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.A deluge followed.With a sudden drumming roar, the rain lashed down across the Land.Thru hesitated a few moments and was soaked to the fur by the time he pulled his head in and sealed the tent flap.The noise diminished a little.Inside the tent, the poles creaked as the wind buffeted its walls.Orderlies did their best to hold poles in place.Rain smashed across the top of the tent in violent bursts, as if it were being hurled from the heavens by an angry god.Suddenly the ring at the top of one of the poles ripped free from the tent.The tent itself ripped along a seam for almost a foot, and water poured in, bucketsfuls in a matter of moments."Seal that tent!" came the frantic command.The orderlies threw themselves at it, but it was a nigh impossible task.Thru and Toshak joined the group, taking hold of the tent pole while an orderly climbed onto a chair and strung a thong through the torn opening and laced it together.By the time it was done, everyone was wet, and the floor of the headquarters tent was a muddy mess.Outside, it was still howling.Lightning struck all around them in the forest, huge flashes that lit up the interior of the tent in bright purple light.The thunder was deafening.It came in peal upon peal, enormous blasts and booms in a continuous roar that obliterated their voices.Toshak and Thru were now standing in mud, the tent still heaving and starting to leak under the relentless downpour.Several orderlies were showing the strain.One was weeping, terrified beyond sense by it all.Their enemy was showing them his power, and his power was very great indeed.But not even this storm could keep up its malevolence for long.After a few more minutes, the wind began to lessen and the rain had dropped to a more normal range.The thunder continued, but the lightning was now striking inland, up above Bear Hill for the most part.Thru was just about to open the tent flap and take a look outside when it was rudely torn open.In stumbled a soaked, blood-stained wretch.Fur matted with mud, eyes wild with fear and exertion."They are coming.The pyluk."CHAPTER TWENTY-NINEThe attack had been artfully timed.When the tempest was at its height, a column of two thousand pyluk emerged from the woods of Lupin Valley.They had infiltrated the valley the previous day and night, moving with the utmost stealth, while sorcery had distracted the minds of the scouts on Stag's Head and in the Bell House above Snoyps Pond.Once hidden in Lupin Valley, less than a mile from Bear Hill, they had hunkered down in glades and stream bottoms.They had remained frozen in place all day, in the grip of the same sorcery that had controlled them since they had first come down from the mountains.Their stillness had kept them hidden, and the advent of the storm was the signal that brought them back to wakefulness.As one they rose up, took up their clubs and spears, and set off toward the coast.They swarmed over Toshak's screen of pickets at the base of Bear Hill while the thunder and lightning were still crashing overhead.The pickets barely had time to look up before they were overwhelmed by a solid onrushing mass of the lizard-men.Long spears took those who attempted to flee.Fortunately, a few mots farther up the hill heard the commotion and saw the horde of pyluk pouring through the trees below.The mots could scarcely believe their eyes, but they had the sense to run for it.Thus the mots of the Third Regiment got a few minutes' warning, but not much more.The pickets came bolting into the camp, screaming, "Pyluk!" at the top of their lungs.The Grys Norvory, newly appointed to the regiment, was making a tour of the tents when the word came.He'd expected some kind of deviltry, and here it was.In a matter of minutes, he was getting his soldiers out of their tents and formed into a combat line in the middle of the camp.The pyluk burst out of the trees.The mots, torn from cowering in their tents under the fear and the overpowering energy of the storm, now found themselves confronted by an overwhelming mass of lizard-men.Perhaps the abruptness of the attack helped the Third Regiment.They simply didn't have time to panic.Despite everything, they stood their ground.The pyluk drove forward onto the pikes and spears.Pyluk bulls with three or four arrows jutting from their flesh thrashed against the mot shield wall, before they succumbed to sharp steel.Nowhere did they break the line.The mots bent before this storm of flesh as the struggle went on.Their line was driven back here and there, but reinforcements coming up behind hurled themselves into the fighting at these places, and the pyluk were stopped in their tracks.For a precious ten minutes, the Third Regiment held its ground until the huge column of pyluk completely surrounded them.At that point the pyluk left them and went on across the hilltop toward the sea.The Third Regiment was left like an island of survivors amid mounds of dead.But for the gallant stand of the Third Regiment, the rest of the army would have taken a death blow that day.But with those few minutes' warning, Toshak and Thru managed to rouse three more regiments and get them into a rough line, northwest-southeast across the center of Bear Hill.As soon as that line began to form, Thru left the job to the sergeants and ran over the hill.The Sixth Regiment, which had been camped on the south slope, was forming up to march, and Thru shouted to them to hurry while he ran past and down into the village.He tore through the streets of Warkeen and over the old bridge.Folk were scurrying to their stations as he passed.At Aeswiren's perimeter the guards saw him coming and waved him through.He found Aeswiren's army already forming up.Aeswiren's scouts had heard the uproar from Bear Hill.The Emperor listened calmly to Thru and then sent him back to Toshak."The men of Shasht will march at once to Bear Hill.We will seek to position ourselves inland of General Toshak's line.And if he's left any of them for us, we'll be happy to engage these pyluk."Thru and Aeswiren exchanged a strong handclasp, and Thru turned and ran back the way he'd come.The regiments of Shasht were already in motion, rank after rank of veterans of many wars.Watching them march, with a swift, economical stride, Thru felt renewed confidence.He'd fought against these men often enough.Now they would fight on his side for a change.He shook his head at the strangeness of the thought.He took a deep breath and started jogging.He needed to get back to Toshak at once with his message.Back through the village he went, warning them that Aeswiren's men were coming through.The village shutters started coming down in a hurry.On the other side of the village, donkey carts were jammed on the road.Thru ordered them to pull their animals to the side."Let the men through.They're fighting on our side now."Naturally, it took a few minutes for this to be done, and by then the first Shasht regulars were in sight, swinging through the village to a beat of a drum.The cartmots redoubled their efforts.Thru ran on, toiling up Bear Hill, with Aeswiren's army coming after him.The effects of the earlier run, coming on top of the long walk before that, slowed his pace before he reached the top.Gasping for breath, he halted at the crest of the hill to survey the scene.Somehow the mots had survived the onslaught.A great tide of green warriors still stormed against the front of Toshak's army, and the roar of the fighting continued, but, crucially, the line had held.The pyluk had swarmed out of the trees and fallen on the mots, but discipline and good weapons had brought them up short.Toshak's mots had never panicked.The pyluk charge had lost its impetus
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