Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...

Sova followed the line of sight, her face closed with concentration; her eyes flicked to Enchian light foot
seemingly caught in a crowd of Arkan foot. But the Arkans, she realized, were out-of-ammunition
archers. "The Lakan heavy horse, backed up by the Tor Enchian light horse—ya, the Princes' standards
are moving, there they go, Gotthumml, you're right! Hehas to!"
"And if he calls the pikers?"
"They'll leave the whole center wide open and won't have time to get set anyway!"
"Well, maybe. Only ifwe don't do what we ought to quick enough. What's that?"
"Chase them! Seize the advantage!"
"Right. But with forces this size, Sova, things take so long that it's already too late—unless it's already
planned. Now look. Look how things are arranged, stop seeing people and banners and spear-tips and
lines, look atpatterns. Look what's forming ." Confusion seemed to disappear like a fog burned away
by sun, and the way every unit was placed sprang clear; a moment after she'd imagined it, it played out
real, like a dream coming true.
Alliance formations that had been crossing or weaving, wheeling or standing pat were suddenly all
moving together, one mile-wide axe-blow cutting into the sudden weak point in the Arkan line. Through
the far-lookers, she watched pike-points bobbing backwards or wavering, then mown down as the great
charge stabbed through. The Arkans were thrown into confusion, some running back and forth, some
begging for orders from a command-post now lost under Lakan hooves, some breaking and fleeing, and
some turning to fight alone or back to back, before the Alliance charge washed over, making none of it
matter.
"Should you choose generalling," said Shkai'ra, "it will be twenty or thirty years, if ever, before you're in
a position to try something like that, and twenty or thirty years before youshould . But you'veseen it, and
you can never lose that learning. You saw it, probably about the same time the Arkan general did, and
knew his pyre was lit… and he was a general."
"Well, the dance is over." Shkai'ra grinned. "Now comes the kill. He always leaves them a way out; but
tough luck if they can't run fast enough." In another quarter-hour, nothing was left that wasn't a clear
Alliance rout. Sova witnessed the scene she'd lived that morning—solas, okasandAitzas alike chased
and cut down from behind—multiplied twenty-fold.
"Tonight we party, tomorrow we rest, the day after, we march," said Shkai'ra. "And so it will be, until
Zh'veng'-khua has hewn down this Empire, and someone else hews down him and his in his turn; and so
on forever, until the time itself is hewn down, and spins dying into darkness." Her grin widened, teeth
baring.
IX
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Shkai'ra had been careful to eat a fair amount of bread, so the wine had not produced more than a sort
of golden glow yet. Fires blazed high all over the Alliance camp, the roasting mostly done and the hearths
piled high with wood for the celebrations. Everyone was happy; all except the injured and dead, of