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.He pulled out to the side at the interval of Merir and the other arrha, hearing someone coming hard yet farther over; and it was, as he had thought… Morgaine.He gasped and the horse staggered as they joined that bridge of force, but the little arrha held tightly and he blinked his eyes clear as the serried line of lances came at them, near and distinct, like a forest horizontal.It was madness.They could not hit that mass and live.Senses denied it, even while the terror of Gate-force ripped the air along the line they held.He thought of Changeling added to that, and that frightened him the more; but Morgaine did not draw it.The red fire of her lesser weapon laced across the charge, merciless to horse and rider.Animals went down in a line; those behind tumbled after in a screaming tangle; and others went round them, some falling, but not enough.The lances came into their very faces.Vanye leaned aside as the Gate-force hit the rank like a scythe, tumbling horses and riders in the area of crossing forces; but the few riders nearest stayed ahorse, unaffected, flashing past most too dazed to strike well.Vanye could but lean and evade.A blade rang on his helm and shoulder as he bowed over the saddle and shielded the arrha as best he could.The 247Fires of Azerothhorse stumbled badly, recovered by a valiant effort, and they rode over corpses and the unconscious; he was hit more than once, and then they broke into the clear, the horses running.Morgaine drew ahead of him, Siptah taking free rein for a space, with the marshlanders ahead of her.The rabble tried to hold their ground; a hedge of braced spears barred her way.Then Changeling flashed into the open, a force that hit his nerves and sent the horse staggering even at this distance.It stopped; the arrha had shielded her own.For an instant he thought himself clear.Then a hoarse shout warned him.He hurled the arrha off as he wheeled and leaned, holding to the mane only.Roh was there, and Lellin, and the rider that thundered past spun off over his horse's tail.More Shiua came on.Vanye gained his seat and whipped out his sword, feeling his backing horse stumble over a body, recover under the brutal drive of the spurs.Hetharu.He saw the khal-lord coming down on him ahead of a trio of riders, and tried to gather himself to meet that charge.But Roh was already flashing past him, sword to sword with the khal with a shock of horse and metal, and Vanye veered instead for the rider at Hetharu's right— swordsman likewise.The halfling shouted hate and cut at him; Vanye whipped the sword aside and cut for the neck, knowing the man at the last instant: Hetharu's akil-drugged minion.He grimaced in disgust and reined about for the two that had sped behind him, expecting attack on his flank, but arrhendur arrows had robbed him of those.Roh needed no help; in his jolted vision he saw Hetharu of Ohtij-in flung nigh headless from the saddle, and themselves suddenly in a wide area where only corpses remained, corpses, a scattering of dazed men and horses only beginning to recover, and a handful of arrhendim, and the main body of the horde yet hazy with distance.He reined full about in desperation, seeking Morgaine— but he saw her then beyond them, she, and Merir, and a wide area where no dead lay and their enemies were in confused retreat.Changeling's shimmer glowed moon-pale in the twilight, and his arm ached in sympathy, for he knew well what it was to wield it.Then he recalled another companion, and looked right, turning his horse…saw with a pang of shame the little arrha, her white garments torn and 248Fires of Azerothbloody, who had gained her feet and caught one of the dazed horses.She could not reach the stirrup; the horse shied from her.Sezar reached her before any other, reached across the saddle from the other side and pulled her up.Then Vanye called to the rest of them and they started moving forward anxious to close the interval between themselves and Morgaine and Merir, for the Shiua were recovering themselves and their clear space was about to be invaded.But Morgaine did not delay for them.Once she saw them coming she reined about and spurred Siptah into a charge, knifing toward the regrouping Shiua foot, driving them before her as they had scattered the first time.Arrows flashed about them, brief and short of the mark; the fleeing Shiua did not delay to fire again.The Lesser Horn loomed now distinct and near, rising out of the twilight; a road led up to it, and marshlanders and Shiua humans scattered off it as they came.Some lingered to die, whirled away into that darkness at Changeling's tip; more fled, even casting down weapons in their terror, scrambling down the rocks at the side of the road.A vast gateway was open before them, and a dark interior with yet another open gate beyond, showing road and rocks in the fading light.Morgaine rode for that narrow shelter, and Merir beside her, the rest of them following in desperate haste, for arrows began to rattle on the stones about them.Then they gained the refuge, finding it empty— a fortress, of which the doors were splintered and riven, the near ones and the far.The horses skidded on the stone floor, hooves bringing echoes off the high arch above them, and stopped, hard breathing.Roh came in; and Lellin and Sezar; and Sharm and Kessun and Perrin, the arrha with them.Vis came last and late.Perrin leaned from the saddle to embrace her, overwhelmed with relief, though the khemein was bloody and hurt."Dev is not coming," said Sharm; tears glistening on the old arrhen's face."Kessun, we must make a pair now, we two.""Aye, arrhen, " said Kessun steadily enough."I am with you."249Fires of AzerothMorgaine rode slowly to the gate by which they had entered, but the Shiua seemed to have hesitance to charge the fortress, and had fallen back again.She found Changeling's sheath and despite the tremor of her arm, managed to slide the blade in and still the fire.Then she leaned forward on the saddle, almost fell.Vanye dismounted and came to her side, reached up and took her down into his arms, overwhelmed with fear for her
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