He was striving to reach Guin even as he fended off the attacks of several Lagon warriors. Pollak, following close behind him, was frantically trying to persuade his captain to stop.
“This is madness, sir! That creature is not human! He must be a god or a demon, with that horrible leopard’s head! Do you want to die? Captain!”
“I don’t care if he is a god, or a demon, or Doal himself…”
“Look at how he fights!” Pollak panted.
“I want to challenge him!”
“Don’t die in a place like this!”
Astrias turned away from his lieutenant to shout again into the midst of the battle. “Guin, fight with me! With me, Guin!”
A sudden thought occurred to Pollak. “Captain! We have a duty to protect our lady. We must fall back to protect our Lady of Mongaul’s banner.”
“Our Lady of Mongaul…”
Astrias' eyes opened wide. With a shake of his head he came to his senses and gazed back towards the place where his cherished lady had established her command post. He cursed silently at what he saw. The raging Lagon were approaching the post and Amnelis' personal guard. Their immaculate figure’s dyed with blood, the white knights, who until then had rarely entered into the fray of battle themselves, strove desperately to drive back the incoming giants.
“Lady Amnelis is in danger!” Astrias shouted. He spun around to address the red knights in formation behind him. “Troops, change direction! Reinforce the Lady General’s guard!”
“It’s about time,” muttered Pollak, whose true obsession was to protect his young captain.
“Pull back, pull back! Protect Lady Amnelis!” Astrias bellowed his orders. He could not fail to notice Guin, who was trampling over Irrim Corps as though berserk; yet he resolutely turned from the hated foe and headed for the lady-general. It was no easy task to reach her, however. The bulk of the Lagon force was now between them. Astrias clenched his teeth and charged forward, swinging his sword like a madman, but against that formidable barrier he made little progress—it was like swimming against a flood tide. In the meantime, the troops of white knights, with little time to reform their ranks, faced a difficult fight.
“My lady!” Vlon came running from amidst the fray. “My lady, we are at a disadvantage here. Let us withdraw for the time being. Please, give the order to retreat!”
“What are you saying, Vlon?!” Amnelis twisted her slender hands together. Her voice was vehement. “We have come this far at last, and you suggest retreat? This is just an action against savages—and we are the army of Mongaul! Our superb soldiers cannot show their backs to mere barbarians!”
“Those giants…” Vlon was at a loss for words.
Gajus stood up slowly. “My lady, please order the drums to sound a withdrawal.”
“Gajus! You, too?” Amnelis pushed back her blond hair irritably. “Or are you merely saying that we need only withdraw from this place for the time being, due to unfavorable terrain— that we shall trounce these creatures later at a battlefield of our choosing? That I could understand, Gajus.”
“I am suggesting that the whole invasion force return to the banks of the River Kes and beyond to our defensive walls,” Gajus replied brusquely.
Amnelis held her breath, growing pale with vexation, and stared at both Gajus and Vlon. She drew herself up to her full height. But before she could speak again, a voice cried out wildly from nearby—
“Lady! Beware!”
A Lagon warrior had burst through the double and treble lines of protection and was closing in on them with his enormous cudgel held high. At the sight of him Amnelis froze and screamed with fear. With a shout of dismay Vlon sprang forward and pushed her aside. The next instant, the heavy cudgel hit Vlon across the side; he staggered sideways with a gasp and spun half way around before he struck the ground, where he convulsed, vomited globs of blood, and lay still. An instant later the Lagon who had killed him was cut in half from behind by a mighty stroke of Lindrot’s sword. He, too, had returned to suggest a retreat.
“Lady, it is very dangerous here! Let us return to the River Kes to regroup and join with Ricard’s forces.”
Amnelis stood as though in shock, looking as pale and fragile as a piece of paper. She nodded without speaking. Gajus and Lindrot took up protective positions on either side of her and hurriedly withdrew from the field of battle. Soon, a Mongauli drum could be heard sounding the retreat, echoing into the clear dawn sky.
“General withdrawal! The army will retreat to the banks of the River Kes!”
“Withdraw! Withdraw!”
Lindrot helped Amnelis astride her horse, wishing he could comfort her. When he looked into her face, words failed him. Her cheeks were drawn and her visage ghostly, and she bit her lip as she surveyed the battle unraveling around her. She had lost the notorious proud bearing of the Lady of Mongaul— even her famed blond hair seemed to have faded and lost its brightness. Suddenly Amnelis looked her age, as if she were indeed an ordinary, powerless and frail eighteen-year-old maiden. Around her the renowned fighting men of her archduchy leaped onto their horses without waiting to reform their ranks, rushing to escape to the west and the distant sanctuary of the Kes. The magnificence of their bearing when they had last crossed the river was nowhere in sight.
The Mongauli expeditionary force of fifteen thousand strong had been reduced to a pitiful remnant one third that number. The beat of the drum sounding the retreat rose like a cry of despair, a final proof of the broken aspirations of the Mongauli to seize control of Nospherus and to learn its secrets.
“The rear guard…?”
Amnelis finally regained sufficient composure to pose the question only after the army had withdrawn from the rocky slopes below Dog’s Head Mountain and ridden pell-mell all the way back through the war-torn oasis. She had just been informed that the mixed force of Lagon and Sem that had assailed them no longer posed an imminent threat.
“Astrias Corps is on duty,” Lindrot answered heavily.