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.The lines were stabilized, shoving back and forth over a space of ten yards.He also observed that the mass of men facing them seemed to be growing stronger every moment.More and more arrows and javelins came flying over.Sergeant Burrum went down, skewered through the neck, dead before he hit the ground.Another javelin brushed past Thru's shoulder, missing by less than a finger's width.The infernal drumming grew louder, and now a host of shrieking bugles gave Thru a sudden premonition of disaster.They had come too late! The Meld of Daneep had been careless, and the enemy had caught up with him in time to destroy his army before the Grys Blana could join.The Meld's army had been defeated, and the entire enemy army now turned around on Thru's regiment.He got up on a tree stump and looked up and down their line.The Sulmo regiments were still holding a good line.An arrow flashed past his nose, and he ducked down again.The woods ahead of them were filled with men and their banners as far back as he could see.Thru ran to the Grys Blana's position, visible beneath the banner of Blana."Sir, the enemy are coming on with their full strength.They must have driven the Meld from the field.""Impossible," said the Grys, but in his eyes Thru saw fear.The Grys had at least noticed that the charge had stopped, as if it had hit a brick wall."I don't think so, sir.I recommend strongly that we fall back in good order to the village and fortify it.We're going to have to hold off their entire army.""I.How can you be so sure?" The brittle ebullience of the Grys had suddenly boiled away."Just get up somewhere and take a look over there.They'll be marching to outflank us on both sides in a few minutes."The Grys glanced nervously left and right.A staffer pointed to a broken gate in a low wall.When the Grys jumped down again, he had a new look in his eyes."Something is wrong.Perhaps the Meld has withdrawn." He swallowed."You are right, we must move back to the village.""Quickly, sir.No time to waste."But a withdrawal while under full engagement was a difficult maneuver even for highly trained troops.The young regiments of the Grys Blana were not ready.Their line broke up as they tried to pull back.More and more men came swarming forward.Men broke out onto the open field to their right now, lapping around the flank of the Blana regiments.On Thru's side of the line, the Sixth Regiment held fast while the Twelfth retired in an oblique line, refusing its flank to the enemy.When the Twelfth had gone a hundred paces back, they halted, and the Sixth began to retire in order, trying to keep a crescent-shaped front to the enemy.On their right the Blana regiments teetered on the brink of collapse, then pulled themselves together with great effort and threw back the men.The fight hung in the balance, but the mots and brilbies had seen total disaster staring them in the face and this gave them a desperation that momentarily overwhelmed the men in front of them.Their power did not last for long, though, because the Blana mots were outflanked and forced to move farther down slope as their left moved forward.Thru pulled a company away from the Sixth Regiment and sent it at a run to help the Blanans.The little army was now halfway back to the village.But the men poured down on them and soon surrounded them completely.On the front line the fighting continued, but less intensely.The men could only muster spasmodic bouts of fury.A flurry of bugle notes confirmed this fact, and the men on their front pulled back ten yards, retiring to the ranks behind them.The second and third lines also pulled back and retired, but immediately a horde of fresh men came through to fill the front rank.A forty-yard gap opened up between the lines.It was the last chance for the mot regiments."Now!" Thru said to Ter-Saab."We have to get back to the village.Run for it." Ter-Saab screamed the order himself, running along the back of the Sixth Regiment.The Grys Glaine followed suit, and the two Glaine regiments began to back away as quickly as they dared from the line of battle.They ran back a few paces then stopped and turned, then ran some more as they found the gap widening between the two forces.On their right the Blana regiments were still in place, beset on the far flank.The Shasht bugles wailed.The enemy realized what the mots were up to, but the men's ranks were still in transition.They could not pursue for a few more seconds.Finally they began to advance, but their line was ragged, and harsh voices could be heard raging at them about that.Correcting the problem didn't take long, with well trained Shasht soldiery though and they soon charged forward with a roar."Hurry!" Thru ran among the retreating troops."Back to the village, we have to try and fortify it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]