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

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Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html They were headed not by Peyepallo, the Hyerne high commander, but her second.Who still outranks me , Shkai'ra thought. But as the Hyerne arrived, giving Hot-blood a wary glance, she said in pidgin-Enchian, "Makalina say you in command until main body comes up." So, so. The smell of another promotion was in the air; somebody had noticed her sucker-punching that battalion of Arkan horse last week. Partly luck, but it always was, and she'd done something similar back in Senlaw, across the Lannic. The Hyerne deployed to the left of Shkai'ra's cavalry, black and white plumes fluttering in the gusting breeze. Sova pulled up on her other side and saluted. The Yeoli boy was about seventeen… yes, it was the one the girl was bouncing the bedroll with.Can't pronounce the name. Can't fault her taste, either . "A regiment of Schvait, two springalds, three companies of Lakans, andrigaryekrachaseye Makalina Shae-Sorel are on the way,knyd-hird ," Sova said. "Good," Shkai'ra replied. To the Hyerne: "The woods. I figure the skirmishers'll come out to meet you, since they don't want you taking the phalanx in the side. There's Arkan cavalry up on those hills; if they move down, we'll give three trumpet calls. You retreat sharpish, we'll handle them." The Hyeme nodded and repeated back the orders to acknowledge. She had a jewelled Imperial longsword across her back, and a hastily repainted steel helmet that had obviously once protected some Aitzas . "Sova, and you-with-the-unpronounceable-name-that-sounds-like-a-sneeze," Shkai'ra said, "stay here by the standard. If we engage, keep in the second rank. Andlisten for the commands, Sova: I'm expectingyou to set an example." The Hyerne ran ahead into position beside her standard, a dolphin leaping over a staff, and gave a long shrill cry. Her troops sprang up head-high from their crouch, howling in answer, slamming spears against shields three timeswhamp-whamp-whamp . The thundercracks echoed across the fields towards the wood, and before the sound of the last died the Hyerne were charging at a bounding run through the waist-high wheat, plumes nodding, whetted spearheads glinting, cocked back over their right shoulders. Their shrieking war-cry was like files on metal, endless. Scarlet and steel glinted along the edge of the woods as the Arkan skirmishers came forward to the edge of the undergrowth at the foot of the trees. The Hyerne infantry commander barked; the run of the first line changed to a sideways crab-step. Another shout: heavy javelins flew. Barbed Arkan darts answered, flying on a higher arch. The second line of Hyerne ran through the first, threw; the third did likewise, and the first were ready again. The next flight of Arkan spears was ragged, and men in scarlet tunics burst out of the brush to engage hand-to-hand. "Stupid," Shkai'ra said, as their charging line staggered under a hail of spears. She handed Sova the binoculars. "See: the Hyeme had less shelter, but all their ranks could throw. The towhairs couldn't take the iron. They should have fallen back, where the Hyeme had to come to them on their own ground. At a guess I'd say their commander couldn't bear to run away from women. Asshole." The Arkan light infantry had chainmail vests, small round shields faced with steel and double-edged short-swords; but the Hyerne were twice as numerous, and had a bounding agility the Imperials could not match. Through the glasses Sova saw an Arkan face spring out, teeth bared in a grin of tension as he backed before two black women whose spears licked out like the tongues of snakes, striking sparks from the surface of shield and sword… something flickered behind him, skin-brown and steel bright, his mouth and eyes popped open, stunned, and he was gone. For an instant all she could see were backs
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html and three spearbutts jerking up and down.Yeee-yeee-yeee , the maddened battlecries came yipping across the distance. Shkai'ra giggled; that cut off as she took the glasses back and turned them to the heights above. About a hundred, coming over the hill. Half her own numbers, but in full suits of articulated steel plate enameled in scarlet and gold, their harness almost as good as the Zak-made suit she'd had done up in F'talezon; big men on stocky white horses eighteen hands high, long lances in their right hands and kite-shaped shields with the eagle and sun on their left arms; longswords on their hips, axes or warhammers at their saddlebows. The Sunborn Elite, finest of the Empire's strike-cavalry. Even Arko couldn't equip and support all that many troops like this, but it was abig empire… and even a hundred here-and-now was two kilometers of bad news. "Ahh… khyd-hird… what do we do aboutthem ?" "Run like hell, if we could." She turned to the trumpeter. "Sound off." The man put the lone brass instrument to his lips and sounded three sharp blasts. "Again." The Arkan cavalry was coming down the hill at a steady walk, no point in speeding up until they finished threading their way through the woods. What was left of their infantry had run for the woods; Shkai'ra could see the Hyeme officers calling, pushing or kicking them back from pursuit. The Arkans formed up, less about a score of dead and twice that of wounded, the fortunate being carried away on crossed spears between four comrades. The unfortunate were efficiently finished off by Hyerne. "Bows forward!" Shkai'ra shouted."Blunt wedge. Walk-march,trot !" Ragged, ragged. She threw up her hand about two hundred meters from the woods; most of the Slaughterers swung to a halt, but here and there a horse kept going for a few paces. There were collisions, cursing, the outraged neighing of mounts shouldered in the haunch and the vengeful commands of sergeants promising punishment-drill. "Dress line, you shitheads!" she yelled, and pulled her wheelbow out of its case.I used to enjoy this sort of thing , she thought, as her stomach muscles pulled tight; she clamped her knees against Hotblood's flanks.funfunfun-fun , the Ri thought. She let his exhilaration wake hers, skinning back her teeth as her arm remembered the twofold sensation of a saber-edge thudding home in meat and grating on the bone beneath. "Sova. If those lobster-backs up there get time to build momentum, they'll hit us the way a sledgehammer hits a bowl of eggs," she said, conscious of the throaty tone of her voice. "We've got to either hit them before they can move, or peck at them from out of range. Watch." The Hyeme were trotting by; Shkai'ra cast a sharp glance right, but the Arkan crossbowmen on the flank of the pike-hedge were keeping ranks, out of range and unlikely to break formation. On Hyeme spear-points were a few heads, including one belonging to anAitzas , by the length of the fighting-braid, and many more sets of jiggling testicles. The Hyeme didnot like the "purification" ritual of Arko, which involved slicing off every girl's clitoris at the age of seven. "Nice work," Shkai'ra said, looking down. The Hyeme leader's brown skin glistened with sweat and blood, some of it from superficial cuts on her legs and right arm, mostly from the captured longsword that she twitched negligently back and forth. "Want keep crop, kill the rats," she replied, grinning.
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