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hesitate to send good men to their deaths on such a chancy plan."
"These men are soldiers!" Batu snapped. "I would not think a Tuigan needed to be reminded of this."
The adjutant scowled. "As you wish," he replied.
Jochibi turned and passed Batu's plan along to five mes-sengers, being careful not to let his own doubts
show. After the messengers rode off, Batu and the Tuigan officer waited in bitter silence. Finally, twenty
minutes later, the messen-gers returned with confirmations from the commanders of the five minghans that
made up the five-thousand-man army.
Batu drew his sword. Instead of the heavy tao he had taken from Kei Bot, he now carried the slightly
curved sa-ber of a Tuigan horseman. It felt warm and natural in his hand.
He turned to Jochibi, who was staring at the battle lines in stoic silence. "Can I rely on you?"
Jochibi drew his gleaming weapon, then kissed its golden quillon. "Your boldness frightens me, Shou. But
the orders are issued. I'll do what I must to win the battle."
Batu remembered a similar assurance from Kei Bot. That assurance had turned into betrayal and cost
him the victory at Shou Kuan. Jochibi was no Kei Bot, however. The Tuigan had always seemed a selfless
and dedicated officer, so Batu thought he could believe the man's words.
"You are a good soldier, Jochibi," Batu said. "With your support, this plan will work—I promise."
"That's the emptiest promise anyone ever made to me," the Tuigan said, smiling grimly. "If your plan
fails, who'll be left to punish you for breaking your word?"
"There's no place in the eighteen hells where I could hide from you, I'm sure," Batu replied.
With that, Batu spurred his horse forward. Screaming the Tuigan war cry, the hundred members of his
bodyguard fol-lowed. As they passed through the forward line, the drum-mers sounded the advance. Within
a minute thousands of barbarian warriors were galloping toward the enemy in a long thin line.
Almost immediately, crude arrows began to rain down on the Tuigan. Fortunately, the gnolls were not
nearly as accu-rate with their weapons as the horsewarriors were with theirs. Out of the corner of his eyes,
Batu saw only a few men falling, and it was a rare thing for a gray shaft to flash past his own face.
The Tuigan drums stirred a wild exhilaration in man and beast alike. Nevertheless, Batu did not feel
carried away by his mount, as he had at Shou Kuan. Even with his body-guard behind him, there were far
fewer horses crowded into a small area, and the Tuigan were experts at controlling their mounts. The big
black stallion simply kept pace with the other horses, advancing at a steady, rhythmic gait.
At one hundred yards, the Tuigan archers began to return the gnolls' fire, and to guide their horses
toward companies of dog-men. Though the horsewarriors were firing on the move, many of their arrows
found their marks. A few of the furry brutes began to drop, clawing furiously at feathered shafts protruding
from their simple leather armor. To Batu's amazement, others simply broke off the shafts and nocked
another arrow in their own bows. The archery of the wounded gnolls was weak and inaccurate, but Batu
was im-pressed that they continued to fight at all.
As the Tuigan neared the enemy lines, Batu looked toward the flying specks Jochibi had pointed out.
They had already moved closer, and the renegade could see that each one looked like a tiny "V" For him to
see their wings from so far away, he realized, the creatures had to be much larger than any bird. They
were flying toward the center of the battle-field, probably hoping to break the Tuigan line.
Batu smiled. They could not have picked a strategy better suited to his plan.
The sudden eruption of a fireball jarred him out of his ela-tion. A glob of flame appeared to his left,
engulfing four riders in its orange sphere. Batu's horse whinnied in fright and stumbled, but the Shou kicked
its flanks and the beast recovered its footing.
A moment later, a dozen red streaks flared out of the closest gnoll company. They flashed past the
Shou's head, each one striking a rider and leaving a burning hole in the man's chest. The magicians had
started to do their work.
Batu glimpsed a red robe in the company directly ahead. He pointed at it. "The wizard!" he cried,
screaming as loud as he could to make himself heard over the drums. "Shoot the wizard!"
No sooner had he screamed than a dozen Tuigan arrows flew directly at the figure. They smashed into
an invisible barrier and fell to the ground. In the next instant, the wiz-ard vanished.
It did not matter, for magic would not stop the charge now. The Tuigan were so close that the gnolls—at
least the ones who still stood—were dropping their bows in favor of battle-axes and morning stars. Batu
noted that his own troops were holstering their bows and drawing sabers. In another instant, the charging
horsewarriors would smash into the gnoll companies and the melee would begin.
Batu used that instant to check the progress of the flying cavalry. The formation was so close that he
could see the mounts did not resemble horses at all. Each beast had the head, wings, and forequarters of a
giant eagle, while the tail and hindquarters were those of a huge lion. Although he had heard stories about
such creatures and knew they were called griffins, he had always believed the animals to be lit-tle more
than imaginary.
On each griffin's back rode a red-robed wizard and a rider armed with a lance and bow. Batu noted
with pleasure that neither the rider nor his passenger wore armor, undoubt-edly to avoid burdening the
griffin with extra weight.
He had no more time to study the fliers. Batu's horse crashed into a gnoll company, and he was engulfed
in a mass of gray fur. A pair of huge hairy hands reached for him from the left side. The dog-man's breath
filled the air with the stench of carrion and half-digested meat. The beast was barking commands to another
gnoll in a coarse, gut-tural language.
Batu slashed at the beast's hands. A huge fist fell to the ground, leaving nothing but a bloody stump
behind. The wounded gnoll growled and lunged for the Shou. The rene-gade pulled his foot from the stirrup
and kicked the dog-man square in the forehead. The blow would have felled a man, but the gnoll only
snarled and knocked Batu's leg aside.
Batu slashed with his sword again, this time opening a gash in the beast's hairy throat. The gnoll roared,
then slapped his good hand over the wound and backed away. The Shou turned to his right, just in time to
see the flanged head of an iron morning star sailing at his face. Batu ducked, but knew his reflexes would
be too slow.
A sword flashed past his ear, then connected with the morning star's chain. The deadly ball looped
around the blade, a flange slicing Batu's cheek open. The rest of the weapon missed his face by less than
an inch.
In the next instant, Jochibi wrenched the morning star from the hands of Batu's attacker, then urged his
horse for-ward to trample the growling brute.
"Thanks, Jo—"
Before Batu completed his acknowledgement, a powerful hand seized his belt. Already unsteady from
his narrow brush with the morning star, the Shou nearly lost his bal-ance and slipped from his horse.
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