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.But, all in all, the enemy's losses were not half those of Toshak's alone.Barely enough men and mots remained to hold a defensive line against the enemy.Some good news came from the rear.The enemy's horsemen had emerged from the forest and made an attack on the hospital.The company of guards there had been unscathed by the dawn light, and they had engaged the horsemen, forming a line with grounded pikes.The horsemen had tried to panic the defenders, then fired off arrows from a distance, and finally wheeled away and made another attempt to get in among the tents.After being frustrated five times, the cavalry pulled back and retreated into the forest once more, leaving half a dozen dead behind.Thru would have liked to go back and reassure himself that Nuza was safe, but he was kept busy working with the Grys Norvory on reshaping the right wing of the army, digging in and setting out a screen of pickets.Toshak and his staff worked like demons to pull the army into some sort of shape and improve positions with a trench and sharpened stakes.The catapults were firing as fast as they could be wound up and released, and their long spears were capable of killing well beyond the range of the archers.The enemy was unhappy with standing there being shot at with the huge spears.Their lines wavered and had to be ordered to stand still.Toshak increased the pressure when another set of catapults were finally brought into operation.They had been trapped on the crowded trail from Dronned during the fighting.Now there were six of the things in action, and that meant a near constant rain of long spears into the enemy ranks.Eventually, the enemy gave in and shifted even farther back, although the catapults were still taking a toll.By late morning, they were seen digging their own trenches and erecting protective fasciae.The battle had ended, if only for the time being.Both sides were worn out from the exertions of the dawn hours.Slowly, as the day wore on, those who had been blinded began to recover their sight.At first they saw in fits and starts, and many were cursed with dark flecks and spots in their vision, but hour by hour things improved.By early afternoon, only those who had stared full into the rising sun at that deadly moment were still affected.Alas, many of these victims had been slain in the first fury of the battle.By then Thru Gillo had received some of that breakfast that Meu had promised long before.Afterward he promptly fell asleep, wrapped in his cloak, behind Toshak's command post.CHAPTER THIRTY-THREESergeant Rukkh rested the butt of his spear on the ground and let his shield lean against his thigh.Like the rest of the men in the line, he was bone-tired but too wound up to sleep.The day had been a strange one."All this hocus-pocus gives my belly the gripes," said Ladwaller, a big man from Grezack."Gives us all the gripes," said Rukkh.Worse than that, of course, because it had made about twenty men in the company stone-blind that morning when they had bad luck to be awake and looking eastward when the sun first broke over the hills.In that, the company had done better than most: in some outfits on the far right of the line, as many as half the men had been blinded."Goddamned lizard-men, bad dreams, and this blindness.It's a bad situation," continued Ladwaller."Shut up, Ladwaller," said Belzec."We're all in this together.""Don't I know it," said the big man.Rukkh kept quiet.Letting the men grumble was part of being a good sergeant.Especially a sergeant who was now running the whole company since the officers had been killed.The lads were a solid lot.They'd been in the Blitz Regiment since the beginning of the war and represented the best they had left in this army."Least the blind are getting their sight back now.""No thanks to He Who Eats for that!" said another soldier.Rukkh grunted to himself.The religion of the Great God had really taken a nosedive in the Blitz Regiment over the past year.Once they'd been given the chance to take out the Red Tops, all interest in Orbazt Subuus had dried up.Rukkh made a mental note to inform the Emperor about that the next time he was summoned to report on the mood in the army."Sergeant," called Chimikin, a youngster drafted into the Blitzers from the Ninth Regiment, "something's happening over there."Rukkh sighed and shifted position to look down into the valley.His company was holding a section of the army's line, set halfway up the hillside.Their former position, all nicely dug in, could be seen clearly about three hundred yards downslope.They'd worked hard the previous day to fortify it, but all their efforts came to naught when the monkeys had been overwhelmed in the dawn attack and the whole army had been forced to shift back up the hill.Now he could see the enemy moving forward again, this time to face the men of Aeswiren's army."What are they up to?" Ladwaller asked suspiciously."I don't know, big man, but I'm sure we're going to find out before it's all over."More and more of the enemy army was advancing, dressing out their line to their right and giving every indication of forming an attack column."All right, men, take notice of what's going on down there.Our enemy has got his wind back, and he's ready to take us on again.This time it looks like he wants some of our metal in his guts instead of the monkeys'.""Be glad to oblige him," growled Ladwaller.Armor clanked as the men stood up, drew their swords to inspect them, arranged their shields, and put on their helmets after scratching their heads.The enemy was massing right along Aeswiren's front."Seems weird to me," said Belzec."Why's that?" said Rukkh."Well, a frontal assault like this? Right at us and us all ready for him? He usually comes up with some kind of trickery, right?""Yeah, well, maybe he's run out of tricks."Belzec snorted disbelievingly at that."It's starting again.Listen," said Ladwaller.And it was.The damned drums were going again, throbbing insistently over on the far side of the river."Look, they're raising their shields over their heads." Belzec pointed.Rukkh saw what the enemy was doing and immediately gave the order for everyone to do the same.He turned on his heel and sprinted to the command post of Colonel Begeluse, now commanding the regiment.Begeluse wasn't the brightest spark in the fire, but he'd come to realize that the enemy's tricks were dangerous.Not only did he repeat Rukkh's suggested order to the whole Blitz Regiment but he passed on the advice up the chain of command.Aeswiren instantly concurred, and within half a minute every man in the army had his shield raised.The monkeys were starting to imitate the men when another sound rang out, piercingly loud, echoing off the hillsides, as if a hammer had struck a bell.The echoes of the sound were just fading away when the flash came.From one end of the sky to the other on an east-west axis exploded a vast bolt of blue fire.For a long second or two, the whole world was hidden in the blinding glare of that fire.If they hadn't had their shields raised over their heads, they would have been blinded a second time.Yet the sorcery wasn't primarily intended to blind.Instead, every man felt his limbs grow heavy and his heart grow weak."What in the name of hell is this?" snarled Ladwaller.Rukkh felt as if his arms had turned into lead weights.He wanted to sink down on the turf and just sleep forever."They're coming!" shouted Chimikin.The lad was right.The enemy obviously hadn't suffered from the disabling power of the blue flash, because they were charging up the slope at a steady trot, spears at the ready."All right, everyone, suck it up.We can still fight.We ain't gonna lie down and let the fornicating sons of bitches kill us that easily
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