Then rebels were coming up all around Blade, pulling him back to safety while they moved into position on the flank of the pike-wall. Blade wiped his sword on a dead man's clothing and went back to being a general instead of a fighter.
Now the rebel line was holding nearly everywhere, but the Goharans were still pressing it hard. In a few places Goharans broke through and headed for the horse lines. Blade shouted for archers to shoot these intruders. If they managed to stampede many of the horses, it would be the rebels who'd have trouble retreating from this battlefield. Granted, they would be in friendly territory, but-
It suddenly occurred to Blade that two could play at this game. The rebels' archers weren't doing much in the fight now, because the fighters were now too mixed together for safe archery. But if a few hundred of them mounted up, slipped around to within bowshot of the Goharans' horses, and let fly?…
Blade started walking along the rebel lines, speaking to every archer he found who wasn't already using some other weapon. There weren't as many of these as he'd hoped. The rebel line was slowly falling back, leaving more and more men on the ground. Each time a man went down, someone had to take his place, and slowly the archers were being sucked into the hand-to-hand fight.
Blade managed to scrape up about eighty men with bows and full quivers. He led them toward the horse lines and watched them mount, then gave them their orders. «Move fast. Don't shoot at anything except the horses. Hit as many of them as-«
He stopped, because a low rumble was floating over the battlefield from beyond the hills to the east. Everyone else was hearing it too, and as the rumble grew louder, the fighting died down. Heads turned toward the hills-then Maghri drums sounded, and the whole rebel army exploded in wild shouts of joy and surprise.
The Maghri came over the crests of the hills on a wide front, moving at a trot. As they started downhill they broke into a canter, the fastest pace they could manage on the wet ground. Blade saw at once they were heading straight for the Goharan rear. A moment later he saw they were going to reach the — Goharan horses long before the Goharan soldiers could run to them.
Blade grabbed the bridle of the nearest free horse and swung himself up into the saddle. Then he shouted to the mounted archers.
«It looks as if the Maghri are going to do our work for us. Follow me!»
Blade remembered leading his mounted archers toward the rebel flank. He had some vague idea of getting a clear shot at the Goharans as they broke and ran. Then the whole battlefield dissolved into a chaos of running, fighting, screaming, and dying men, on horseback, on foot, and on the ground. He had only a few clear memories of anything happening after that.
— Seeing Khraishamo lead the teamsters and the other rebels who'd fought from the wagons out into the open. The pirate really deserved the name Bloodskin now. He was spattered from head to foot. His two axes still swung like scythes, reaping Goharans at every step.
— Seeing Goharans dropping their swords and going down on their knees to beg for quarter. Some of them were lucky enough to find a rebel or one of the Maghri in a good mood.
— Seeing a big bearded man on foot trying to rally his men, shouting, grabbing them, even beating at them with the flat of his sword. Blade rode in through the mob of Goharans and slashed downward with a captured Goharan sword. Only when a golden helmet fell off the dead man's head did Blade realize that he'd killed the Goharan general.
After a while the chaos began dying down, with only little knots of fighting men scattered here and there. Somewhat later, the fighting stopped entirely. Rebels on foot rounded up the prisoners, collected the dead, salvaged usable weapons and equipment, and started preparing dinner and tending the wounded. Rebels on horseback joined the Maghri in riding off to track down enemy fugitives and find the Goharan camp if they could.
«I think there will not be many who ran from this battle,» said Sigluf when he rode up to Blade. «But we should go out and look for others who may be coming.»
Blade resisted the temptation to point out that if scouts had gone out before the battle, the Goharans wouldn't have surprised the rebels in the first place. As far as he was concerned, his quarrel with Sigluf was over and done with.
So was Gohar's only field army in Mythor, as it turned out: Stunned and bewildered prisoners talked freely, and Blade was able to fill in the details they didn't give. General Kaurget, the man in the golden helmet, knew that Gohar couldn't face a long war against the rebels. As soon as he heard the rebels were gathering, he assembled four thousand picked mounted men and rode inland. When he learned that the rebel army was close at hand but apparently not on its guard, he decided to strike quickly. It was a gamble, trusting to surprise and discipline to offset three-to-one odds. With a little more surprise or a little less stubborn courage, the gamble would have been a success. Even then, without the Maghri attack the Goharans might have been able to retreat safely. There was more than enough glory to go around among the victors. Blade hoped this would reduce bad blood and bad tempers between the Maghri and the rebels.
There was also an open road to Mythor itself, if they didn't waste any time.
Chapter 23
It was nightfall before Blade heard that Gribbon was dead of wounds he'd received early in the battle. Nobody seemed to be willing to take command of the rebels. So Blade simply walked around, giving orders until people started obeying them. «Easiest way of promoting myself I ever found,» he said afterward. No one cared now whether or not he was the Man from the Future. Everyone knew what he'd done in the day's fighting.
When he was satisfied that the prisoners and wounded were going to be provided for and the rest of the army would be ready to move tomorrow morning, Blade went in search of Khraishamo. He found the pirate sitting in his tent, Rhodina beside him, and Sigluf in the middle of apologizing.
«It is not good to say anything against a warrior like you,» said the Maghri chief. «It was bad that I ever did it. I will not do it again. I will make this promise before all the warriors if you ask it.»
«I won't ask it,» said Khraishamo, signaling Blade to sit down. «But Blade may ask more. He fought for me, and that gives him some right to speak.»
Blade smiled. «Sigluf, you are also a fine warrior. So I won't ask anything more from you now. I will ask something for the future, though.»
«What is that?»
«The next time you have some complicated battle plan, tell us about it. It was a good idea, pretending to retreat so that the Goharans would be drawn into a battle, then riding around to take them in the rear. It would have been even better to tell us about it first.
«If you ever do something like that again without telling us, I'll challenge you again. And then I will do my best to spatter whatever you use for brains all over the grass.»
Sigluf took the good-natured threat as Blade intended. «I see now that your people are warriors I can trust. I will not hide anything from them again. Let us drink to the many more victories we shall win side by side.»
They drank. «This is the last ale from the barrel Blade fell into this morning,» said Khraishamo. «So we know it's fit for warriors to drink.» He put an arm around Rhodina, and it was obvious to Blade that he wanted to be alone with his woman.