dragon boasted.
Brynn just wanted to be put back down, and so she ordered the dragon to take her back to where she had left Runtly.
And Agradeleous did so, then he flew off with the two elves, up the cliff-to find more boulders and then back over Dharyan to randomly bomb the place.
came back into the To-gai-ru encampment with a heart heavy from struction she had witnessed on the field and especially in the city, •cene in particular, a group of women immolated by dragon fire while hev ran along a street, hung thick in her thoughts.
I t the warrior woman could not deny that the battle had gone almost
tlv as she had planned. More than a thousand Behrenese warriors lay
A d in the Masur Shinton valley, and no doubt hundreds more, soldier and
vilian, had died in the dragon raid in the city. And the temple of Dharyan
was still burning, and would be a complete ruin by morning.
Brvnn’s own losses had not been substantial. Carving and preparing the battlefield to her choosing had given all the advantage to her warriors and they had used it to near perfection. Now Dharyan lay ripe for the taking.
But for Brynn, exhaustion had set in, and that only exacerbated the feelings of remorse and of guilt. She said not a word as she walked Runtly into the To-gai-ru encampment, did not even acknowledge the shouts and cheers that erupted around her. She went straight to Pagonel, still at his work in tending the many wounded - only To-gai-ru wounded, for the Behrenese had all been put to swift death on the field - slid down from Runtly and fell into the mystic’s waiting arms.
He hugged her close and she buried her face in his strong shoulder, not wanting those around her to see the tears in her eyes. „What have I done?“ she whispered.
„You have struck a blow against your oppressors that will be heard throughout the steppes and throughout Behren,“ the mystic answered softly. „You have given your people a chance to break free.“ Pagonel pushed Brynn out to arm’s length and looked her right in the eye. „You have given them hope and the courage to fight back.“
‘Even if they all should die in the war,“ Brynn said with biting sarcasm, but to her surprise, the mystic only smiled.
„Even if they all should die in the war,“ he echoed softly, and firmly, and he nodded and smiled, reminding Brynn that some things, perhaps, were worth dying for.
^What is next?“ the mystic asked.
We will deliver our terms for surrender in the morning,“ Brynn answered. Vatol Grysh is a stubborn one,“ said Pagonel.
Then he will endure a night of dragon fire the likes of which the world las not seen in centuries,“ Brynn replied, and there were no more tears at nat time, just a determination so cold and so grim that it sent a shiver cours- down Pagonel’s hardened spine.
The next morning, Brynn rode at the head of a column of nearly f thousand To-gai-ru warriors, closing to within fifty yards of Dharyan’s «, if
„They are all dead, Yatol Grysh,“ she called out. „Send forth an emis or your city will be destroyed around you.“
She let it go at that, and when no rider came forth from Dharv > blasted gate, Brynn motioned for her warriors to encircle the place N would flee Dharyan, and none would enter without her knowing of th • approach.
That night, she took Agradeleous over the city again and again, blastin his fire and dropping rocks from on high, above the reach of the Dharva defenses. Her warriors, too, came forward in short and unexpected bursts showering fiery arrows into the city.
The next morning, smoke hanging as heavy as the cries of lamentation in the air, Brynn approached the city again, and again called out for an emissary, and this time, she was answered.
A lone rider exited the gate, bearing a white flag of truce. He was not a skilled horseman, obviously, and he nearly fell off several times as he galloped his horse up before the warrior woman.
„I am Carwan Pestle,“ he introduced himself. „Emissary of Yatol Grysh.“
„Come to discuss the terms of surrender,“ Brynn remarked, and looked over at Pagonel, for she noted that the man looked quite nervous, and uncomfortable, as if he would have to deliver words she did not wish to hear.
„My Yatol instructs me to inform you that he has near to two thousand To-gai-ru slaves within the city,“ Carwan Pestle began slowly and uncertainly.
„Two thousand reasons for him to evoke my ire no further,“ Brynn replied.
„He bids you to ride away, back to your own land,“ Carwan Pestle continued, and he was shaking so hard that it seemed as if he would fall off his horse. „Be gone, Dragon of To-gai, else those slaves will be executed, and most horribly.“
Brynn didn’t blink, but simply, slowly, nodded and turned to Pagonel. „Tell me, my Jhesta Tu friend, how long would it take for Yatol Grysh to organize such a mass murder as that?“
„Hours, I would guess,“ Pagonel said with equal calm.
Brynn turned back to Carwan Pestle. „Then I will not give him hours, she said, simply.
Carwan Pestle stared at her curiously, not understanding. „Is that the message you wish for me to return to my Yatol? „
„You?“ Brynn asked incredulously. „Oh, no, my good man Carwan Pestle. I intend to deliver my message personally.“ She looked over one shoulder, to Pagonel, then over the other, to the line of her commanders. „Now, she said. „Sack Dharyan, and extra rations to the man who brings me the dog, Grysh!“
f Carwan Pestle could even begin to respond, the To-gai-ru line
i -n battle cries, and in the thunder of charging horses. ef^r^e sponse from the Behrenese wall was minimal and fleeting, with the mostly civilians pressed into emergency service, throwing down r ‘apons and fleeing back for their homes. Like a dark flood, the To-oiled through the gate and widened out to engulf all the streets, and ^bove them came mighty Agradeleous and his two riders, swooping in o blast away any pockets of resistance with a purging gout of flame. vas over before midday, with all resistance broken, and with most of u two thousand To-gai-ru slaves freed - and many taking up arms against their oppressors.
The killing went on through the day and night, and Brynn heard so many disturbing reports of rape and execution.
On Brynn ‘s orders, no further destruction of property was allowed, and only combatants were to be killed, but it seemed obvious to her that many of her warriors were using any excuse they could find to label Behrenese as combatants, and many of the freed slaves would not walk away without exacting the harshest retribution upon those who had so badly mistreated them. Late the next morning, a fat, whining man was brought out before Brynn and thrown down in the dirt at her feet. He looked up, his hands entwined in a plead
ing position.
„Yatol Grysh,“ explained one of the two To-gai-ru warriors who had brought him out. „We found him hiding in a deep wine cellar, trembling with fear. „
„The coward! „ the other warrior said, and he spat in Grysh’s face. „Please, I beg of you! „ Grysh pleaded. „I am a rich man. I can pay.“ „I do not want your money,“ Brynn said to him. „I want your people out of my city. „
It took a moment for the words to register to those around her, but when they did, they brought whoops of delight from the To-gai-ru and a wide-eyed stare of disbelief from Yatol Grysh.
„Bring the emissary to me,“ Brynn instructed Pagonel, and the mystic rushed off to find Carwan Pestle.
„You cannot think to hold Dharyan,“ Yatol Grysh dared to say. Not Dharyan, no,“ said Brynn, moving about him and putting her fin-•r to pursed lips as if she was working through some details even then. No, that is a Behrenese name, and not one I desire. No, we will name it Dharielle. Yes, that is a fitting name.“
Triumphant cries erupted all about her, and as the news filtered down the ;reets, more and more took up the chant of „Dharielle! „ 1 agonel and Carwan Pestle arrived soon after.
Yatol!“ the poor Shepherd cried, and he moved for his master but was paly detained by the mystic. „You were my witness to the conquest and so you shall be my witness
fore the court of the Chezru Chieftain,“ Brynn said to the confused „Tell him that To-gai is free, and that any Behrenese caught uninvited
our soil will be killed. Tell him that this city, Dharielle, is now part of To
„Tell him,“ she said, moving very close and imposing, staring so hard“ the man that he seemed to wilt before her, „that if he ever again sends a s’ gle soldier against me, I will burn Jacintha to the ground, and him alo with it.“
„You fool!“ cried Grysh, and somehow, as if he had only then realiz H that he had absolutely nothing left to lose, he found the strength to stand before her. „Heathen, barbarian dog! He is the God-Voice, the chosen avatar of Yatol! He is -
Brynn looked to some of her soldiers around her and ended the tirade with two simple words. „Hang him.“
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