And racing after the heavy horse column came Dylvana on lighter mounts, swords reaving down those yet standing as the running steeds flew by.
And in the lead one of the massive horses crashed into and over a Helsteed; the Ghul astride, quilled with arrows, was smashed under, and there came the sound of breaking bones. Yet the corpse-white foe gained his feet, his barbed spear still in hand. And he stepped aside from the next galloping horse and, smiling a yellow-toothed grin, stabbed upward at the rider, the brutal spikes on the spear blade punching through the Baeran's stomach, knocking him back over the saddle cantle, driving the Ghul hindward and wrenching the weapon from the corpse-foe's grasp.
Yet as the Ghul stepped toward the felled man and took hold of the haft and stared down in malignant glee, there came a call-"Cha!"-and he looked up to see -Loric's blade flash as he thundered by-Schlak!-the face yet leering as the Ghul's head flew through the air to land in the way and be crushed 'neath smashing hooves, the Ghul's headless corpse yet holding the haft of the cruel barbed spear as it toppled sideways to fall under hammering hooves as well.
And when the thundering horses and two wee ponies and light Elven steeds had gone past and away-Sssss… – more Dylvana arrows sissed into the surviving Rupt, most to punch through the backs of the fleeing foe.
And now, led by Bwen, Baeron raced from behind the wagons, their great long legs overhauling the Wrg, shorter Dylvana leaping o'er wagon sideboards and dashing after, some with long-knives in hand, others yet loosing arrows.
And running easterly fled two Helsteeds, arrow-quilled Ghflls astride.
Yet riding after came the heavy horses of the Baeron and two fleet ponies. But Dylvana horses were swifter still, and Phais, Loric, Ruar, Eilor, Elon, Lyra, and a host of others raced in grim silence after the fleeing Ghulka, the Elves gaining with every stride, their keen blades glinting lethally in the morning sun.
Seeing that they could not catch the Guula, the Baeron turned the heavy horses and once again smashed over shrieking bands of the fleeing Rutcha and Drokha.
There were not many survivors when the Baeron and Dylvana on foot caught the scattered remainder.
And then there were none.
Leading horse and pony back toward the train, Ruar and Tipperton passed among the slain foe-bodies smashed, intestines and viscera burst and strewn, dead eyes staring from those faces not crushed, brains leaking from shattered skulls, limbs broken, arrows through throats and hearts and abdomens, gaping slashes yawning wide-a thousand pierced and hacked and crushed and broken corpses.
Tipperton was numbed by the carnage, for the face of war was hideous.
"Thou didst say to kill them all, Sir Tipperton, and kill them all we did, and thou canst see what we have done- the wreaking of havoc upon the enemy.
"Yea, mayhap they deserved this end, yet one cannot be casual about such, for to be so is to be no different from them."
On they walked, their route bringing them at last to the hospital wains, where among the healers tending the wounded, Beau stitched a tulwar cut on the leg of a Baeran. Nearby lay three cloth-covered bodies: two of them large, as of Baeron; one of them smaller, as of a Dylvana.
Ruar dropped the reins of his horse and stepped to the corpses and lifted the sheets away from their faces. Tipperton gasped, for although he knew neither of the Baeron, the slain Dylvana was Lerren, the scout who had come into Darda Erynian bearing Ruar's summons for Tipperton and Vail to join the war council, the scout who had relieved them there.
Ruar turned to the buccan. "And this is the price we paid for killing them all."
Tipperton burst into tears.
Chapter 32
While the Dylvana gathered wood and cut branches from nearby pines to build a pyre for slain Lerren, the Baeron took up their dead and rode northwesterly toward the fringes of Darda Erynian-the Great Greenhall-standing some three leagues away. Loric went with them, for as he had said, "Someone should be present to sing their souls into the sky."
But it was Vail who came to Tipperton and asked that he play his silver-stringed lute at the Dylvana death rites, and so he did as the flames rose up, tears streaming down his face. And a thousand Elven voices lifted in song out on the meadow that day…
… while in the quiet green folds of Darda Erynian there sang but a single one.
Passing the corpses of two beheaded Ghuls lying beside the road, their slain Helsteeds nearby, Coron Ruar and a contingent of Elves and Baeron and two Warrows rode into Braeton nigh midday. And they were appalled by what they found therein-the innocent dead, the mutilation, the wanton destruction and slaughter-the whole wreathed in a foetor of putrefaction.
Sickened, Tipperton looked up at Phais and declared, "This is ten times over what was done at Stede, at Annory."
At Tipperton's side, Beau peered 'round. "A city of the dead, that's what this is, a terrible city of the dead."
Phais nodded, then looked down at the buccen. "Ye will see more of the like or worse ere Modru is laid by the heels."
From down nigh the road a clarion called. Phais sighed. " 'Tis the signal to assemble."
They mounted their steeds and rode back down through the streets of the slain, joining with others answering Ruar's summons. And when all had gathered, the Coron said, "We ride back to the wains, for there is little we can do here."
"Can't we even bury them or burn them?" called Beau.
Ruar shook his head. "Nay, wee one, except for our own the dead must lie where they are felled until this war is done. Then mayhap kindred or others will come and see unto the slain."
Ruar turned to Bwen. "Is there aught, Wagonleader, thou canst use among these ruins?"
"Aye, there's some bales of bush clover we can take for the steeds; a bit of grain, too."
"Then do so."
"Are we no better than Rucks and such to rob the dead?" whispered Beau to Tip aside.
"They have no use for it," sissed Tip back. "Besides, the maggot-folk are the cause of all this, not us."
Phais looked at the buccen. "Aye, Beau, Tipperton is right. Were we to slaughter merely for plunder, then would we be no better."
Beau frowned but held his tongue.
In midafternoon the Baeron came back from the woodland funeral, and they drove the remainder of the great horses with them, horses which had been corralled in Darda Erynian for safekeeping. And among those huge steeds were the lighter horses of the Elves, for their spare mounts had been corralled in the wood as well.
The next morning, with outriding scouts far in the lead, the vanguard and cavalcade and wagon train moved easterly through Rimmen Gape, leaving behind the field of slaughter, leaving behind the city of the dead, leaving behind two leaf-covered bowers in the fringes of the Great Greenhall and a circle of scorch in the mead.
And even as they rode, an Elven rider on swift steed and trailing three remounts overtook the train and the cavalcade and galloped past and away, riding in haste for the vanguard a mile or so ahead.
Tipperton, Beau, Vail, Melor, Loric, and Phais were in the rank following Ruar when the courier rode alongside the Coron's file, her horses lathered and blowing.
"The Hidden Ones, my Coron," she called, "they've driven the Horde from the ruins of Caer Lindor. The Swarm fled from Darda Erynian and Darda Stor in terror, and ere they won free of the dardas, fully half of the Spaunen were slain, ne'er to answer Modru's bugles again."
Ruar clenched a fist. "Well and good, Dara Cein. Is there aught else?"
"Nay, my Coron. Eio Wa Suk report no more."
"And Caer Lindor, it is in ruins?"
"Aye, my Coron, or so the Pyska who relayed the message say."
Ruar shook his head in regret as Cein added, "The caer betrayed is a mighty strongholt no more."