Jadow came reining in, his mount staggering as he leaped off. Calis shouted, “Where’s Foster?”
Jadow shook his head. “They bought none of it. As soon as I took off, they followed me and ignored the corporal. The corporal turned around and hit them from the flank, buying me a head start, Captain, but . . .” He didn’t have to say any more.
Erik thought of the big man, Jerome Handy, who had become something of a friend after being embarrassed by Sho Pi aboard the ship. He glanced to his right and saw Sho Pi, and nodded. Sho Pi nodded back, as if he understood what Erik was thinking.
Luis said, “Then we bleed lizards,” under his breath, but loud enough for those near him to hear.
Erik drew his sword and put his reins between his teeth. He unlimbered his shield and made ready. He’d control his mount with his legs, but he kept the reins in his jaws in case he needed to yank them.
The Saaur’s animals must be as incredibly strong as their riders, thought Erik, for if Jadow’s mount was near death, the Saaur’s looked merely tired. Yet the green-skinned warriors didn’t pause once they saw the line of soldiers facing them.
“We don’t scare them much,” observed Nakor from behind Erik, who wouldn’t take his eyes off the approaching riders.
Calis said, “When I give the order, I want bowfire; then the first rank will charge. The second rank will hold until I give the order.”
The bowmen, all in the center of the second line, drew back their weapons, and de Loungville half muttered, “Wait for it!”
The Saaur bore down relentlessly, and as they approached, Erik started noticing details. Some wore feathers on their helms, while others had strange animals and birds on their shields. The horses were bay and chestnut, with some that were almost black, but while a few were near-white, he saw no buckskins or mottled colors. Erik wondered why he was fascinated by the fact of their being no pintos or buckskins. He fought down an unexpected urge to laugh.
Then Calis shouted, “Shoot!” and the forty archers in the second line let loose. The rain of shafts caused a half-dozen riders to fall, and several of the alien horses screamed. Then Calis shouted, “Charge!”
Erik dug his heels into his horse’s flanks and with a shout and a powerful squeeze of his legs told the horse to gallop. He didn’t look to see how the others were doing, but kept his focus on a Saaur with a metal crest topped with a horsehair fall atop his helm. The horsehair had been bleached and dyed a bright crimson, so it was an easy target for Erik.
Erik sensed more than saw when his own horse crashed into the larger animal. He was too intent on avoiding the blow aimed at his neck. The Saaur warrior used a large single-bladed ax, which meant he could bludgeon with it on the backswing, but cut only with a forward blow. Erik almost fell into the gap between the two animals after his own mount staggered away from the larger horse. Erik ducked under the looping blow, but recovered in time to deliver a punishing blow with his sword to the thigh of the Saaur.
He didn’t see if the creature fell from the saddle or rode past, because he was too busy engaging another warrior who had just unhorsed one of Hatonis’s clansmen. Erik charged him and got his sword point under the creature’s shield before it could turn and face him, and the Saaur fell backwards, flipping completely over the rear of his horse.
Erik swore and reined his own horse away as the riderless alien horse lashed out with a foreleg. “ ’Ware the mounts!” he cried. “They’re trained to attack, too.”
Erik moved to help Roo, who was attempting to work in tandem with Luis against one Saaur. He came up on the lizard man’s blind side and delivered a killing blow to the back of the creature’s helm. The Saaur fell over and the helm fell off, revealing an alien face, green and scaled, but covered in scarlet blood.
“Well, their blood’s not green,” shouted Biggo, riding by. “They’re also dying right enough.”
“So are we,” said Roo, pointing. Biggo and Erik turned to see that while most of the Saaur had been unhorsed, for each one killed, one of their own was down as well.
Pushing back his helm, Biggo said, “We face them three to one, and still they take us out in equal numbers.”
“Shoot,” cried Calis, and the ten archers who remained to him started peppering the five remaining Saaur with arrows.
Jadow said, “Look!” and pointed into the distance.
“That’s why they’re so fearless,” shouted de Loungville. “These are just the trail-breakers!”