All the camp seemed bewildered.
Then the awful cry came again;
"Kadrug!" came the yell of a distant sentry, "and giants!"
Suddenly everyone seemed to be shouting at once. Si'Wren looked around
and saw men falling back from the nearest line of trees, their ordered
lines breaking up as men and horses fled under a flight of incoming
arrows.
Si'Wren took a hesitant step backwards, and froze at the sound of much
hoarse shouting from the other end of camp. She turned her head and
searched the field, heart pounding, and through the tall grass appeared
first speartips, then helmets, and then the heads and shoulders of
hostile men advancing in line-abreast formation, swinging flashing
bronze swords in ragged unison and driving back Borla's surprised
soldiers in a staggering, disorderly retreat.
There came the unfamiliar call of a horn trumpet from yet another
direction, and suddenly a troop of horse soldiers came thundering up
the path whence Emperor Euphrates's expedition had come, the ground
vibrating under uncountable hooves and cutting off their retreat as the
invaders plowed recklessly through Borla's shouting and screaming
rear-guard.
In mere seconds, all hope of organizing the men was lost, as they were
left in a shambles by the concerted charge of the attackers.
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